If you love feeding your family locally raised meat, and you've got the freezer space available, a custom processed whole or half hog may be a great option for you!
With the combination of high food prices and crazy busy schedules, I LOVE having an abundance of meat easily accessible in our freezer. When I know I have meals I can quickly prepare at home using food I already have, we're much less likely to settle for overpriced fast food.
How much meat do you get from a custom processed whole hog?
Our hang weights average 200lb for our hogs, which gets you about 140lb of commercial cuts. Those are your typical cuts, like bacon, ham, pork chops, and roasts. If you choose to keep the jowl, bones, hocks, and lard, you'll end up with closer to 160lbs of pork.
A 7 cubic foot chest freezer like this will easily hold a whole hog.
When we sent our first pig to the butcher, I was completely overwhelmed with picking the cuts. I remember thinking I needed an advanced degree in butchering just to figure out the cut sheet. After a lot of research, numerous you-tube videos, and processing two hogs ourselves, I think we finally figured it out!
Filling out your Pork Cut Sheet
Many of the families we work with have never filled out a cut sheet from a butcher before. That's why we'll send you a copy of the form to look over, then we'll set up a phone call with you to walk through everything. Many times, we'll fill out the cut sheet for you, and send over a photo of it for approval.
Pork Cut Options
The first step in filling out your cut sheet is to understand that each type of pork comes from a certain part of the pig, called primal cuts. As much as we would like to, you can't turn the whole hog in to bacon. I know, major bummer.
Ham
The ham comes from the upper portion of the back legs. The Easter hams you see in the store are ham halves, so there are four available from a whole hog. You may also get your ham sliced as ham steaks, or ground for additional sausage. Ham is typically smoked and cured. If you choose to keep it fresh, it will taste and look more like a pork roast.
Ham Options (choose one per hog):
Quantity per Hog | Approximate Weight | |
Whole Ham | 2 | 18 lb each |
Ham Halves | 4 | 8-9 lb each |
Sliced Ham Steaks | 30-35 lb | |
Ground | 30-35 lb |
You may choose to have each ham processed in a different way. If you would like one to be kept as ham halves, and the other one to be ground for sausage, that's totally fine! In that case, you'd end up with two ham halves and 20lb ground pork.
Bacon
Bacon comes from the belly, and you'll get about 16lb from a whole hog. You may leave it fresh, as pork belly, or have it smoked and cured.
Bacon Options (choose one per hog):
Cut | Quantity per Hog | Approximate Weight |
Whole, fresh belly | 2 | 8 lb each |
Smoked, Cured, Sliced Bacon | 16 lb |
Loin
The tenderloin, pork loin, and pork chops all come from the loin primal cut. You'll get two loin sections, one from each half of the hog. Since the pork loin and pork chops come from the same area, you'll need to choose which one you would like. Pork chops may be kept bone in or boneless. We love the 1" thick bone in chops because they are just. so. good!
Loin Options (choose one per hog):
Quantity per Hog | Approximate Weight | |
Pork Loin | 2 | 8 lb each |
Bone In Pork Chops | 40 -1" thick cut, bone in chops | 20 lb total |
Shoulders
Your picnic, shoulder, and butt roasts come from the front shoulders of the hog. These are the cuts your want to cook low and slow for roasts or pulled pork. The Boston butt roast comes from the top section of the shoulder, and the picnic roast comes from the bottom. You may have the roasts kept whole, cut in to smaller roasts, or ground for additional sausage.
Shoulder Cuts (keep as roasts or grind for sausage)
Quantity per Hog | Approximate Weight | |
Picnic Roast | 2 | 9-10 lb each |
Butt Roast | 2 | 7-8 lb each |
Sausage
After your whole hog has been processed into the traditional cuts, all of the trimming are combined and ground up for sausage. You'll have the option to keep it as ground pork, or have the processor make it into their delicious sausage! All sausage options have a 10 lb minimum, due to the way it is seasoned. Our processor does not use MSG in any breakfast sausage or in most of the smoked sausages.
Sack Sausage Options: Mild, Regular, Hot, Chorizo (Our favorite is the regular)
Smoked Links (packaged like bratwurst): Hot links, German, Jalapeno & Cheddar, Italian, Hot Garlic, Brats, Hickory Smoked, Andouille.
Other Cuts
Ribs: If you keep your ribs, you'll get 2 racks of spare ribs. You may also choose to grind the meat for sausage.
Liver & Heart: May be kept whole or sliced
Jowl: The jowl is similar to ham. It may be kept whole, or cured/smoked/sliced. You'll get about 6-8lb per hog.
Hocks: The hocks are the lower part of the leg. They are great when added to beans or stews. They may be left fresh, or smoked and cured.
Lard: You may save the pork fat or leaf lard from your pig. You'll get about 25-30lb of fat. This may be rendered into lard. I'll share a blog post about how to do this soon!
Bones: If you like to make your own broth, you can save the bones, as well!
Reserving a Custom Processed Whole or Half Hog
We typically have one custom processed whole hog available each month. If you would like to reserve yours, head over to our shop and place your deposit. You may select your processing date from the drop down menu. Once you place a deposit, we'll be in contact with more information!
If you would like to try some of our pork before making the investment in a whole or half hog, check out our value sampler pack! It includes some of our most popular cuts and a great price.
We'd love to hear from you!
If you have any questions for us, please feel free to reach out through our contact page! Thank you for shopping local, and supporting our little family farm!
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