How we butcher our free range pork
You may have heard us use ‘nose to tail philosophy’ or ‘carcass balancing’. These terms mean that we believe in making the very best out of every carcass that our butchers are presented with. For example, we know that our loin chops and ribs sell much faster than our mince and Boston butt. Therefore, it is our priority to make sure that we do not stock out of our speedier moving cuts, of which only so many kilos can be obtained from one pig, whilst not overloading ourselves with the slower moving cuts. It's all about balance, you see!
Transparency
We believe in transparency within everything we do to produce the pork you consume from us. That is why we are openly explaining and asking you to help us balance our carcass and allow us to fulfil our ‘nose to tail philosophy’.
The different cuts and products obtained from a pork carcass are tremendously versatile. From our range of sausages and bacon to different hams and then our more traditional cuts - no wonder, it can get confusing!
What are the primal cuts of pork?
Traditionally, pork can be divided into four primal cuts.
Shoulder: The front portion of the pig.
Leg: Includes the pig's hind leg and rump.
Loin: The top of the middle section between the shoulder and the leg.
Belly: The bottom portion of this middle section of the pig.
What are the Retail cuts of pork?
The four primal cuts above can be further broken down into the more common cuts of pork that you’re probably more familiar with. This can get quite complicated, so we’ll simply list where out of these four primal cuts each of our retail cuts come from. You can find more detail on each cut in our individual product descriptions.
The Shoulder:
Boston Butt, Collar Bacon, and our Rolled Shoulder and Whole Shoulder.
The Leg:
Honey-glazed, Country Ham, and our Pork Leg.
The Loin:
Pork Tenderloin, Pork Loin, Back Bacon, Pork Loin Chops and Ribs.
The belly:
Streaky Bacon, Nitrate Free Bacon and part of our Ribs.
Our Cubes, Mince, Strips, Steaks and, of course, Sausages are a great way in which we can take the best of all of these cuts to create these convenient products for you.