02/27/2026
It occurred to me that most people don’t know what all kinds of meat comes when you buy a whole hog. There are some variations as you get choices, but this is a general idea.
Shoulder - this would be your Boston Butt, Picnic roasts or country ribs.
Hams - you can get this cut into roasts or sliced into ham steaks. (Or it can be ground up into sausage.)
Pork chops - lots and lots of pork chops! These are the best value when you leave the bone in. Plus there’s always someone in the family that loves to gnaw on the bone!
Pork Ribs - my dad used to cook them low and slow in a metal drum! That’s some good eating right there!
Pork side - this is your bacon meat…except it’s not bacon yet! 🥓 You can season it up how you like and cold smoke it to make your own nitrate free bacon. My mom has a good recipe that we love!
Ham hocks - I never knew what to do with these except to smoke them then use them for beans and greens and such until last year when Mrs. Carol at Braddock’s told me about pork and rice. It’s pretty much just like chicken and rice, except ham hocks. Delicious! But you can always smoke them at the same time as your bacon and use them for seasoning.
Sausage - this is one of the most versatile and delicious parts of a pig! The sausage is ground from parts like the shoulder and hams, so you can get half of those into regular cuts then the rest ground if you want both. We love sausage so we get as much of the hog ground as we can! Braddock’s offers mild, medium, spicy or Italian sausage. You can pick two.
Fat - of course you can request your fat so that you can render your own lard. It’s not hard, just a little time consuming. 🫙
Why bother getting a whole (or half) a hog when you can just go to the store and buy what you need?
Well, other than me telling these pigs how stupid they are (they constantly root dirt into their feed troughs that I have to shovel out 🙄), they have a pretty nice life! They are fed good quality, fresh feed twice a day, often with whey mixed in. They’re raised as clean as I can manage. And you know that you’re getting your pig back from the processor. Oh and you’re not wasting time going to the grocery store!
All fees are included! A whole hog will run you between $1,200-1,400. The only thing you have to do is pick it up, frozen and neatly packaged, from the processor in Seville!
So…did I miss anything? Let me know if you have questions!
