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A pig isn't all ribs and bacon - here is a quick guide to pork cuts and where they come from on a pig?
Are you confused by all the different Pork cuts?
How do you know what to order when you want to buy directly off the farmer?
You may know what you like to eat and cook but where does it come from? It’s not all bacon, ribs and chops.
A side of pork is half a pig, there is a lot you can do with it BUT there is only
1 loin,
1 shoulder,
1 leg and
1 belly on a side of pork.
meaning you can’t get all ribs and chops.
That said a side of pork is versatile and you can grind, smoke or cure all of it if you want to.
To cut up a pig carcass we break it down into 4 Primals, then go on to break it down further into smaller pieces, like roasts and chops.
Shoulder
Loin
Belly
Leg
Shoulder
This breaks down into 2 sub-primals (and you should also get neckbones)
The Picnic and the Blade (the blade is more commonly known as the Boston butt - In colonial New England, butchers packed inexpensive cuts of meat into large barrels, called butts, for storage and transportation. The shoulder meat packed into these barrels became known as Pork butt.)
What cuts can you get from the shoulder?
Roasts
Steaks
Stew
Ground/Sausage
Neckbones - these are great for bone broth
Hock/Shank
Loin
The loin is the back of the pig. It’s where the tenderloin, back ribs and pork chops come from.
The tenderloin can be left in or taken out for an extra cut of pork. If you leave the tenderloin in you will get T-bone pork chops.
If you want back ribs you will have to have boneless chops or roasts.
What cuts can you get from the loin?
Roasts
Chops - Rib chops, t-bones, tomahawks, sirloin
Tenderloin
Back ribs
Cutlets
Stew
Ground/sausage
Back bacon
leg
What cuts can you get from the leg?
While roast pork leg is really popular in the UK it isn’t often seen in Canadian grocery stores. Here they are often made into hams.
Fresh Roasts - bone in or boneless.
Chops/steaks - bone in or boneless.
Cutlets
Stew
Ground/sausage
Ham/Gammon, bone-in/ boneless, steaks or roasts
Belly
What cuts can you get from the belly?
Bacon - in the UK we call it streaky bacon, here in Canada it’s just bacon, or side bacon.
Fresh pork belly - our Berkshire bellies are most popular fresh, wth customers either making their own bacon, pancetta or simply using them for their favourite bbq recipes.
Ground/sausage - the belly has a lot of fat so can be used to up the fat content when added to leaner cuts that have been ground.
Side ribs - St Louis, spare ribs, sweet and sour
How to make your own sausages at home without any special equipment
Did you know you can easily make sausages at home and you don’t need any special equipment?
When I do test batches at home this is how I do them. The hardest part is stuffing them into casings - so we skip that step.
Even though I have a small meat grinder with a sausage stuffer attachment, I never use it. It takes too long to set up and clean, and I would rather just hand mix the meat and spices, then wrap the sausagemeat in clingfilm or parchment. You can also make the mixture into burgers.
All you need is
meat
fat
spices
binder (optional) - wheat crumb, potato starch (for gluten-free) - again this is not necessary, though it helps to keep the fat in the sausage making a juicier sausage.
water - mixing your spices in water helps them mix easier into the meat - you can leave it out
A mixing bowl
parchment or cling film
Many sausages use a binder - usually wheat crumb- or potato starch for gluten-free.
We prefer to use only meat and spices but if you want a binder you can use breadcrumbs (about 3 tablespoons/lb meat).
Garlic & herb sausage
1lb ground Berkshire Pork
3/4 - 1 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons your favourite mixed herbs
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder - not garlic salt. OR you can use 1 or 2 garlic cloves grated
Mix all ingredients together. You can use your hands or a stand mixer.
Divide the mixture into 4 or 6 - depending on how big you want your sausage. I make them about 8 inches long.
Get 4 or 6 - (depending on how many sausages you want to make) pieces of cling film or parchment - they need to be big enough to wrap your sausages tightly.
Roll the pork mixture into a sausage shape and roll it up tightly in the cling film
Put in the fridge for about 24 hours for flavours to blend and the sausage to set up.
Gently unroll and either fry or broil like you usually do until internal temp is 165 degrees F
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5 things you need to know before buying a side of pork
5 things you should know before buying a side of Pork!
When you want to know how your food is raised it just makes sense to buy direct from a farmer.
Usually this means you have to buy in bulk and have to buy a half an animal.
Dealing with the farmer is usually the easy part.
Dealing with the processor can be intimidating - the terminology is weird and you don’t know what you don’t know!
It is totally different than going to the store and buying a pack of pork chops.
What is a side of pork?
How is it sold
What does hanging weight mean?
What is cut and wrap?
How much meat is half a pig?
Even with over 25 years of experience farming & working in the meat industry (both here in Canada and back home in the UK) I have seen so many differences between processors and their charges.
Many have additional charges you didn’t know you needed to ask about - I joke with my processor and ask when he will be charging a smiling charge lol - at the moment a smilke is free!
What is a side of pork?
This is half a pig. (Not to be confused with side pork which is pork belly). Sometimes it is called a half hog,
2. How is it sold?
This varies from farmer to farmer. Some will give you a set price but most sell based on hanging weight.
Then cut and wrap is usually done by a processor and costs extra - many farmers let you deal with and pay the processor.
(We differ from most farms - we talk to our customers to help them get the cuts that are right for their families and we talk to the processor on their behalf so there is nothing lost in translation.)
You will notice a huge difference in hanging weight prices from farmers - this is because every farmer has different input costs.
3. What is hanging weight?
This is the weight after the animal has been dispatched and gutted. It is sometimes called rail weight.
The farmer and processor both usually charge on hanging weight.
Some processors will weigh the animal with with skin and head on.
Some hanging weights are skinless.
This can make a huge difference to the price you pay for the product you get back. Depending on the size you could be paying for and throwing 50lb away
4. What does cut and wrap mean
There are hundreds of variations between each processor and often you don’t know what to ask or expect.
We have experienced many extra costs that we didn’t know we needed to know. E.g packaging types, labelling, boxes, de-boning, outdoor raised pig charge, carbon tax - I am still waiting for that smiling charge lol
The processor will - or should cut and wrap your pork how you want - some will do a standard cut and you get what you get - they may even automatically de-bone everything and even throw the fat away - which is a crime for us as that is a ton of flavour they are throwing out.
You may have wrapping choices
Brown wrap
Double wrap - cellophane around the meat then brown wrap. - this is what we choose because the product lasts longer
Vacuum pack - this is great but the bags tend to blow, especially if they vac seal bone in products - then you have to use the meat quickly or it will freezer burn - this also usually costs more - we have been charged anything from 10c/lb on the meat put in the vac pack to $1/lb hanging weight (additional to cut and wrap charges ) - again it depends on the processor
Your processor should label the packaging for you with what is in the package - they don’t all do this.
5. How’s much meat do I get? Is a side too much?
Even though we are just a 2 person family I don’t find a side of pork too much meat. Our pigs are around 200lb hanging weight so a side is 100lb which will give us 70+lb meat the way I get ours cut and wrapped.
Having a good selection of pork at my fingertips means I can create an awesome dish any night of the week and I often substitute pork for beef.
Your meat yield will depend on the cuts you choose.
If you choose everything boneless you will get a lot less weight back than the original hanging weight. Plus you are losing flavour.
Sometimes you can get back the offal - liver, heart and kidneys - though this is not usually in the hanging weight because it is removed before weighing. You would have to check with your farmer and the processor.
An e.g of one of our sides of Berkshire Pork standard cut is
100lb hanging weight @ $6.95/lb including processing fees.
The way we cut and wrap ours we get about 70+lb meat back
At our todays prices that’s $695 for 70+lb pork (bacons, ham and sausage processing is extra)
If you would like more information about our Berkshire Pork feel free to get in touch
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If you found this helpful and would like to buy me a coffee that would be greatly appreciated!
Render your own lard. 4 easy ways including the instant pot method!
Pork fat was more valuable than the Pork Years ago!
They never wasted anything and pork fat Had so Many uses, not all were in our food.
soap making
candles
wound healing/medicinal
salves and balms
greasing machines - (I use lard to season my cast iron skillets and wok)
The 2 types of pork fat are:-
Leaf lard - this is the internal fat that is around the kidneys - this is best for pastry crusts.
Back fat - although we call it back fat, on our pigs it is fat that the butcher trims off the pork cuts. - This is best for sausage making but can be used to render into lard.
YES! you can make your own lard at home!
It is easier than you think.
Stovetop, Slow Cooker, Oven and Instant pot all work great!
Rendering fat into lard
It is not as hard as it sounds, in fact it is super easy. If you can melt butter in a pan you can render lard.
You can use a pan, slow cooker, instant pot, roasting tin, anything that you have!
When I discovered I could render lard in the instant pot I felt like a cavewoman that just discovered fire!
It is perfect in summer when you only want to do small batches and not heat up the house.
To make rendering quicker use ground pork fat but you can also just chop up pork fat.
I have used my food processor to chop the fat which is easier if it is still slightly frozen.
I have even rendered a large block of frozen fat! Not going to lie - chopping fat is tedious so I put a large block of frozen fat in the instant pot - and set it for 1 hour. It renders and is soft enough to chop for a second and 3rd render.
Once it has cooked for an hour just break up the fat. It’s soft and breaks up easily with a spoon, or a potato masher.
INSTANT POT
Put ground or chopped fat into Instant Pot - don’t go above the max fill line.
Add 1/4 cup cold water
Press Pressure Cook (High) for 1 hour
Allow to cool with natural pressure release
Strain into containers (See tips about straining)
You can repeat the process. I do 2 more renderings. The fat will start to get darker so I always strain each batch into separate containers and I use the last rendering for frying.
Tip - lard rendered in the instant pot may have some water which will settle as a gel under the cold rendered lard - I always strain mine into pans lined with parchment or cling film.
When it’s set turn it over and scrape off the gel, then store the lard as normal.
SLOW COOKER
Place the fat in a slow cooker and set it to LOW.
It will take several hours. The cracklings will soon sink down and then rise up again.
When they rise again the lard is done.
Strain into containers (See tips about straining)
STOVETOP
Place fat in a heavy pot (cast-iron Dutch ovens are perfect because they distribute heat evenly), and set it to “2”.
Once it begins melting set it to “1”.
As the fat melts Strain into containers (See notes about straining)
OVEN
Set oven to 200 degrees F
Place it in a Dutch oven or roasting tray don't put a lid on you need the moisture to evaporate.
Strain into containers (See tips about straining)
If you over-cook it the lard will begin to brown and you’ll end up with lard that has a stronger porky flavour. It’s still completely usable for things like frying and sauteing, it’s just not ideal for making sweet pastries and pie crusts.
In its liquid state, the colour of the lard will be like lemonade. Once it cools and hardens it will become pure, delicious, white goodness.
Tips for Straining
Strain it through a fine mesh sieve to remove the cracklings. Then strain it again through 3 layers of cheesecloth to remove the remaining small bits and sediment.
It’s critical that you remove any bits of fat and gristle along with any tiny bits of sediment, otherwise, your lard will get mouldy.
Pure fat doesn’t grow mould, it goes rancid. So if there’s mould on it it’s because it wasn’t rendered long enough to remove all the water and/or it wasn’t strained properly. So be sure to properly strain it.
Let it sit undisturbed at room temperature until it has cooled down and is firm (it firms up pretty quickly).
Tips for storage
Jars
Bread pans - I line with plastic wrap - then I have brick-shaped lard
OR for pre-measured portions and easy clean up - Measure how much a muffin tin holds, line with muffin casings and pour lard in. This is my personal favourite - Then I freeze the lard and take out as I need it.
Cracklings
What to do with the bits left behind - crispy cracklings! Transfer them to a frying pan and fry until they’re puffy and crispy. Add your favourite seasoning. Then if you don’t eat them straight out of the pan you can add to salads as a crispy topping!
Clean up Tips
Yes, making lard can get a bit messy - If you have cast iron pans you need to season then put your lard covered utensils and sieve in the pans to catch all the lard drips.
You can also use parchment paper to lay your utensils on - then you use this lard-loaded paper to grease bread or cake tins, or to season cast iron.
Lard is sustainable & delicious!
It’s listed in the top 10 of the world’s most nutritious foods. what can you use it for?
You won’t find canola or avocado oil in my house I am strictly a Lard girl!
the best chips ever, (fries to my non-Brit readers)
bread - forget the butter and olive oil, I have a recipe for a sourdough sandwich loaf and I only ever use lard!
sauteed meats and veg
Stir fries - yes I use pork fat and lard all the time in stir-fries
Rendered lard is a great butter substitute for cakes and cookies - it is best used in cakes like chocolate cakes or heavier spiced cakes, like ginger cake - you can’t taste the pork fat but you won’t get the buttery flavour that you would be looking for in a plainer, non spiced cake.
Season your lard with herbs and spices and use to roast vegetables.
Sear meat.