When we brought home our first pigs, I was in it just for the bacon. (Read here for the 6 Things You Need to Know if You’ll be Raising Pigs on Pasture And check out the full scoop about Processing Pigs at Home.)

After stocking our freezers that first fall, I quickly realized there were so many wonderful cuts of pork that I am a huge fan of. In fact, the pork steak and ground pork and juicy pork chops all stand above even the delicious bacon in my mind.

Oh, and the lard. I might possibly agree to raising pigs if all I got out of it was the lard, guys.

How to Render Lard

If you’re more of an auditory learner, I’ve walked you though the entire process, and shared everything you need to know about rendering lard in a recent episode on my podcast, Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy. 

Are There Different Kinds of Pork Lard?

While there are 3 varieties of lard that you can source from a pig (go here for the nitty-gritty on the 3 Types of Pork Lard), this article will just talk about two of them, the two that are processed the exact same way. I do store them and use them differently though, but more on that later.

Can You Cook with Lard?

I cook with lard daily. It doesn’t smoke at high temperatures, so it’s perfect for frying. Not to mention the fact that veggies roasted in lard come out wonderfully crisp and delicious. Usually my choice of lard for oiling my skillet is a spoonful out of the jar of lard that sits by my stove.

Can you Bake with Lard?

Lard is amazingly wonderful for baking. It inhibits the formation of gluten, making it the Holy Grail of fat if you’re trying to achieve perfection in a flaky pastry or pie crust. And it has these mammoth size fat crystals that also make it almost impossible to not nail the best biscuits.

For baking (like these amazing chocolate chip cookies made with lard) I use bars of lard out of my freezer. I explain more about how I use all 3 different types of pork lard in this article.

Okay, so what do you need to know about rendering lard?

While there are 3 types of pork lard, only 2 of them need to be rendered: back fat and leaf fat. While these two types of fat are slightly different, I follow the exact same steps to render them down to lard.

1. Remove skin (from back fat) or outer membrane (on leaf fat), unless the butcher did this for you. I find this step and the next one are easiest to do when the fat is mostly frozen, but slightly thawed. With back fat, I will make a few cuts, dividing the strip into 2-3″ long chunks, then remove each chunk from the skin. This is more manageable than trying to remove the full piece of skin in one slice.
2. Cut any larger pieces of fat into smaller chunks, maybe 2 or 3 inches long.
3. Fill a large stock pot with your chunks of fat. (My stock pot is a 12 quarts.)
4. Turn the burner on medium to medium low. (I had read that rendering needs to happen at the lowest temperature possible, so my first attempt at rendering lard i kept the burner on its lowest setting. Two hours later I had about 1 inch of liquid fat in the bottom of my pan. It should never take that long, my friends, and there’s no need for it to. Instead, I find it best to monitor the temperature of the liquid lard and keep it at a nice steady temperature of 220 the entire time.)
5. Monitor your pot by setting an alarm for every 30-40 minutes and checking it each time the alarm goes off. Stir the chunks of fat and check to see that the temperature of the liquid fat is in the 220 range every time the timer goes off.
6. When you have mainly liquid, with large and small chunks floating on top, use a large slotted spoon to scoop out the pieces of fat.
7. Carefully pour the liquid lard from your stock pot into a strainer, draped with a thin towel, resting on large bowl.
8. Carefully adjust your towel, so fresh fabric is covering the strainer, and move your strainer to another large bowl.
9. Pour strained liquid fat from the first bowl into the second, straining it a second time (after placing chunks in pan of rejects). The more effectively you strain your lard the better tasting (aka not “porky” tasting) it will be.
10. Pour the strained lard into clean, sanitized jars or molds. I use these molds and find there’s no need to grease them.
11. IF USING MOLDS: Freeze lard in molds for about 1 hr 15 minutes then pop out and store in freezer-safe container in freezer for years, taking out as needed to replace a stick of butter in baking.
12. IF USING MASON JARS: wipe rim of jar after filling with liquid lard and place canning lid on with rim, fingertip tight. Within a few hours, the liquid golden fat will turn spreadable-solid and white. The lid should be sealed and you can store your jars of lard in a cool, dark place for years.

NOTES about rendering lard:

• A thermometer like this is invaluable to help you easily monitor the temperature of the liquid and keep consistently around 220-225.
• The chunks of fat that are removed can be cooked into cracklins. I will separate the large pieces to give to our chickens or keep in the freezer as very special dog treats. And the smaller ones become delicious cracklins for my salads in the upcoming week or I use them to make cracklin bread (by substituting cracklins for bacon).
• Using a 12-quart stock pot filled with pork fat, with 3 sets of these molds, I find I need to do this step in thirds. While the first batch of 12 sticks is in the freezer, I kept remaining lard on burner, keeping at 220-ish. I find it takes 1 hr and 15 minutes for the lard sticks to fully freeze in these molds.
• Using a 12-quart stock pot filled with leaf fat yields 36 bars (9 pounds) of lard “butter” a few cups of cracklins, and a 1/2 gallon ziploc bag of cracklins (larger, that i didn’t get crispy, just cooked)
• To release lard sticks from molds, I press each section of the mold from the bottom, turning it almost inside out as the stick pops out.
• While both back fat and leaf fat render into wonderful lards, the leaf lard is considered the creme de la creme. It’s purer, never pork tasting, and a blinding white color. In the picture below you can see the yellow tint to the back fat lard vs. the stark white of the leaf lard.

But is Lard Good for you in your Daily Diet?

Yes! Lard is truly a good, healthy, natural fat, loaded with reasons to include it in your diet, but the best reason may be that it’s far superior to the alternative of hydrogenated fats found in all processed foods (or… dare I even say the words… margarine, seed oils, or shortening). More about Why You Should Bake With Lard here.

Is There Any Lard that Doesn’t Have to be Rendered?

You can purchase already-rendered lard from a local pig farmer or reputable online sources (see some below) but never waste your money on the “lard” you can find at the traditional grocery store that has been hydrogenated.

There is also one type of lard–the membrane that surrounds the pig’s stomach–that does not have to be rendered. Read more about caul fat here and check out this video as well:

All Your Questions About Rendering Lard

Can I render lard in a crock pot?

Absolutely. I prefer to closely monitor the temperature by using a stock pot on the stove. This creates the purest, whitest lard for me (for back fat as well as leaf fat). But I have used a crock pot with fine success as well. The important thing is to use a low heat and stir it pretty often.

Can I render lard in the oven?

Absolutely. I find that using a stock pot on the stove creates the purest, whitest lard for me (for back fat as well as leaf fat), but there’s no reason to not use the oven instead.

How long does it take to render lard?

There are many variables, but expect it to take most of your day. I tend to start my lard rendering in the morning and am finishing up after dark. While you need to be home and able to check in on the temperature and stir your rendering lard every 30-60 minutes, it is very easy and not time consuming.

What are the benefits of rendering lard?

I think the best benefit of rendering lard is the fact that you can bake with lard. And it’s a fantastic oil choice for cooking on the stove top, since it has such a high smoke point. It’s ideal for all of your high-heat cooking.

Will I mess up if I choose the wrong method (crock pot/oven/stove)? Or the wrong pan?

I highly doubt you will mess anything up. The important thing is to render your lard on low heat and stir it pretty often. You got this.

Is it okay that my lard is changing color in the pan?

As pork fats warm, they turn color (no they’re not burning) and start to smell a little “piggy.” You’re not doing anything wrong.

Should I render on the absolute lowest setting possible?

No. I tried this once and it took forever and a day! Instead, monitor the temperature of your liquid fat with a thermometer like this. Keep your liquid at around 220-225 degrees.

Can I take my lard off the heat and resume the rendering hours later if I need to?

Yes! It’s totally fine to pull your partially rendered lard off the stove while you go run an errand or do a farm chore you have to do. If you can cover it and keep it somewhat warm you’ll save time, since it will solidify if you let it totally cool. The photo below is a pot of lard that I did let totally cool before I reheated it and finished rendering it. (The cracklins are covering the top.)

Do the floating chunks at the end have to be tiny pieces before it’s “done”?

No, often my cracklins are 1/4-inch chunks or sometimes larger… the size of salad croutons. But sometimes I’ll process the fat in giant strips (without cutting them up) and my cracklings at the end will be giant size. It’s more productive to start with small pieces of fat, but some days you gotta choose the easier route. My point is that the size of your cracklings at the end is determined by the size of your chunks of fat that you start with.

What’s the difference in lard and tallow?

The main difference in lard and tallow? The fact that lard is sourced from pigs and tallow from cows.

But my good friend, RuthAnn Zimmerman, and I take a deep dive into this very topic right here and explore all kinds of details about both lard and tallow: Good Fats, S7 Episode 4 of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast

And listen in to this additional episode on my podcast for more thoughts on why food changed, why we were fed so many lies (like “animal fat is bad for us”), and why we bought into the lie: Why we’ve bought into the lie (S3, Episode 2)

What’s better… lard or butter?

Both butter and lard are excellent choices of fats.

Butter may wind up making some recipes seem oilier in the end, since butter separates when you heat it, into oil and milk. This, btw, is also why you have to keep a nice distance between cookies on the tray that are made with butter. Lard, on the other hand, remains intact when melted. So cookies made with lard don’t flatten and meld into one another on the hot tray.

Butter will also be slightly harder once it has cooled down, while lard tends to keep your foods a little softer. This is why I love making Chocolate Chip Cookies with Lard.

Can it really be used in place of butter?

Yep. I make grilled cheese by slathering the outside of each piece of bread with lard instead of butter.

 

 

Does lard taste like bacon?

What are some other great fats to use in the kitchen?

Can you Buy Good Lard?

You can absolutely source good lard, either as fat that you can render down yourself, or as already rendered lard. Here are some tips:

If we didn’t raise our own pigs and render our own lard, I would definitely order a monthly box of meat, get free filet for a year (seriously! Every subscription comes with $420-worth of free filet!), add in a few orders of lard with every month’s box, and stay stocked up on the best meat… make sure you use code SOULYRESTED if this all sounds amazing to you too & save $30 on your first order.

You can also find pork fat, in all of its “stages” on Amazon:

Items I Use Every time I Render Lard:

The post Complete Guide to Rendering Lard first appeared on Souly Rested.

The first year we brought pigs home to our little New England farm, I had no idea of the joy their amazing variety of fat would bring me. I was, afterall, just in in for the bacon. But trust me, I’ve come to learn that one of my favorite parts of being a pig farmer is the fat, y’all.

If you think I’m crazy, read on. This article breaks down the many versatile uses of the three types of pork lard, and it might just make you a believer in good, amazing, glorious pig fat.

If you still need even more reasons, see 11 Reasons to Use Lard in Cooking & Baking.

If you want to know why I insist on using this amazingly good-for-you fat, and exactly how I use each kind, read “How to Bake with Lard (& why you should).”

Listen in or join us (on youtube) as RuthAnn Zimmerman and I talk about the amazingness of good fat in this podcast episode: Good Fats, with Ruthann Zimmerman

A Complete Guide to Pork Lard

There are 3 varieties of lard sourced from a pig. They’re all wonderful and I tend to use them each in different ways. Two of them are rendered exactly the same way, which we’ll dive deep into in our next article (click here for the Complete Guide to Rendering Lard). The other one doesn’t need any rendering at all, just a little rinsing and proper storage, read on for more about that.

The 3 Types of Pork Lard

1. Back fat (this is the most common and there is the most of this fat on any one pig)
2. Leaf fat (this is the pure white, coveted fat, once it is rendered)
3. Caul fat (also known as the lace fat, this is the one that simply needs to be rinsed, dried, and properly stored)

Back Fat

This is the think strip of fat that lies just under the skin and covers a pig’s back. The thickest, best portion of this lies above the pork loin, but it extends to over the shoulder (or Boston Butt) area of the pig as well. Often a butcher will provide this fat as a large slab, with the skin still attached.

If you have a helpful butcher, ask if he’d be willing to remove the skin and chop (or even grind) the fat up before giving it to you. If shouldn’t take him long but this will save you quite a lot of effort.

If you do need to remove the skin and/or cut it up yourself, I recommend doing this when it is partially frozen. I’ve never attempted it with warm, room temperature fat, but I can’t imagine it would be much fun.

HOW I USE IT: This fat, when rendered properly (click here for the Complete Guide to Rendering Lard) will have almost zero pork taste, but it will never be as pure (or as gloriously–almost blinding–white) as leaf fat. So if I have plenty of leaf fat, I seldom use the back fat for baking. But I definitely do, and it’s definitely wonderful.

Instead, this is the fat I often cook with. I keep a jar of it by the stove and use it to cook in my cast iron daily. It’s also the lard I go for when I want to deep fry some fries or some yeast donuts.

SIDE NOTE: Most of the summer I find it’s fine to leave my lard where it sits the other 3 season of the year. But occationally, during a heat wave, I will have to move my lard jar to the fridge or it liquifies. If you live in a warmer climate than New England, you may have to store your lard in the fridge during the warmer times of the year.

RENDERING IT: See the Complete Guide to Rendering Lard here. Both back fat and leaf fat are rendered exactly the same way, but I do store each differently. (I cover that in the rendering article.)

Leaf Fat

The leaf fat is the portion of fat that lies primarily around the pig’s kidneys, but some is sourced from around the pork belly as well (aka the bacon). This looks more lumpy, not a single long thick strip, like the back fat.

It will often still have a thin layer of membrane on one side. This is the membrane that separated the layer of fat from the organs in the pig. It’s often quite easy to pull off before rendering, but if you miss some, no biggie, it will just wind up floating with your cracklins and can be removed later. (More about cracklins in a bit.)

HOW I USE IT: The leaf fat is purer, cleaner, whiter than even the best rendered back fat. Even if the back fat has zero pig flavor (because it was rendered carefully), it will always be slightly brown tinted in color, more like the color of bacon fat (which I also collect in a jar in my fridge to use for deep frying and skillet cooking as well, for those times when I WANT the bacon flavor in my foods). So the leaf fat is the fat I reserve for baking, in place of butter in any recipe at a 1:1 ratio.

RENDERING IT: See the Complete Guide to Rendering Lard. Both back fat and leaf fat are rendered exactly the same way, but I do store each differently. I cover all the details in that article on rendering.

Caul Fat

The caul fat is my priced, treasured fat that gets stored carefully and used lovingly. If I sound a little fat-crazy to you, well, I’d venture you’ve never cooked with caul fat. It’s thin, bacon-flavored, fat lace that serves as a thin membrane surrounding the stomach in a pig. This lacy strip of fat is fabulous for searing around a pork loin roast as it cooks (watch the video about using caul fat there) or wrapping around maple sausage as a super easy casing. And it’s magical to watch it tighten around the meat as it fries and turns a beautiful golden brown while it sizzles.

HOW I USE IT: I use caul fat to wrap any meat I want to add special bacon-like flavor and added moisture to, or in place of casing for sausage. I source this right from the pig, immediately after it is butchered here on our farm, do my best to keep it out of dirt or mud, and carry it immediately through the fields and to the kitchen to rinse it. I then lay it out on old, clean sheets to dry before folding it and storing it in freezer bags in the deep freezer.

RENDERING IT: Since lace fat is just a thin membrane, there is no need to render it at all. All you need to do is clean it and store in as I describe above.

Is Pork Lard Solid at Room Temperature?

With the exception of what I explained above, and how lard will liquify during hot, humid temperatures if your kitchen isn’t air-conditioned, all 3 types of pork lard are solid at room temperature. But both back fat and leaf fat are spreadable at room temperature. In fact, lard is a great butter substitute, even when it comes to making a grilled cheese. Just cover the outer side of your two pieces of bread and go ahead and grill up a great cheesy lunch.

Hop over here to read more about How to Bake with Lard (and my favorite way to measure and store it for baking).

How do you render pork lard?

Hop over to this article for all the details on how to render pork lard.

Can I bake with lard?

One thousand times YES… you can bake with lard. I love baking with lard. Go here to find out How to Bake with Lard & why you should!

So is all lard the good stuff?

There are many options for sourcing fantastic real pork lard. But first let me tell you what NOT to do…

Don’t buy “hydrogenated lard” that you might see at your regular grocery store. Hydrogenated lard has been altered in a lab. It makes fat have a longer shelf life, which is good for the manufacturer, but it has also undergone a chemical change that makes it no longer good for you to eat. Read more about that here.

Where can you buy good lard?

1. If you live in New England and would like to purchase a whole or half a pig, I would love to chat about how our family farm can help you load your freezer next fall (with amazing pig fat as well as delicious pasture-raised meat). We keep a waiting list, and I am always happy to meet new customers and expand our plans for next year, to make sure your family enjoys high-quality meat. To message me, hop over to instagram or send an email to michelle(dot)visser(at)outlook(dot)com.
2. Find local pig farmers and ask around until you can hopefully find one who either sells lard they have rendered or maybe the raw fat, which you can then render yourself. See my Complete Guide to Rendering Lard. (Or just store away until you use it, in the case of caul fat.)
3. Go to eatwild.com and search for a pig farm near you.
4. Order online. Seriously. You can purchase this amazing fat, ready to use, and skipped to your door:

Caul fat

Lard made from back fat

Lard made from the inner, leaf fat 

The post Complete Guide to Pork Lard first appeared on Souly Rested.

But it turns out pasture-raised pork is some of the most delicious, versatile meat I have ever prepared. I’m adding new pork recipes right here all the time…. take a look.

Combine the versatility of pork with a few things I’ve recently learned about grocery store meat and, well, I’m elated to say I seldom buy any meat at a grocery store. Read on for all the reasons why…

Or listen in to this topic over on my podcast: the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast, S3, E8

5 Reasons I Don’t Buy Meat at the Grocery Store

Every week, more than two million pigs are slaughtered for American dinner tables. That’s more than 104 million per year, guys! Needless to say, to meet this demand, a very industrial system has evolved that is nothing like a genuinely good food system should be.

Of course plenty of other animals are being raised commercially for meat as well, but since I’m a pig farmer and since I want this article to not grow too large in its scope, we’ll stick to pork, but know that many of these issues impact all of the meat you buy at your local grocery store.

Also, before we go any further, I’m guessing before you reach the end of this article you’re going to be wondering, “Well, where do I get my meat then!?”

Ahhhh, that’s something I LOVE taking about! I found this amazing platform that’s connecting concerned consumers like us to the BEST regenerative farmers in the nation and somehow they’re even doing it at the BEST prices I’ve found anywhere for high-quality meat that is raised right.

Check out 99 Counties, and be sure to use code SOULYRESTED for $30 off your first box and free shipping always on all orders over $150. Bonus: for a limited time you even get a FREE FILET every month for a year!

Local, Pasture-Raised Meat is What it Claims to be

The first big shocker when you examine the conventionally raised meat industry is the fact that you can’t trust the labels. Even if it’s labeled “product of USA” it’s probably imported.

If you’re more of a “give it to me quick” kinda person, I saved the gist of this whole article in a quick highlight on instagram right here.

The reality? Your meat probably came here in a container ship filled with frozen carcasses killed on the other side of the planet. But as long as it was altered or sliced in some way in the U.S., it can be labeled “product of the USA.” (source)

Insane, right?

If, on the other hand, you can raise your own meat or find a local pig farmer who keeps his pigs on pasture, you know exactly where you meat comes from.

Local, Pasture-Raised Meat Has Zero Sodium Phosphate

Whether we can blame Oprah or not, consumers demand lean meat. So we started breeding pigs for the leanest pork possible.

But of course making the animals leaner and shaving fat off the meat has reduced the flavor and tenderness. It’s a vicious cycle y’all.

So, a few decades ago, we started enhancing pork. (They sometimes call it “seasoned,” which sounds so much nicer doesn’t it?) They inject muscle groups with water, salt, and sodium phosphate during processing.

Bonus, it even increases shelf life. She says sarcastically. Of course, usually “increased shelf life” is never the nutritional option, and sodium phosphate is no exception…

• Sodium phosphate can disrupt how your body absorbs iron, calcium, and magnesium.
• Eating too many nitrates has been linked to a variety of cancers, including colorectal and stomach cancers.
• Sodium phosphate causes vascular damage, e.g. endothelial dysfunction and vascular calcification. (source)

But again, like my first reason for not wanting to buy grocery store meat, this isn’t obvious. In fact, stores don’t even have to let us know that sodium phosphate is included in our meat choice. They only have to label the meat with the words “water added” or “salt added.” Hmmmm….

Crazy enough, not only are you most likely eating unidentified sodium phosphate, you’re also paying more for the luxury.

10% more to be exact.

You see, the injection adds roughly 10 percent to the overall weight of your meat. And you don’t really have a choice… it’s almost impossible to find a grocery store in the US that sells any pork that is NOT enhanced. According to the author of The Gourmet Butcher’s Guide to Meat, “It is becoming quite difficult to find non-enhanced pork.”

Local, Pasture-Raised Meat Has Zero Ractopamine

As if the facts that my meat may be imported from overseas yet labeled “product of the USA” and injected with things that could cause heart failure and cancer isn’t enough, enter ractopamine, stage right…

While no pigs are fed or injected with hormones, many are fed products, in the last weeks of their life, that contain a food-additive drug known as ractopamine.

Ractopamine stimulates muscle growth and reduces fat, or essentially encourages the animal to grow larger and leaner, similar to the results of a human using a steroid.

Ractopamine is a beta agonist, but performs like steroids because it increases metabolism, which allows the conversion of food into muscle faster.

So it all comes back to Oprah and a hatred of fat in our meat.

Anything I’ve ever read about food or product additives that mimic hormones has been bad, to say the least, yet the USDA says it’s “safe.” The fact that ractopamine has been banned in more than 160 countries makes me wonder if I want to blindly trust the USDA on this one. (source)

If you do some research on how ractopamine impacts people, it’s not a pretty picture. Ractopamine speeds up our heart rate and leads to anxiety. Huh. Just what folks need these days. And similar drugs have been directly linked to cardiovascular health concerns.

I’ve read many folks arguing that there are no longer traces of the drug in the meat by the time it is eaten, but Consumer Reports investigated 240 U.S. pork products and found ractopamine residue in a large portion of the meat. (source)

Crazy enough, ractopamine also negatively affects the meat’s taste. Ummm, wasn’t this all a vicious cycle on a quest to improve the meat?

Local, Pasture-Raised Meat is Not “Conventionally Raised”

From The Gourmet Butcher’s Guide to Meat, by Cole Ward (which I highly recommend):

Denise Beaulieu, research scientist at the Prairie Swine Center in Saskatoon, Canada, described modern stall-based housing, which is the general commercial method of raising conventional pork… Sows are impregnated and placed into gestation stalls. Each is just big enough for the sow to stand up adn lie down–about 6 1/2 feet long and 2 feet wide. Floors are usually smooth concrete adn have narrow slots to allow waste to drop through. Sows are placed into the stalls when they’re bred, and since the average gestation time is 114 days, and sows are pregnant most of their lives… well, you get the picture.

Studies have shown that the mere last few hours of a pig’s life impacts the taste of the meat. Surely a life of stress and confinement can’t possible produce the best quality meat. Then on top of that, it’s just not right guys. Animals deserve our care and respect if we want to enjoy them and their meat to its best potential.

I’m very thankful that our family has the privilege to give a good life to a new batch of pigs every spring and summer and offer them a quick, stressless, humane death right here on our farm where they have roamed pastures for their entire life. Read more here about the process of processing pigs on the farm.

Local, Pasture-Raised Meat is Delicious

There’s a great little book, The Complete Book Of Butchering, Smoking, Curing, And Sausage Making. The author, a professional butcher himself, explains how the animal’s stress level at time of death (in addition to its temperature and overall health) can have a huge impact on the meat… on its texture, pH, moisture, and color.

It’s true, guys, all this commercialization of meat has led to bad ideas to try to improve the overall quality of the meat when, in the end, the best meat is found in the pure simple art of the old days… bringing a few piglets into your pasture, giving them a good life, and offering them a humane and simple death.

In return, they will provide your family with truly the most delicious meat you have ever tasted.

It’s simple, we have just made it complicated.

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig if you share local-raised meat you’re enjoying @souly.rested.

Listen in to my podcast episode that discusses all of this in detail right here:

Season 3 Episode 8 (on apple podcast)

Other articles you may want to check out:

Lots of wonderful pork recipes straight from our pig farm

6 things you need to know if you want to raise pigs on pasture

The steps involved with processing pigs at home

Meet our pasture-raised pigs:

If you’d like to follow along as we were raising these pigs, check out the highlight about them on my instagram account.

And I saved a second set of ig stories on raising our second round of pigs right here.

Pin this for later!

Click on the image below to pin this post.

The post 5 Reasons I Don’t Buy Meat at the Grocery Store first appeared on Souly Rested.

And I have our pork customers’ cut sheets laying out on my desk, finalizing the details for next weekend’s butchering… I can’t tell you how amazing it feels that we have been able to raise enough meat the past two years not only for our own family but for many others as well. With the crazy cost of meat at the stores these days and my complete lack of trust in the food supply chain ever since 2020, I feel very blessed.

But I wanted to sit down in the midst of today’s busyness and share another one of our family’s favorite pork recipes with you. Because this baby is going in the oven for our dinner tonight and I’m pretty sure your kitchen needs this deliciousness one night soon…

Go here for an up-to-date list of all the tips I’ve been sharing in my Cooking Your Way Thru the Pig series.

And if you’d like a better understanding of meat (and, in today’s world, we all should, no?), this book is engaging, deeply informative, and… dare I say it… truly “fun.”

What is a Pork Loin Roast?

I explained in my last post (did you grab my pork chop recipe?), many hogs are bred to have extra long loins (go here for some tips on choosing a breed)… much longer than my lame drawing below (yeah, no one said I was an artist)… so picture the loin about twice the length as I drew it…

btw, I made my lowsy attempt at art because I knew I will be sharing all my pork recipes and tips for eating your way through a pasture-raised pig here on the blog in the year ahead. As I add more recipes and details you will find them all right here.

Because they have been bred this way, one pig can have up to 17 ribs, which is pretty crazy compared to cows, which have 13.

And there are a lot of options for a butcher with this wonderful long section. The entire pork loin could be turned into roasts or it could be cut into individual pork chops or thinner pork cutlets (I’ll share a delicious recipe for those soon too).

Then there’s the tenderlion (the rear of the loin section) and the baby-back ribs (from the upper ribcage of the loin). I kid you not, some great stuff comes from a pig’s back, no? There’s even the fat back, which can be used for lard. (We’ll get into that too in a future post in this series.)

Turning Pork Loin into a Taste of Heaven

If you ever butcher your own pasture-raised pigs and have a butcher who is happy to take the time to remove some of the fat lining around the organs, known as the caul fat, you have a true delicacy in the making if you wrap a piece of the caul fat (like a giant piece of bacon) around your pork roast. Watch this to see what I mean:

How to Cook a Pork Roast

Here are two fabulous options that our family loves. Both recipes are for a 4 pound roast.

Herb Pork Roast

Generously rub roast with garlic pepper* then mix this meat rub:

• 1 tsp. dry thyme
• 1 tsp. crushed, dried rosemary
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• 4 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 TB maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. Rub your mix onto all sides of pork loin roast
3. Place roast, fat side up, in covered roasting pan
4. Bake for roughly 3-3.5 hours, or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F (I use this so I know for sure.)

Maple Pork Roast

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 TB worchester sauce
• 1 TB red wine vinegar
• 4 cloves crushed garlic

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. Cut up potatoes and carrots and onions to cover bottom of roasting pan.
3. Generously rub roast with garlic pepper*
4. Place roast over potatoes
5. Pour maple sauce over meat
6. Place lid on roasting pan
7. Bake for 3-3.5 hours or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F

 

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“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared… for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10 

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Other Recipes & Tips You’ll Love:

How to Cook Pork Steaks (better than sirloin!)

Make Your Own Taco Seasoning (include a recipe for making it in bulk!)

How to Bake with Maple Syrup (seriously. You need to know this!)

All my Favorite Tools in my Farmhouse Kitchen (the things I wouldn’t want to live without)

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your delicious pork meals @souly.rested.

 

Pin this for later!

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

Want Some Amazing Pork Recipes?

Sign up for my weekly-ish encouragement in your inbox and I have some of my favorite pork recipes waiting for you to download instantly. It will take you one hot second and those recipes will be on their way to you… Just type in your email right here –>

The post The Ultimate Guide to Cooking a Pork Loin Roast first appeared on Souly Rested.

Until last year.

I changed the way I did 2 things and the results?

Well let’s just say we have these juicy, tender, delicious pork chops 2-3 times a month.

BBQ pork chops have become one of our favorite meals. Granted, part of the allure is the total ease of preparing and cooking them, but man are these pork chops tasty too.

What Makes These Barbecue Pork Chops so Good?

What 2 things changed last year?

1. We raised our own pasture-raised pork. (But you don’t need to be a pig farmer to get your hands on some farm-raised pork. Ask your local butchers; they’ll point you in the right direction. And you can also just do step 2 on the chops you grab at the store; you’ll love it.)
2. I started using my own from-scratch BBQ sauce. (Stick with me here and keep scrolling. Trust me. It’s easy. )

What are Pork Chops?

Many hog breeds are bred to have extra long loins (go here for some tips on choosing a breed)… much longer than my lame drawing below (yeah, no one said I was an artist)… so picture the loin about twice the length as I drew it…

Because they have been bred this way, one pig can have up to 17 ribs, (compared to cows and sheep, which have 13).

And there are a lot of options for a butcher with this wonderful long section. The entire pork loin could be turned into roasts or it could be cut into individual pork chops (our focus today) or thinner pork cutlets (I’ll share a delicious recipe for those soon too).

Then there’s the tenderlion (the rear of the loin section) and the baby-back ribs (from the upper ribcage of the loin). Some really good stuff comes from a pig’s back, no? There’s even the fat back, which can be used for lard.

How to Cook Pork Chops so They Don’t Dry Out

• Marinating in BBQ sauce does wonderful things to a pork chop. Make your own BBQ sauce, and you can even tweak it to exactly the way your family likes it. Use my recipe below and add 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper if your family likes it hot. Or more maple syrup and less tomato sauce if your family likes it sweet… you get the idea. (See the final tip below for a really neat way to customize the BBQ sauce.)
• Never jab a fork into your chops until you’re ready to eat them. You’ll loose wonderful juices from the meat as it cooks. Instead, use a good pair of kitchen tongs (like these) while you’re preparing your pork chops.
• If you’re baking your pork chops, be sure to sear them first (not necessary for grilling)… just brown each side for a few minutes in a hot pan on the stove (I use cast iron, with a tablespoon of bacon grease) before baking them at 400 degrees F. This helps them hold in the juices and not dry out in the oven.
• Don’t overcook your chops! Because pork chops are such a lean cut, they cook quickly. Sadly, if they’re overcooked even by a few minutes they are prone to be dry, and/or tough, chewy, and not so appealing. (Or consider slow-cooking them. My slow-roasted chop recipe is coming to the blog soon.)
• To know when your chops are done, insert an instant-read thermometer (this is the one I use) into the thickest part of the chop. According to the USDA, pork chops should be cooked to an internal temp of 145 degrees.
• This one is kinda crazy but so good… If I have any juices left from my fermented blueberries I will paint those on, right over my BBQ sauce, before marinating the chops. You could also use the fermented blueberry juice in place of some or all of the ketchup in the BBQ sauce recipe.

Making Your Own BBQ Sauce

It’s easier than you think and so delicious to make your own BBQ sauce, plus you can tweak the ingredients to make this exactly the way your family loves it. 

Ingredients

2 cups tomato sauce

3/4 cup tomato paste

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup real maple syrup

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tsp garlic salt

1⁄2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer. Stir while it simmers for about 10 minutes, allowing all the wonderful tastes to blend together.
2. Whatever you don’t use can be stored in the fridge for many weeks (maybe even months). Of course you can also freeze it.

BBQ Pork Chops

1. Rub your meat with your favorite rub. This one is, hands-down, my favorite for almost all meals.
2. Slather BBQ sauce over your pork chops and marinate them for a few hours or over night in the fridge. Or, shave hours off your prep time with one of my favorite tools in my farmhouse kitchen… this instant marinator. I use it many times a week, every week.
3. Preheat your grill.
4. Cook your pork chops for 10 minutes or so on each side, using tongs to transfer and turn your meat (never use a fork!)… time will vary, or course, depending on the thickness of your pork chops.
5. Test internal temperature and remove from heat when meat is 145 degrees internally. (this is the one I use so I know for sure.)
6. Let your meat rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting into it, to let the juices redistribute, giving you more tender, juicy pork chops.

 

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“He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9

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Other Recipes & Tips You’ll Love:

How to Cook Pork Steaks (my personal favorite)

Country Style Pork Ribs (oh. so. good!)

How to Bake with Maple Syrup (seriously. You need to know this!)

All my Favorite Tools in my Farmhouse Kitchen (the things I wouldn’t want to live without)

 

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me (with the hashtag #simpleDIYkombucha) on ig to show me your delicious pork meals @souly.rested.

 

Pin this for later!

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

Want Some Amazing Pork Recipes?

Sign up for my weekly-ish encouragement in your inbox and I have some of my favorite pork recipes waiting for you to download instantly. It will take you one hot second and those recipes will be on their way to you… Just type in your email right here –>

The post How to Cook Pork Chops so They Don’t Dry Out first appeared on Souly Rested.

We are nearing the end of our second year of raising and processing our own pasture-raised pork (more about processing pigs here) and wow does it feel good to be able to call ourselves “pig farmers.”

We’ve learned a lot these past two years…

How to Raise Pigs on Pasture

If you’re just starting out on the exciting adventure of raising your own pork, your first step will probably be choosing your pig breed.

Choosing What Pig Breed to Raise

Things you may want to consider when choosing what pig breed (or crossbreed) to raise:

SIZE

You may want smaller sized, to be easier to control, or larger, for more food when processed.

AGE AT MATURITY

Different breeds mature at different rates. The longer a pig takes to reach market weight, the more feed it will consume, which of course increases the cost of the average meal you’re putting on your family’s table. Also, if you live in a climate, like we do, with a short summer season, there’s great advantage to growing your pigs out before cold weather sets in. During cold months, pigs eat more and conserve all their energy to stay warm and they won’t put on weight, which means higher feed costs and less meat in your freezer.

TEMPERMENT

If you have small children you may want to search out the calmest, friendliest breeds.

FORAGING ABILITY

Two benefits to pigs who forage well? You spend less money in pig food and the meat is improved in flavor. A few breeds that are known to excel at foraging: Berkshire, Tamworth, Mulefoot, and Choctaw. But keep in mind that pigs, in general, are great foragers.

MEAT FLAVOR

Believe it or not, there is a slight difference in taste among breeds. You may want to consider a heritage breed if you prefer a distinct meat flavor. Bonus, you’ll be helping to preserve the blood lines.

ENVIRONMENT PREFERENCES

It’s especially important to know the breed is well suited to your climate.

What breed of pig do we raise on pasture?

We choose to raise a crossbreed. The piglet survival rate and growth is excellent with many crossbreeds and, in short, cross breeding can produce heartier, healthier offspring with fewer health issues.

Yorkshire/Landrace/Duroc crosses are very successful for us, here in New England.

Raising Pigs on Pasture–What Works Well

Three things come to mind that we did right out of the box that worked very well for us:

How to Introduce Pigs to Electric Fencing

We gradually introduced the piglets to the electric fencing.

The first week, we put the piglets inside a cattle fencing area we had set up. Week two, we installed electric fencing inside the cattle fencing.

This way, when they got zapped they had to respond by backing away, since the fencing was on the other side. If we just installed the electric fencing from the beginning (without a cattle fencing barrier outside the electric) they would quickly learn (pigs are smart) that they can push through the zap of pain and be on the other side.

But by the time they are a month old, we can have a much larger pasture area ready for them to free-range that is completely surrounded by only electric fencing. Since they learned to back up when they feel (or just smell) the electric, they never test the boundaries.

This way it’s easy for us to take them to new pasture or wooded area whenever they’ve exhausted their food supply or we just want another area cleared. (Pigs are amazing at clearing a field. More on this below.)

How to Feed Pigs on Pasture, Automatically

We set up a 2-bin auto feeder. All we had to do was check in on how filled it was a few times a week and the food stays nice and dry yet the pigs can feed on demand. This is one like ours, just a single feeder.

How to Ensure Pigs on Pasture Have Access to Fresh Water

We installed stainless steel, automatic water nipples on a giant lidded tub so the pigs had free access to clean water and we only have to refill the tub a few times a week.

Raising Pigs on Pasture–What We’ve Learned

Things we regretted the first year, that we improved this year:

Keep Close Tabs on Food Costs

This spring when we brought home the piglets, I told Bill I was going to keep close track, from day 1, of all our expenses. So I have been the keeper of receipts, but Bill knows his proclivity to loose those little annoying slips of paper, so he had a backup plan. He kept every single bag after emptying out the food and just sat down this afternoon and counted them.

All 123 bags.

So it cost us $2,140 in food for our 5 pigs this year.

It will be good to know, for our own purposes, exactly what each pound of meat in our freezers is costing us.

In addition, family members who are eager to cover the costs for raising 1/2 pig can do so accurately when we load up a few shelves of their freezers with delicious farm-raised meat.

We will also have a better gauge to judge if we’re getting the fair end of the deal if we trade meat cuts with other local farmers, such as my friend who raises sheep, another who has cattle, and a hunter friend who would love to trade pork for venison.

Use the Pigs to Clear Wooded Areas

We had every intention of doing this the first year, but honestly those first 6 months we had pigs on the farm flew by and we kept saying, “we need to try to move the pigs soon,” and “soon” never came.

But they are great at rooting up unwanted shrubs and brush and sticker bushes and they happily cleared a large area of our woods this year.

The best part? Foraging keeps the pigs super happy. Happy pigs means happy future bacon, right?

Source Your Pig Grain in Bulk

Don’t know why we didn’t even think of this the first time around, but when our pigs were full-size last year we were feeding the 3 of them almost a bag of food a day. That’s a lot of runs to Tractor Supply and too much money.

Sadly, in our area, in central New Hampshire, after a few months of researching we couldn’t find a bulk source for our pig grain. We were hoping to go fill up our truck bed with loose grain and store it on our farm, hoping to save a lot of money and trips to Tractor Supply.

The only option we found like this was actually more expensive than the route we went, which was a bulk order from Tractor Supply. We saved a buck or two per bag and only had to make one trip. Mind you, that was one loaded pickup bed, and a lot of work unloading it into the barn when we got home, but it was well worth it.

Answers to your questions about pasture raised pigs…

A few common questions I get…

How long does it take to pasture raise a pig?

The crossbreed we raise takes 5-6 months until it’s full grown and ready for processing. Read more here about how to process pigs at home. But the answer to this question varies, depending on the breed and many other factors. In general, in 7 months, under average circumstances, a pasture-raised pig will be full-grown.

How many acres do you need per pig to pasture?

Pigs are amazing animals how well they can thrive and content they can be in a rather small area. Don’t let amount of land intimidate you or keep you from trying your had at raising pigs. If you only have a small area for them, plan on supplementing their diet with a lot of table scraps (local grocery stores or food banks will often give pig farmers their expired foods).

Will pigs destroy pasture?

Pigs are amazing at clearing land. If you have an overgrown field or even a wooded area you need to clear, pigs will do the work for you. They quickly root up all grass and underbrush and eat all plants and small shrubs. Bonus, foraging is enrichment activity for them and makes for very happy pigs (which leads to better tasting meat for your freezer).

But they don’t “destroy” a pretty pasture, in the sense that one year later you will never know they were there and your pasture will be lush and green again after you have moved the pigs on to another area.

Can you raise pigs on just pasture?

Growing pigs need lots of protein. While the nuts and underbrush of a forest, or lush grass and plants of a field, that they are allowed to graze in are very good for them, you will need to give them free choice of a high-quality grain, to make sure they’re getting their protein they need.

Some PIG highlights on my instagram that you may like:

This highlight shows us brining the piglets home, letting them out to pasture after they were trained on the electric, and what a great job they did clearing our woods.

And this highlight gives you a tour of the pig area, explains how to train pigs on electric, and shows you our feeding and water systems.

Want Some Amazing Pork Recipes?

Sign up for my weekly-ish encouragement in your inbox and I have some of my favorite pork recipes waiting for you to download instantly. It will take you one hot second and those recipes will be on their way to you… Just type in your email right here –>

Other Articles You’ll Enjoy:

Processing Pigs at Home

How to Cook Pork Steaks

A Homestead Checklist for Every Season

All My Favorite Homestead Products (and more)

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me (with the hashtag #simpleDIYkombucha) on ig to show me your farm animals or pasture raised pork meals @souly.rested.

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“He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9

 

Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the One of the Top Homesteading Blogs.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

 

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The post How to Raise Pigs on Pasture… 6 Things You Need to Know first appeared on Souly Rested.

I assumed every cut of meat would taste like ham, which I wasn’t a huge fan of, so honestly I was just “in” it for the bacon. Boy was I wrong.

What is a pork steak?

Pork steaks is cut from the Boston Butt section of a hog. (I have no idea why it’s called the “butt,” but it’s all the upper back area of the pig, a very muscular area.) So the meat on a pork steak naturally has a large amount of intramuscular fat, which honestly makes it wonderful.

It sits on a much different area of the pig than the back legs, where ham steaks come from. Even its coloring is vastly different than the pink ham steak. A pork steak is browner than ham, more like the coloring of steak from a cow.

Pork steak is my favorite cut from the pig. Hands down. Even (dare I say it?) over bacon.

Pork steaks are essentially country style ribs, uncut or not separated. I explain more about that here.

Is pork steak different than pork chops?

Pork steak is very different than pork chops. Pork chops are cut from the loin section of a hog, which falls behind the Boston Butt. So pork chops, very different than pork steaks, come from the back of the pig, where there is very little muscle. Unlike the marbled, muscular pork steak, the meat on a pork chop is usually quite lean, with very little intramuscular fat.

And pasture-raised pork chops, if they’re cooked long and slow, will fall apart with your fork, like a juicy roast. That’s not ever happening with a pork steak. It’s more like sirloin.

More here on how to cook the best pork chops, that are wonderfully moist and juicy every time.

Tips for cooking pork steaks?

Honestly, not only is it one of the most delicious cuts of pasture raised pork, but pork steak is also very easy to prepare. But these 3 little tips might make your steak the best ever…

1. Tenderize your pork steak.

The first thing I do isn’t even a necessary step but I think it makes the steak even more tender.

I grab a big kitchen knife and gently mark “x”s across both sides of the steak.

I’m not deeply piercing the meat (I want the juices to stay in the meat as it cooks), but just tenderizing the surface of the meat, to lightly breaking down those tough muscle fibers.

2. Don’t pierce your pork steak.

I don’t use a fork to transfer my steak to and from the grill or to flip it, because I want all those wonderful flavorful juices to stay in my meat. Instead, I always use tongs.

3. Rest your pork steak.

This is an often overlooked, but helpful, cooking tip with any steak (any meat really), to keep it from being dry and tough?

Let the meat rest after cooking.

For steak, a general rule of thumb is five minutes per inch of thickness. I know it’s hard, when you’re hungry and that grilled steak is looking so good, but trust me, a little rest allows the juices to redistribute in the meat. That’s important, because otherwise when you cut into your first piece those wonderful juices will just spill out onto your plate and go unappreciated, and your steak winds up tough or dry.

Maple Marinaded Pork Steak

Marinade Ingredients

• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp maple syrup birch syrup is also delicious in this
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4-1/2 tsp salt

Directions for Preparing Pork Steak

1. Mix ingredients together. Feel free to double, triple, or quadruple amounts, depending on how much steak you’re marinating. (For a 1.5 pound steak, I double this marinade.)
2. Rub steak with your favorite rub. (I love this one.)
3. Marinade steak for at least 30 minutes. (Or just a few minutes in this.)
4. Preheat grill.
5. Grill steak for 5-10 minutes on each side, using tongs to turn your steak.
6. Remove steak from grill when it’s medium to well done and let it sit for about 5 minutes per 1″ of thickness.

Go here for how I cook my steak in a cast iron pan in the oven with delicious results as well.

Other Articles You May Like:

How to Make Delicious Country-Style Pork Ribs

How to Seer and Bake Steak in Cast Iron

The Tools I Wouldn’t Want to Live Without in my Farmhouse Kitchen

Talk to me!

If you have any questions, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your delicious meal @souly.rested.

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

 

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To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post How to Cook Pork Steaks first appeared on Souly Rested.

Raising pigs has been one of the biggest highlights for our family of this new, homestead way of life. Knowing they had a great life, knowing exactly what they ate and where they lived, and knowing they were processed humanely at home was so fulfilling. The freezers full of amazing pork cuts have been a blessing all year long.

So I have to share some of the wonderful cuts we’ve discovered and our family’s favorite ways to enjoy pastured pork. This is the first in a new series… Cooking Your Way Through the Pig.

Country Style Pork Ribs at the Grocery Store

Every cut that I will be sharing about should be available from your local butcher, and most you may even find at your local grocery store. While you may find these as bone-in ribs at the store (which is what ours our, but, even so, many of the meat pieces in one package do not have bone attached), the bone is usually removed so they can be sold as boneless. The specific name of this cut is “pork loin country-style ribs.”

Country Style Pork Ribs at the Butcher

If your butcher doesn’t have any country-style pork ribs available, he may have some pork roasts, from the Boston Butt section of the pig, from which he could cut off a thick slice which he would cut into thick strips of meat that will be the same thing as mine, just minus any bone altogether.

If You’re Raising Your Own Pigs

If you’re raising your own pigs and trying to decide the exact cuts you want to ask for on your cut list, I want to explain what it took me years to learn:

With the Boston Butt you have 3 choices, but in my experience many butchers only mention two. They will ask if you want roasts or country style ribs (or both) from this section. But the part they don’t explain is that the country style ribs are essentially a pork steak, cut into strips. (Find out exactly how to prepare a pork steak right here.)

The roast is delicious. We love making pulled pork with ours.

And these country style ribs are wonderful. (A 4-pound package is perfect for a family of 6.)

But quite possibly our family’s favorite cut from the entire pig is the pork steak. That cut that most butchers don’t even offer…

And here’s the awesome secret… you can request that your butcher slice one or both of your Boston Butt sections into all pork steak, and then you can simply cut those steaks yourself, into strips, whenever you want a meal of country style ribs. I love the versatility.

What to Look for with Country Style Pork Ribs

Look for nice marbling, and you’re pretty much assured great flavor.

The rib recipe I’m sharing today is not the typical one you think of when you hear “ribs,” but I assure you it is amazingly delicious. I personally love these country-style ribs much more than regular ribs.

Oh, and maybe I should explain that I have no idea why this cut is called “ribs” at all. As I just explained, they are actually meat from the Boston Butt, which is the top of the pig’s shoulder. Hmmmm, go figure. If you know the reason behind this unusual moniker (or why it’s called “Boston Butt”), please share in the comments.

︎  Use code SWEETSALT for 15% off my favorite meat rub ever right here.

Other Ways to Cook Country Style Pork Ribs

Oven-Baked Country Style Pork Ribs

1. Generously season both sides with your favorite meat rub, or just salt and pepper. This is my favorite rub to use.**
2. Lay your cuts out in a roasting pan or on a cast iron griddle. Place the pan lid on or cover the ribs with aluminum foil.
3. Bake the ribs at 275 for 3 hours, or until they are fall-apart tender.
4. Cover the baked ribs with barbecue sauce, then turn the oven up to broil the ribs for a few minutes. The sauce will caramelize and be extra delicious.
5. Serve with a side of potatoes or rice and a vegetable or salad. Tonight I made air-fried fresh potato fries and a tossed salad.

** Use code SWEETSALT for 15% off my favorite meat rub right here.

Print

BBQ country style pork ribs

Ingredients

• country style pork ribs about 2 pounds
• salt and pepper, to taste
• BBQ sauce of choice

Instructions

• Generously season both sides with your favorite meat rub, or just salt and pepper.
• Lay your cuts out in a roasting pan or on a cast iron griddle. Place the pan lid on or cover the ribs with aluminum foil.
• Bake the ribs at 275 for 3 hours, or until they are fall-apart tender.
• Cover the baked ribs with barbecue sauce, then turn the oven up to broil the ribs for a few minutes. The sauce will caramelize and be extra delicious.
• Serve with a side of potatoes or rice and a vegetable or salad. Tonight I made air-fried fresh potato fries and a tossed salad.

Talk to me!

If you have more tips for preparing country style pork ribs, leave a comment below. And please tag me on ig to show me your delicious meal @souly.rested.

Other Articles You’ll Enjoy:

Why I started milling my own flour

How I substitute maple syrup for refined sugar, in everything

How & Why to Start Growing Sprouts, the Complete Guide

A Guide to Fermenting Cherry Tomatoes 

More Pork Articles and Recipes:

How to Cook Pork Steak (which is just another way a butcher can cut the country style ribs)

A Guide to Cooking Pork Loin

How to Cook Pork Chops so They Don’t Dry Out

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.  Duet. 8:10

 

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The post Country Style Pork Ribs first appeared on Souly Rested.

This article will explain our process of having a traveling butcher come to our homestead. It will not break down details of how you can butcher yourself, but instead will show you the process and explain why this option may be perfect for you.

Go here for details on raising pigs on pasture.

Finding a Butcher

We decided the best way to find a butcher was word of mouth, relying on the opinions of folks we know and trust to tell us their experiences. We then started calling all the butchers that friends (or friends of friends) had good things to say about.

We quickly found out that every butcher we called, in May, was already booked through the end of the year. I was told this was worse than usual for our area, due to the craziness of 2020. With the pandemic and the insane food shortages reported across the country during the summer of 2020, apparently we weren’t the only ones who were raising livestock that would need to be processed before the year was over.

We were elated to finally hear back from a butcher who was willing to add our pigs to his processing list. Never mind that he was about 1 1/2 hours north of us.

We knew it would be a royal pain to cart our pigs that far and then make the trip again to pick up the meat after it was cut, prepared, and (some of it) smoked. But at least this was hope that we wouldn’t have to feed our pigs through the long cold winter, which would have almost doubled our costs in the end.

Our Delay Almost Cost Us A Lot!

As butchering time neared, the butcher we had chosen told us he had to bump us down on his list. He kindly explained that the demand for butchering was through the roof and he just didn’t have enough hours in the day.

Apparently many people, like us, added more homegrown meat to their list of priorities in the midst of a pandemic.

I should also point out that he would not have bumped us down his list is we had been regulars with him. The fact was, we had never processed an animal with him before and he felt he needed to give priority to his regular customers and their increasing demands.

Makes sense, but it also made it clear to me that, if possible, we needed to find a butcher we loved and stick with him, not drive to one super far away, out of desperation.

While at first it sounded like we’d get in a few weeks later, so no biggie, then I kept calling weekly, to get a definitive date. I found out we had been moved down to January.

A three-month delay.

That’s a lot of extra pig food, folks.

One lesson I took away from this? If you’re on a wait list for a butcher, keep calling and checking in with them. If not, and you get bumped, he probably won’t go out of his way to let you know this.

It’s Good to Butcher in the Fall

As the temperatures turn colder in the fall, pigs have to spend more energy staying warm. Which means they eat even more food and burn off more fat. So not only would a delay until January mean hundreds of dollars more each month on food, but in the end we would have had less meat for us.

Plus, spring pigs don’t eat a lot in the spring, because they’re little. But as each month progresses, and they grow larger (it happens quickly!), your feeding costs grow exponentially.

Trust me, pigs like to eat.

Consider Processing your Pigs at Home

Around this time of agonizing delay (with zero other butchers available, that I knew of), I was reading a great little book, The Complete Book Of Butchering, Smoking, Curing, And Sausage Making.

The author, a professional butcher himself, explains how the animal’s stress level at time of death (in addition to its temperature and overall health) can have a huge impact on the meat… on its texture, pH, moisture, and color. That got me thinking.

Ever since the day we brought those piglets to our homestead, they’ve spent their entire lives rolling around and eating joyfully in a shady open field of grass, tree stumps, and mud.

I seriously love it that we can give these guys a good life. One that any pig would envy.

And surely that first trip–in the dog cage strapped onto the back of our pickup truck–was not as stressful on them as this final trip would be…

Getting loaded onto a formidable trailer would not only be complicated for us. These pigs had grown from tiny little pig cuteness to giant, muddy, HEAVY pigs. All weighed almost 400 pounds each, and they’re not exactly on voice command

btw, yes, you read that right. Our 3 American Yorkshire pigs weighed a combined hanging weight of 1,098 pounds. That equates to 70 pounds of bacon, in case you’re wondering. (That was the first thing I wanted to know. )

But I started thinking about how stressful that might wind up being for the pigs, the long ride, getting jostled and bumped around in that big, foreign trailer, with loud noises.

Not to mention being corralled into the butchering facility and waiting for slaughter.

That sounded like a whole lot of stress to me. And now I was realizing this would impact the texture, pH, moisture, and even color of our pork? Hmmmmm…

Things to Look For in a Butcher

At this point, in desperation, I talked to everyone I knew (and a bunch of strangers) and the angel choirs broke out in Handel’s Messiah (yeah, maybe a slight exaggeration) when I found Michael.

Michael was not FDA certified. But his referral came with great accolades and his shop was super clean and organized.

The fact that Michael was not FDA certified, for me, comes down to the fact that I can’t sell the meat in individual cuts. But my state laws do permit me to sell a whole or 1/2 of a pig. Don’t ask me the reasoning behind this… but we roll with it.

Reach out to me on instagram or shoot me an email at soulyrested(at)outlook.com if you’d like to know how you can get on our waitlist.

Needless to say, when we found him, we got on Michael’s calendar right away.

Things to ask a Potential Butcher

1. Ask if they can come to you.
2. Ask how they wrap the meat. Some folks prefer vacuum sealed. I actually prefer freezer paper.
3. Ask if they smoke the cuts, and if so, do they personally do it for you or outsource it. Or do you have to find a smoker?
4. Ask if they have a few set ways they prefer to cut the meat or if they are willing to work with your requests.
5. Ask for their cut list and if they can walk you through the options.

I was so thankful that Michael sat at the kitchen bar with me for 45 minutes after finishing butchering the 3 pigs. He  nursed a cup of coffee and warmed up in front of the fire we had going in the kitchen fireplace, while patiently answering every question I had (and there were a lot).

Because he was patient with me, I was able to narrow down exactly what i wanted (it varied from pig to pig, because i wanted to experiment with a few unique cuts. And I wanted to cure some myself and render lard, but I also wanted to stick with more traditional options too. You know, in case i royally mess up and order cuts we don’t like, or in case I am not successful at curing.

As we talked through my options and my requests, Michael told me exactly what to write on each cut paper, for each pig.

I’ll be honest. I had looked at those papers for weeks and hadn’t filled out one thing, so unsure of the whole process.

A good butcher makes it easy.

Before Butchering Day

Before butchering day, talk with friends who have done this. Find out what cuts they liked and ask what they would have done differently.

I gathered suggestions on everything from lard rendering techniques to ways to use the jawls of the pigs, and I felt well “armed” for the whole process.

Also ask the butcher what he will bring, and what you need to have ready. For us, it was a matter of having the tractor out and ready. That was it.

NOTE: Needless to say, this article does include pictures of pigs that are being processed. They are respectful of the animals and nothing bloody and gory (infact, there was very little blood and no gore at all on processing day), but I thought I should mention that before you scroll on.

What to Expect When Processing Pigs at Home

The traveling butcher will process the pigs one at a time. Once one is done and in his truck, he’ll start the next one.

He will shoot the pig in the head, carefully doing so at just the right angle so his shot is effective but your meat is untouched. The pig may flail around a minute or so, with its front and back legs kicking rapidly. This is a normal response of the nervous system caused by the stun, but rest assured your pig is no longer conscious.

Meanwhile he will slit its carotid artery (aka its throat), to let it bleed out quickly. Then the pig will suddenly be totally still.

From shot to hanging is only a few minutes.

Using a large s-hook, he will secure one of the pig’s back hooves to the tractor bucket (or use a tripod he will bring if you don’t have a tractor suited for the job).

Then he will cut open the pig, down the length of its belly and extract all the organs, setting aside any you’ve requested {(read this post to see what I ask for… heart, liver, lace fat around the stomach)}

At this point, he’s ready to get the carcass in his truck and move on to the next pig, repeating the steps again until all the pigs are processed and on his truck.

It was very convenient having the tractor and being able to drive the heavy pig carcass right up and plop it on his truck bed. For the 3rd pig it was easiest to lower him on his back onto the ground then scoop him up in the bucket to transport him over and roll him out on top of the other 2 carcasses.

Sidenote, I guess if we had the right set up, a butcher will scald and scrape the pig at our home as well, but we don’t.

After the butcher has driven away, you will have to decide how to dispose of the internal organs you didn’t want to keep. Bill simply dug a hole with his backhoe and buried it all. You could also contact your local dump and ask if they allow animal disposal.

Our Overall Thoughts on Processing Pigs at Home

In the end I’m thankful that we had so much difficulty finding a butcher. And I’m very glad the one who was a long drive away bumped us down his list, forcing us to consider butchering at home.

Bill kept saying how shocked he was that it was so “clean,” we thought we’d have lots of gory, bloody mess to clean up. Truth be told, processing a few chickens leads to much more mess than this did.

But for me, the biggest blessing was the fact that our pigs had a truly simple, stress-free end. I’m also elated that that translated to absolutely delicious meat for us as well.

The picture below happens to be my favorite of the many hundreds that I took over the 7 months that we had the privilege of raising these pigs. I snapped this just a minute before this pig was dead and hanging. He was frolicking happy in the messy mud just seconds before he was being processed.

For me, processing pigs at home was the last great way that we could truly give our pigs a good life. Making their last moments happy and stress-free was the least we could do in exchange for all the joy they have brought us.

What Happens After Butchering Day

While your butcher will have a good idea of an estimate of the weight of your pigs and the amount and quality of the meat, it will most likely be many days until you know the actual hanging weight.

You’ll pay him for the slaughtering fee, a set fee per pig, or a set amount you agreed to ahead of time, then pay him per pound of hanging weight when you pick up your meat, all cut, prepared, and wrapped for the freezer.

What We’ll Do Differently Next Time

We truly loved our butcher. He was willing to sit with us with a cup of coffee in front of fire and chat for 45 minutes after the butchering, answering all my questions about options of meat cuts and helping me fill out the cut sheet just the way we wanted things.

But now that we’ve done this once, we know a few things. We know what cuts are our favorites and what are are least favorites.

The cuts we favor least we can ask him what other options we have next time for that section of meat. For instance, if I’m not crazy about having 6 large ham roasts I can ask him to cut them into ham steaks for the grill instead. If we don’t want so many loin roasts or ribs or Canadian bacon (ummmm, yeah, no, I won’t ever say that) we can ask for him to make more ground pork or breakfast sausage out of some of those cuts that we don’t want so much of.

For our family, these were the things we’ll do differently next year with our butcher requests:

1. We only had him give us 10 pounds of breakfast sausage because we wanted to experiment with making our own. But his were delicious and we decided we like the ground sausage almost as much as the casing sausage, which is a lot more difficult to make, so next time we’ll let him do more of that work. (We used these to make our link sausage.)
2. Yet we will also want to make our own next time as well. Even though I don’t want to make a lot of casing sausages, I do love them. So I will plan how much I want to make and ask him to go ahead and package up some larger packages of ground meat for that purpose. No need to unwrap a dozen little packages when I know I want 12 pounds of meat for sausages.
3. We were disappointed that the butcher packaged two ham steaks in every pack. And these are big, thick ham steaks. Next time we will specify how much meat we want in each individual package of each cut.
4. While I loved rendering our own lard (okay the rendering wasn’t overly exciting, but using it sure is), folks have told me recently that their butcher removes the skin for them and even grinds it up for them so all they have to do is plop the fat in the pot. Ummmm, yes please.

What’s next?

This is just the first in an upcoming series about raising and processing pigs and cooking many cuts of pastured pork. Go here to get delicious pork recipes in your inbox.

And be sure to find out the 6 Things You Need to Know when you’re Raising Pigs on Pasture 

If you’d like to follow along as we were raising these pigs, check out the highlight about them on my instagram account.

Edited to Add: I saved a second set of ig stories on raising our second round of pigs right here.

Other articles about raising animals on the homestead:

How To Train Your Dog to be Chicken Friendly

Should you Raise Chickens or Ducks?

The Worst Mistake I Ever Made with my Chickens

3 Secrets Legit Homesteaders Might Not Tell You.

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