HOG Butcher

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We are geeting ready to take our first hog to the butcher in a couple of weeks. She is about 230 lbs. Linda and I are so excited. When you take the hogs to the butcher do they have a standard cut they do or do you have to tell them how you want it cut up? If you de have to specify what do you suggest?

-- Jerry (Jerry@aol.com), April 11, 2002

Answers

Think about how you like to cook and how big your family is: Do you want the bacon in 1 lb, 1/2 lb, 2 lb packages? Do you want arm chops or would you rather have it ground (or maybe cubed)? Will you use plain ground pork or do you want it all sausage seasoned? Italian seasoning or breakfast? Hot or mild? (Different butchers will have different seasonings.) If your butcher also sells meat, buy some samples. How thick do you want your chops? How many chops per package? How big do you want your ham? Do you want the picnic shoulder as a roast?

These are just a few off the top of my head and now my mouth is watering, we haven't had home grown pork in way too long. A good butcher should be able to help you with some of these decisions. But they may assume some things too, like that you want your chops 1/2 inch thick when you would love some 3/4 or 1 inch thick chops (we like ours thick!) Keep a copy of what you had done to this one and make notes for changes for the next one.

ENJOY!!!

-- Michelle in OK (kellycalves@soon.com), April 11, 2002.


Most butchers have a standard form. They will ask you how thick you want your chops, and how many to a package. Also, what size you want your roasts. Do you want your hams smoked. Do you want sausage or just ground pork. It depends on the size of your family and what is convenient for you. I like chops 3/4 of an inch thick and 4 in a pack. I like 3 to 5 lb roasts. We do our own pork now, but back when we took them to the butcher, he kept a record of how we liked everything cut so we didn't have to tell him each time. The butcher should be pretty helpful. Hope you enjoy your fresh pork!

-- cowgirlone in ok (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), April 11, 2002.

I recommend you have atleast half of your pork chops smoked, all you have to do is thaw them and warm them. I love them, they cost a little more but there worth it.Try it you'll like it.

-- Keith (peepee125@hotmail.com), April 11, 2002.

With pork, you'll also have to decide if you want pork chops or if you want tenderloin and back bone. It's the same thing but for the latter, the chop bone is left and wrapped as back bone. You can usually also have that and the hocks and heart and tongue put into the sausage if you're not crazy about those cuts. You can usually also, if you want, have tenderloins left whole, cured and smoked for Canadian bacon. Yummmm. We do that ourselves and it is special. Be sure to tell them you want the short loin (sometimes called the catfish) because some butchers throw that into sausage and it's one of the best pieces of the hog. It's the small end of the tenderloin.

-- Rosalie (Dee) in IN (deatline@globalsite.net), April 11, 2002.

All good answers - our butcher shop asked the first time we went how we wanted things, kept records and always asks if we want anything different than before. Makes it real simple to say, "Nope," and take home all that tasty home-grown pork. Only thing I haven't seen mentioned is something we do on a regular basis ... if you want to render the fat for lard, you'll need to tell them so it doesn't go into the sausage. Enjoy!

-- Phil in KS (mac0328@planetkc.com), April 11, 2002.


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