Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Heritage breed pigs

Last fall I bought 1/2 a Berkshire hog, already cut. It was really good and flavourful, but I wasn't impressed with the way some of the cuts were (bone left in roasts, bacon too fatty).

I'm thinking about getting another one, but will not have the bacon done as it's too fat a pig to make good bacon. I'll also probably not have any ground or sausage made, keeping the trim in chunks so I can make my own sausage. Also thinking about not having hams done as, again, this type of pork is too fatty to make a good ham.

So, I'm thinking chops, small roasts, ribs, picnic shoulders, pork belly (for the bbq) and stew meat chunks from the trim.

What is your experience with "heritage breed" pork? I really, really liked the flavour of the Berkshire and it was pasture-raised, which is a plus. Wife was put off by the amount of fat in the meat grain, but I think if they're cut right that won't be so much of a problem.

I thought the interest in heritage breeds was to get the fat back in, the newer breeds producing pork that's too lean for good flavor and juiciness.

They do get the fat back but you can get too much of a good thing. That's why I want to get it cut different.

The flavour is really, really good.

Just a plain old wild hog makes pretty good pork.

poland china was a good variety, back in the day when lard had a greater market demand than it does now.

they'll eat about anything, and lay on the fat for winter. they're good hogs, but not in demand.

they have larger litters, and the mama hogs (sow for the pc), do a good job w/the littlins.

Best domestic pork I have had came from the "Danish bacon pigs." Landrace, IIRC, were some of the first to be bred for reduced fat and more meat. They did it well and were very productive I believe.

Crates?

There is a heritage farm just north of here that raises Berkshires on pasture. They sell them for higher prices than pen raised. I have had some of their pork and it wasn't special to me. They are raised in a cleaner environment though than house raised hogs.

I had thought about raising a couple hogs for slaughter.

Tamworth and Red Wattle were two I looked at.

Hogwild7, that's one of the reasons I looked at Berkshires. They were raised on pasture. I'm not a fanatic about factory farming, but if I can get it from a better source, why not? By law, it still goes through the same meat inspection by the gov't.

As it turned out, the price was very reasonable, too. I paid $2.50/lb for half a hog, including smoked hams, bacon and Italian sausage. I'm looking at buying a whole hog from someone else and getting it custom cut. I won't do the bacon and will get some sausage made, but will keep most of it in stew meat size so I can make my own kielbassa etc. Roasts will be used for Shashlyk - Ukrainian kabobs.

These are hobby farmers I'm buying from, so they've got a couple for their own use and then sell the other 10 or 12 they get a year.

no, field/pasture run. huts in the planted pines.

eat grass, weeds, acorns, whatever and oat shorts.

they are fat makers. at one time in high demand. good meat.

I raised a mangalitsa that was slaughtered a couple months ago.

No corn, all grains,fruits,and veggies and butchered at 14 months. She looked like a block of jello when she walked around.

The bacon is almost completely white but it’s crisps up well enough and the fat stays liquid it doesn’t solidify. It really shines wrapping other meat.

Chops and steaks are marbled as much like a good ribeye and the meat is dense and more red than typical pork. Flavor wise it’s between pork and beef.

Hams are exceptional same as the ribs. I haven’t done a shoulder yet.

It’s an expensive endeavor to raise one or to buy the meat but it’s a nice change up from typical store bought pork.

Hogs used to be bred to produce the fat, because one of the reasons they were butchered was to get the lard from them. As we began to eat more healthy, or whatever you want to call it, fat became a bad thing. Personally, I prefer meat that is lean, beef or pork. I know the importance of fat, especially in beef, and how it add to the flavor, but when I'm eating a piece of beef, I always cut off the fat. The exception is in ground meat, where you have to eat it.

I can take pork fat better than I can beef fat, but I still don't want a pork chop, or a piece of ham that's got a lot of fat on it. I raised hogs at one time, and we killed one every year. I've thought about doing it again, and if I ever do, it won't be a fatty type heritage breed hog.

Back at Iowa State,in the Animal Science class I asked the grad student teaching the class if the fat type hogs would ever come back, he said maybe in a war time. Fats are used to make explosives.

And if we eat a lot of fat, we'll explode too.

I like the Heritage breed pigs we just trim the fat prior to cooking or after,That is where the flavor is . Most mass produced pork is flavorless and I'd rather have a big chop than a big steak.

plenty of chicken fat for that.

in fact so much chicken fat the markets have collapsed.

Buddy in Western NY has found himself a niche selling mangalista pigs to the numerous farm to table type restaurants in and around Buffalo. I was gifted several chops and roasts when I was up there, WAY better than store bought, and significantly better than the pigs we buy at market auctions to butcher.