One of my favorites whether it is bacon or steaks Doesn't work so good with those ole Lard Hogs raised and finished on slop with 3-4 inches fat and a quarter inch of meat. Works real good with pasture and woods raised and finished hogs though. Admittedly I do raise grain fed grease bombs as well for lard and bacon
That's Pork Porn, you know. Just looking at that gives me oral urges and unseemly hungers. Oh, yeah! Fifth picture, second row from the right, fourth one down from the top... Could I get you to mail that to me?
Fat back, salt pork, pork bellies, bacon. pancetta, fresh, salted, cured and smoked, we still like the bacon, but when people craved the fat in the winter and the energy, that is the best cut of the hog for survival. Used with beans, in fish dishes, for fat in lean deer and beef sausages, tried out with the leaf lard for lard, if you have to survive, it is a very strong tool. Pork chops and other meat cuts taste good, but the fat cuts, bacon, etc, have about twice as many calories as an equal weight of meat cut. High fat content also is easier to transform into a product that will store.
My Favorites are thin crispy critters on the top left with just garlic salt. They come off the grill one bite at a time as the other stuff slow cooks. Something about pork, Char, garlic salt and Beer that work great together in the mouth.
Can't beat that leaf lard for making the best pie crust Lard in general is best for pastry crust but leaf lard is a whole different level
Got my some Fat Back curing in the cold smoke as we speak! Will smoke it for a day, then do up a rub and soak in the sugars, then broil it to build that most wonderful bark! DAMN this thread, I loves me some Pig!
Does any body still make cracklin's anymore? Pickled pigs feet? BBQ'd snoots? I actually have a grill press/weight, made for the snoots. Thanks for the post. Brings back some good childhood memories. I remember that when there was a skin of ice on the mud puddles. It was butcher time. Does any body remember when you didn't buy your sausage casings in a store? Back when you literally squeezed the crap out of them? Lol.
I still use gut casings for what I process for personal use. Not that hard to clean and sanitize them, even easier when you fast the hog 24-48 hours before killing it. Still pickle the Feet, and Neck bones and use the head to make head cheese. The one processed at the plant For sale, the regulations won't let me get the head or intestines back all I can get back from the head are the jowls. Same with the feet. I can't stand the collagen sausage casings but that is what 95% of the customers want........ Since they pay the bills and buy the toys that is what they get. My personal and errr ummm informal market stuff gets gut casing. And yep still have plenty of cracklins from rendering the lard. Hard to beat cracklin corn bread
