Had a customer ask me to 'de-bone' a whole pig like it was a chicken breast

Last Saturday this guy walks into my shop in Portland and points at a whole pig in the cooler. He says, 'Can you just take out all the bones and roll it up like a roast?' I thought he was joking at first. Then he got serious and said he wanted to cook it on his Traeger for a party. I had to explain that pigs don't work that way unless you want a pile of shredded meat. Has anyone else gotten a request that made you stop and blink for a second?

2 comments

2 Comments

sarah19812d agoTop Commenter

My buddy Dave runs a BBQ joint outside Austin and said a lady once asked him to "de-vein" a brisket like shrimp. He just stood there for a solid ten seconds trying to figure out if she meant trim the fat cap or something else. She got mad when he said brisket doesn't have a vein, then asked if he could at least remove the "blood line" from it. He told her there's no blood line either, just different muscles and fat, and she walked out saying he was being difficult. Still not sure what she thought she was getting, but Dave swears he's never had a weirder customer conversation.

emerycarr12d ago

A guy in a forum once said his buddy's butcher shop got a request to "de-cob" a pork shoulder like it was corn on the cob. The customer got really insistent that there was some way to shuck the whole thing and just get the meat off in one piece. I mean honestly if they wanted a boneless roast that bad they could have just asked for a Boston butt roast and saved everyone the hassle.