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Pork Explanation

Pork Explanation

We only use female guilt pigs for our shop because these are always the best! This means pork meat is always tender and sweet. and being dry hung makes the crackling very crisp and tasty.

1) Ear

In the UK pigs' ears are mainly purchased for pet food although they are used in European cooking. They have become more fashionable of late due to 'nose to tail' eating, especially on suckling pigs

2) Cheek

The very spot of the cheek is very sweet, intensely flavoursome meat, and is used in braising.

3) Spare rib roast

The whole neck end is taken from the spare rib and blade joined together. This can be butchered to produce two separate cuts, or boned and rolled together to produce a roasting joint. Separately, the Spare rib can be cut into chops, not to be confused with chinese style spare ribs. The chops have more internal fat which produces a sweet, tender chop.

4) Blade

The blade is traditionally a cheaper-end roasting joint, and we also use boned blade for diced pork.

5) Haunch

This is an old-style roasting joint. The front leg has a lot more bone-to-meat ratio than the back leg. To produce a 'Hand' ready to roast, the trotter is removed, along with all of the internal bones, this is then tied to produce a boneless joint. Today the haunch is also used for diced pork, and very popularly for sausages.

6) Loin

The loin can be butchered into several cuts:

- whole loin - the whole loin can be roasted whole on the bone, or boned and rolled for a boneless loin
- boneless loin - we bone the loin completely, and remove the rind, this is now ready to be cut into loin steaks, and the chump is removed for dicing
- loin chops leaving the loin whole, we score the outside skin, then remove the ribend loin and the chump and cut into loin chops
- pork ribend - we use just the ribend for bone-in pork cutlets or bone in pork racks

7) Belly

The belly is a flexible part of the pig with several options of use. The belly can be left whole, with the skin scored and then roasted whole. The whole belly can be cut into belly strips - these are great used as chops, or marinated for a barbecue. The ribs can also be removed in one sheet and cut into individual bones for chinese style belly ribs. Any waste from the belly is ideal meat for sausages.

8) Leg

The leg can be roasted either whole or boned first and then split in half as a boneless roast. Can also be broken down into single muscles, to use for pork escalopes or cut for pork stroganoff.

9) Front trotter

Trotters are used in making stocks, once split in half. This is due to their high gelatine content.

10) Hind trotter

Can be used for stocks and sauces, but hind trotters are served boned and stuffed in high end restaurants.