Cut Master Pro 2000

Unless you’ve grown up with experimental parents, or have a knack for cookery yourself, it’s likely most of us have stuck to the traditional pork cuts: bacon, sausage, chops, ground pork. All the other “specialty” cuts hardly make it to our periphery, much less top-of-mind. So what actually are all these cuts? How are they cooked? What do they taste like? *Ahem*, allow us to shed some light on the matter.

Breakfast Sausage

The ever fan favorite. Seasoned to perfection, useful for everything from egg bake to pasta sauce to savory sausage stars. The multi-purpose package. Even though it’s breakfast, customers use it in virtually all dishes calling for seasoned ground meat. Practically impossible to go wrong with breakfast sausage. (Alternate: Italian Sausage)

Recommended for: my mom, breakfast lovers, Italian cooks, ground meat users, anyone who buys Jimmy Dean.

Brats

100% pork. We spend a phone call each year convincing the processor (who is used to conventionally raised meat) that yes, we want only pork, no we don’t want any beef mixed in, yes, we promise it’s delicious, no, it’s not going to be gross. As such, brats are the bomb, and pack a punch of flavor over any grill, fire, or pan. We never get tired of hearing, “Wow…That was the best brat I’ve ever had.”

Recommended for: Mac & Cheese fanatics, bonfire folks, campers and travelers, anyone who likes a darn good brat

Roast

The perfect cut for crock potting. BBQ pulled pork, spicy carnitas, or simply salted and shredded. Many a day I’ve found myself standing over the crock just eating forkfulls of meat. Because it can be so hands off as a crock pot meal, it’s the easiest dinner we can make for long working days.

Recommended for: BBQers, working families, easy-meal lovers, crockpotters, meat smokers, meal preppers

Lard

Josh and I actually get excited about lard! All those negative connotations that come to mind? They're wrong. (If you ever want to hear a fascinating history about why and how lard was villainized, check this out.) Pastured pork lard is vastly superior to canola, sunflower, and other vegetable oils. It not only is far more nutritious (with quality amino acids, vitamins, and minerals), but also won’t smell up the house when deep frying! (I’m looking at you, vegetable oil.) That's right. No terrible smell. Once rendered, this shelf-stable ingredient makes the most excellent fried green tomatoes, breaded chicken fingers, french fries, you name it.

Recommended for: fried food fans, pastry-makers, folks who want a good old fashioned pie, people who gag at the smoke smell of canola oil, those who want to see what traditional lard is all about

Ham

I will actually do all I can to avoid ham (deli-sliced ham? Ham pieces? Blehhh). Let me rephrase. I actually did do all I could to avoid ham. But with our ham, you’ll find me repeatedly hitting the serving dish, just like in the summer you’ll find me repeatedly hitting those four-legged walking hams to move their fat butts out of the way. Our ham has been the centerpiece at every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter since we started raising ham. I wonder how many more times can I fit in “ham.”

**Note: if you get a smoked ham, do NOT add salt to your recipes.

Recommended for: the people who are nostalgic over holiday meal smells, the people who cook those nostalgic holiday meals, people whose mouths water at hearing “pineapple, brown sugar, maple,” or “balsamic glaze.”

Cottage Bacon

Essentially Canadian bacon. It has less fat and more meat than belly bacon, and is great for baking because of its lower fat content. It’s a great fit for foods that need larger sized bacon pieces (like breakfast sandwiches). Can use exactly like belly bacon. Smoked with a deeper ham flavor than belly bacon.

Recommended for: bacon fans obviously, any bacon sandwich eaters, Canadian bacon munchers, bacon bit users, pizza enthusiasts

Bacon

I used to be completely indifferent to bacon. Then our first batch came back from the processor. My life was forever changed.

Recommended for: literally everyone.

Neck Bones

Excellent for making bone broth, full of nutrients, and makes a killer soup. All you need is a crock pot or stock pot. For those who are versed in the culinary world, or would like to try something new in the kitchen, neck bones are often found in southern-style cooking. Try them out with some gravy!

Recommended for: bone brothers, southern-style cookers, kitchen experimenters, anyone who loves ham-based soups and wants to find their new favorite

Chops

These can be done so well, or so wrong. Ever had a chop and thought “That was dry and flavorless?” (<—Me every time I had a conventional pork chop.) I can now guarantee a pastured chop cooked correctly will have you coming back for more. Don’t worry, it’s not difficult. Just check out our How to Cook Pastured Meat page for the details, and remember to remove the chops at 145 degrees. My absolute favorite sauce for chops is melted butter, shallots, sage, and a dash of lemon juice. Chops are cut from the back of a hog. Each chop is part baby back ribs, part tenderloin, part loin roast.

Recommended for: people who love chops, people who don’t love chops, pan friers and grillers, folks dipping their toes in pastured meat

Spare Ribs

While there isn’t a ton of meat on a rack of ribs, that bone meat is a delicacy. Spare ribs come from right above the belly (bacon). A light seasoning and a slow cook will have ribs literally falling apart. Prepare to have a face full of barbecue sauce, and to completely not care.

Recommended for: BBQers, those who know how to pick the bones clean, meat smoker, #AntiUtinselGang

Baby Back Ribs

Same same, but different. Baby back ribs are located above the spare ribs, right at the top of the hog. That area is called the loin, and a set of baby back rips will strip a set of chops of their bones, as it’s the same rib bone present in both. If you order bulk pork, selecting baby back ribs from the cut list will leave you with boneless chops. While there are distinct recipes for baby back and spare ribs that connoisseurs may prefer, the rest of us common-folk can treat rib racks similarly.

Recommended for: chefs who like the differences between rib styles, BBQers, fans of Chili’s and / or The Office “I want my baby back, baby back, baby back…”

Tenderloin

The most particular (though uncomplicated) and debatably most tender cut of pork. Like chops, these must be cooked correctly. Don’t try tenderloin without a meat thermometer on hand. Once you’ve purchased that ever-valuable cooking tool (seriously, $12. Go order one.), give the tenderloin a shot. It’s ah-mazing with a fruit glaze (cherry balsamic, anyone?). The tenderloin is a long strip of meat, pulled from the loin (the top of the hog), running right inside the chops. A whole hog will only produce a few pounds of tenderloin total, making it truly a premium cut. If the tenderloin is pulled, it actually removes meat from the chops. Each chop is part baby back ribs, part tenderloin, part loin roast. If you purchase bulk pork, and choose the tenderloin, you’ll have narrower chops. If you also choose the Baby Back Ribs, you’ll have just strips of loin roast meat.

Recommended for: fancy meal makers, folks who want a darn good piece of meat, people with a meat thermometer, enjoyers of herbed and breaded pork

Ground Pork

We looove ground pork. For every lb we fry up, only about 1/2 makes it to the table from all the spoonfuls we sneak. Great for everything and excellent substitution for other ground meats. The best part? No draining necessary. Unlike store-bought pork, where we’ve all been taught to drain that smelly grease, our pork grease is not only more minimal, but it’s far more tasty. We stir it right back into the batch. Since pigs don’t sweat, what goes in, stays in, making it critical that pork is fed a quality diet. Pork fat is notorious for taking on the essence of the food they eat, so if you want to eat well, make sure your pork has eaten well, too.

Recommended for: folks who like to start with the (delicious) basics, anyone who ever uses ground meat, seasoners, quick-meal makers

Hocks

A popular cut for those who make baked beans, ham soups, roasted hocks, and broths. These have more meat than neck bones, are often used in German cooking and double as broth bones once the meat is eaten. We cook them two ways: first turn them into broth before shredding the meat for use in eggs, wild rice, soups, etc. Or roasted and shredded for beans and soups, turning the leftovers into a broth. In both cases, hocks are a 2 for 1 deal. **Note: if you get smoked hocks, do NOT add salt to your recipes.

Recommended for: those who want a one stop soup shop, enjoyers of richly smoked meat

Country Style Ribs

These are individually sliced "fingerling" chops and look more like a very narrow pork chops than a rack of ribs. Preferred for southern style cooking. Contrary to their name, the bone in country style ribs isn’t a rib, it’s a shoulder blade.

Recommended for: classic southern cooks, those with recipes that call for country style ribs, anyone branching out to try new cuts

Loin Roast

A 3 lb slab of uncut, boneless pork chops, is really what it is. One of our favorite cuts. This comes from the pork loin, which is, in fact, the area along the spine. A loin roast is typically a boneless cut with a thick, singular layer of fat on the top of the roast (the same fat cap you’d see on the side of a pork chop, as a chop is a sliced up loin roast). This loin roast fat cap is meant for scoring and letting melt into the meat below while cooking. If you order bulk pork and choose a loin roast (which is boneless chops + tenderloin), you can also pull the baby back ribs, -OR- you can choose a bone-in loin roast (baby back ribs + chops + tenderloin; the whole shebang). Our favorite Loin Roast recipe is simply salt and pepper because the tender cut is loaded with flavor. You can also rub down with pretty much any spice, and bake, smoke, or air fry to perfection. Because this cut also contains an intact tenderloin, see our notes about needing to cook correctly. A meat thermometer is a must for a loin roast.

Recommended for: enjoyers of melt-in-your-mouth meat, fans of seemingly fancy yet super easy entrees, people with a meat thermometer