Belly Up Learn to cut your own meat at Underground Food Collective’s Whole Hog Breakdown

Despite the terrible fire that shut down justly celebrated Underground Kitchen last year, the folks from the Underground Food Collective are keeping busy and staying vital with projects generally involving meat. On Feb. 4 and Feb. 18, two Whole Hog Breakdown sessions (at 931 E. Main St., No. 17) will present the opportunity to wield professional-grade meat saws and knives in butchering a half-hog into “primal and various sub-primal” cuts. The sessions are limited to 20 attendees (10 for each session) with $140 each to burn. The Whole Hog Breakdown will focus on not only the basics of making the cuts and dismantling the beast, but also on sausage-making methodology and dry-curing pig flesh to make salami. Underground’s catering arm will supply food and drinks throughout the day’s events, and participants will walk with more than 10 pounds of tenderloin, ribs, pork chops, bacon, and other cuts, all personally sealed.

FATSOMETER: 7. The best pork is lined with fat. But this event will also include plenty of exercise; sawing away at a hog requires hard muscular strokes to strip the meat cleanly off the bone.