# Hog Butchering - Need advice on what cuts



## lukem (Sep 15, 2011)

We're getting a hog from a friend of the family.  He is currently walking around @ 260lbs.

He's getting delivered to the butcher this week and we need to order the cuts.  Never had one done before...looking for experienced input on what to order.  Here's what I know I want:

One shoulder cut into pork steaks
Other shoulder whole
Back Ribs
Side/Spare Ribs
Pork Belly (making my own bacon)
Loins cut 3/4" thick

Not sure what to do with the hams.  Grind everything else into bulk sausage.

Anything I'm not thinking about?


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## Adabiviak (Sep 16, 2011)

Hamhocks, if you're into that sort of thing... maybe pickle the feet, but I think you've got it covered.


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## MasterMech (Sep 16, 2011)

lukem said:
			
		

> We're getting a hog from a friend of the family.  He is currently walking around @ 260lbs.
> 
> He's getting delivered to the butcher this week and we need to order the cuts.  Never had one done before...looking for experienced input on what to order.  Here's what I know I want:
> 
> ...



Take some of your ground meat as fresh ground pork. Season to your liking and enjoy.  I love/miss my pork burgers.

Get as many pork chops as you can, I like the whole tenderloin (at least one) too.

Hams, Cut them into ham steaks 1/2-3/4" (I like the thicker 3/4" steaks) and use the ends for soup/baked ham/etc.

Raised feeder pigs for 11 years as a 4-H'er and I'd still be doing it if I had the time/land.  I can't stand buying meat in the supermarkets anymore.  I had pigs throwing 13's for loin eyes! You can't buy pork chops like that.  They were the size of a good beef steak. 260lbs is a good live weight to butcher at.  He should yield an easy 220lb hanging carcass.


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## lukem (Sep 16, 2011)

Didn't think about ham steaks.  Maybe I'll leave one whole and just smoke it, and cut the other into steaks.  Not sure if I'm up for curing a ham (yet), and I don't really trust the butcher shop to do it (end up too strong and salty).

Also, good call on ground pork...maybe I'll do half ground and half sausage.


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## Dune (Sep 16, 2011)

Save all the lard. Freeze it and use in place of shortening when baking.

If you are into it save the head for head cheese.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_cheese 
I had to eat it when I was young.

Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Sylte or Sylta, a pork head cheese seasoned with allspice, bay leaves, and thyme, is part of the traditional Christmas smÃ¶rgÃ¥sbord, served on rugbrÃ¸d or Lefse with strong mustard and pickled beetroots. Sylte is often prepared from other pork cuts than the head, especially the leaner versions.

As mentioned, the feet are often pickled. (they were never able to force me to eat pickled pigs feet or pickled herring).


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## lukem (Sep 16, 2011)

Dune said:
			
		

> Save all the lard. Freeze it and use in place of shortening when baking.
> 
> If you are into it save the head for head cheese.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_cheese
> I had to eat it when I was young.
> ...



Thanks for the input, but I'm going to pass on all that.  Meat should not be pickled, IMO, except for corned beef....it gets a pass.


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## smokinj (Sep 16, 2011)

Live Weight $  .40lb 
Hanging Weight Quarters $  .50lb Cubing $  .50lb 
Cubing $  .50lb Patties $  .50lb 
Patties $  .50lb Smoking Ham each $8.00 
Stew Meat $  .50lb Smoking Per side Bacon $5.00 
Kill Fee  $30.00 Smoking Per side Pepper Bacon $6.00 
Kill Fee (Bulls) $50.00 Kill Fee $20.00 
Now offering flavored PATTIES and BRATS..............  Summer Sausage, Snack Sticks  This will cost even more!

Just depends on how much you want to throw down on it. Myself I would put it on the bbq whole hog style and pull it all....But this isnt what she wants lol......


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## Wallyworld (Sep 16, 2011)

You have to render the lard so it doesn't spoil, we heated the fat until 230 degrees? At that point all the water is gone and it won't spoil.
Tenderloin is awesome. I'd cut the chops at least 1" thick. Sausage is awesome, breakfast, Italian, Kielbasa were my favorites. Liverwurst is kind of gross to make but tastes some good. Bacon and Ham were awesome also. I miss my Dad smoking them


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## SE Iowa (Sep 18, 2011)

We always get 1 to 2 hogs butchered a year for the last 10 years or so.  I have a couple of tips that we've learned over the years.

1.  You will probably not get as much "ribs" as you think you should out of a hog.  I think also the butchers like to sell excess ribs on the side, if you know what I mean.

2.  We always get the loins cut bone-in.  It seems like you get more meat out of the loin that way as there are smaller muscles, etc that they just don't take the time to clean completely off the carcass.  You would be supprised how many pork chops you'll get from one pig.

3.  We have both front shoulders cut into pork steaks and leave the hams for roast/fresh hams/etc.

4.  We do not have the hams cured into "ham" as it is not even remotely like a ham that you buy in the store.  When a locker cures and smokes them, they turn out more like a giant, dried out, lightly smoked pork roast than what most americans think of as "ham".  We have the hams cut up into 3-4 lb roast that we can use for roast, stews, stirfries as well as cure them ourselves with Morton's Sugarcure amoung other things to make ham and corned "beef".

5.  Once again, locker bacon is not like the water infused store-bought bacon.  It is less cured and processed and will cook and taste more like "side" bacon or salted pork.  We only have them make 1/2 of the bacon and put the rest into the grind.

6.  The grind:  We always go 1/3 brats (sometimes with cheeze), 1/3 fresh ground pork and 1/3 pork sausage.  My brother always gets 100% brats as they are his favorite.  We have also had pork burgers made but often get stuck with pork burgers that taste different based upon who made them that day.  We just figure we can make pork burgers out of the fresh ground so skip it now.

7.. Lastly, we always have the hocks smoked and placed in 1 shank per package.  Makes a perfect size for such things as collard greens, green beans or baked beans from scratch.  For some reason they seem to smoke them (or brine cure them) to a greater extent so the work great in this maner.  Added bonus is a nice meaty bone for soup making and or the dog!

  Good luck.  We've found that you just need to do it a few times til you find what you like/use the most and then just go with it.


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## Highbeam (Sep 19, 2011)

Great post SE Iowa.

Pig is good meat.


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## dvellone (Sep 20, 2011)

If you haven't finalized your order yet...

when they're cutting ribs and bacon, you can either get meaty bacon or meaty ribs. If you go for meaty bacon,the ribs will have very little meat and vice versa. We've split the difference in the past and it's not too bad, but the ribs won't have an awful lot of meat on them if that's your preference.

I always take the entire loin in bone-in roasts, then if we want chops I saw them out of the roast with a meat hand saw after thawing. You'll never have a more succulent delicious roast. Maybe try a section of loin this way - you can always cut a roast into chops. 

Take at least one shoulder (butt) as roasts especially if you like pulled pork. The fat in the shoulder makes it a great slow roasting and juicy cut. 

And homemade bacon is about the easiest curing recipe you can tackle at home. This site has reliable info and recipes http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/


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## Murphy2000 (Nov 27, 2016)

MasterMech said:


> Take some of your ground meat as fresh ground pork. Season to your liking and enjoy.  I love/miss my pork burgers.
> 
> Get as many pork chops as you can, I like the whole tenderloin (at least one) too.
> 
> ...



We are going to be wet-curing our hams and then smoking them.  At what point in this process should we cut the hams into ham steaks?


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