Pork Cut Chart: A printable guide for pig cuts

Deciding to order bulk pork from a local producer is a great way to economically fill up your freezer with a large variety of high quality pork. However, it can be overwhelming to understand the cut sheet when the local locker takes your order. Since you are going to be choosing exactly how you want to fill your freezer, be sure to use this pork meat cuts guide! The PDF files are available to be downloaded at the end of this post. 

At Pleasant Grove Homestead, we raise heritage herford hogs. A breed known for their easy temperament, high quality marbling and their ability to be raised outdoors. We feed them all of our veggie scraps from the market garden, plus lots of excess milk from our milk cow. They are supplemented with locally ground grain. They are free to range, providing the meat with more omega-3’s, vitamin E and A and dark colored, tender meat due to their ability to move their muscles in the sunshine! When the pork cuts hit your table, you benefit from their healthy lifestyle. 

We primarily sell our pork using the custom locker processing. This means a customer pays us for the hog, we deliver it to the locker, the locker works directly with the customer to choose what cuts of meat they want in their freezer. The customer pays the processor for cutting and wrapping their meat how the customer chose on their cut sheet. 

Sometimes meat lockers use an online order form, but most commonly, lockers call and take the instructions over the phone. Putting in your first cut sheet order can be a bit nerve wracking, but this guide is to help you get it right! The standard cut for a whole hog:

• 3-4 shoulder roasts
• 26 thick cut pork chops 
• 2 cured hams 
• 20# cured bacon 
• Ground pork 
• Breakfast sausage 

All of these are approximate quantities as the weights of the pig will vary. 

We like to keep our cut sheets to be able to reference from year to year as we learn what we use the most of in our family. Some years we may eat more bratwurst, and the next year we might eat more sausage and ground pork. We eat a good variety of pork, beef and chicken, meaning we are cooking pork about 4 times a week. We use approximately three whole hogs a year. 

Below are all of the areas of the pig that you will be asked about when filling out your cut sheet. Keep in mind the locker usually goes in a certain order based on what their sheet looks like, and you will need to choose the thicknesses or sizes of items. For example: 

• How many chops do you want per package?
• How big of roasts do you like?
• Would you like ground meat in 1-pound or 2-pound tubes? 

Having answers to these questions ahead of time can help avoid panic on the phone. All of these options can be turned into more ground or “extras” listed below if you do not think you will eat them. 

1. Boston Butt/Pork Shoulder 

Even though this part is commonly called a pork butt, or Boston butt, it actually is the pork shoulder! This can be left as a pork roast or cut into steaks. Pork steaks are different than pork chops as they come from the shoulder and pork chops come from the loin. This meat is the best for slow cooking to make pulled pork, and has more marbling/fat than the ham (picnic shoulder) portion of the animal. 

2. Loin

The Pork loin stretches from the shoulder to the rump of the pig. It is the most lean cut of pork from the animal and this is where pork chops come from. Pork chops can tend to get dry during cooking, so we prefer to sear them or bake them at 400 degrees in a shallow pan. Leaving them bone-in and fat on is one of the best ways to prevent loin meat from becoming dry. 

Common options for the loin include:

• Pork Loin Roast 
• Boneless pork chops or bone-in 

There is a portion on the end of the loin that most call a “true tender” or pork tenderloin. This is a very tender piece of meat, and it is often left whole or made into butterfly chops. 

3. Ham

The back end of the pig is typically made into cured ham roasts or ham steaks. If you prefer to not have any cured ham, you may get fresh roasts, but the roasts from this portion do not have as much marbling as the roasts in the shoulder area.

4. Pork Jowl

Many meat lockers will offer jowl meat, which comes from the “cheeks” of the animal. This can be either cured as bacon or ground. The bacon from the jowl is more round in shape, perfect for sandwiches! 

5. Pork Leg/ Pork Hocks

The most common cut from this area is the pork hock. There is a fair amount of connective tissue and bone in this portion of the animal. The locker will typically ask if you want this smoked or fresh (not smoked). The best way to use ham hocks is for ham and bean soup.

6. Spareribs

There are two common types of pork ribs, spareribs and baby back ribs. Spare ribs are the most common type of pork rib. They are larger and are cut from the bottom of the rib cage. Baby back ribs are smaller and less meaty and come from the top of the rib cage near the backbone. You can choose to have them whole or cut.  

7. Bacon/Belly

Most people are going to want traditional bacon here. It is smoked and cured. Pork belly is the uncured version of bacon, or they will sometimes ask if you want it “fresh” which means no cure.  

Extras

Remember the entire animal (or half animal) is yours! You will have the option to get the bones organs and lard (both leaf lard and back fat). Ask around if anyone wants these items, or make use of them yourself! Many lockers will not render lard for you, but you can watch our video and read our post here to do it yourself: https://pleasantgrovehomestead.com/how-to-render-lard-and-tallow-using-animal-fat/ 

Ground and Other

All animals will have some amount of trim that becomes ground meat. If you chose to not take any items above, there will be more meat to be ground. On average, our hogs have about 20 pounds of ground if you selected all items above. This can be left as ground pork, seasoned for breakfast or Italian sausage or turned into something like patties or brats. Most lockers have limits on how many pounds they will season, so you may get only one or two options for the trim. 

A Note on Processing fees: 

Most lockers charge per pound for processing and grinding. It’s always key to remember that the more work a meat processor does, the higher your bill will be. It’s a good balance to get your bacon smoked and cured and choose some fun options, but if you are on a budget, consider what you can do on your own. Many lockers will cut stew meat or fajita strips, but remember it will raise your bill. Consider what you are able to do at home. 

We’ve created an ebook with all of the details you need to fill your freezer with local pork! Download it to keep as a reference for purchasing your hog, choosing the cuts and using the meat! 

Free Pork Cuts PDF

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