Video of the Week: How One Pig Becomes Hot Dogs, Bacon, Salami, and More by Bon Appétit

If you love proper butchery, this one will seriously float your boat. If you’re a tad squeamish (or vegan) then this might not be right up your alley. Still reading? You sound like our kind of person :)

In this video, Bon Appétit follows butcher John Ratliff of Ends Meat as he turns a single pig into hot dogs, bacon, salami, guanciale, dry-aged pork chops, ham, coppa, and even a terrine. Nose-to-tail done the right way – using everything but the oink.

This aint your supermarket conveyor belt. This is old-school skill, sharp knives, cold rooms, patience measured in months, and a butcher who knows exactly what he wants from every cut. Watching him work is like watching a chef, scientist, engineer, and storyteller all rolled into one.

Want to see creamy meat emulsions whipped into clean, honest hot dogs? Yes please. Fancy some pork belly transformed after a 10-day cure into smoky slabs of bacon? Coppa tied, wrapped, fermented, and aged until it turns buttery and delicate? Pork chops dried until the flavour gets so intense it barely needs seasoning? Salami piccante mixed by hand, fermented, moulded, and aged for months?

Hell yeah.

And then there’s the guanciale. A proper lesson in why cheeks matter. Rich, silky fat. Slow drying. Pure flavour. Carbonara heaven.

Finally, nothing goes to waste. Every scrap becomes a bouji terrine with pistachios, currants, brandy, cream, spices, and tekkers that would scare half the industry.

It’s a masterclass in flavour, technique, preservation, and pure respect for the animal. If you’re into craft, or just like seeing pigs cut into lots of pieces, check it out:

If this doesn’t make you want to cure, smoke, season, or grill something RIGHT NOW, check your pulse.