Butchering a Pig: Pork Chops
After the first steps in butchering a pig and making the primal cuts, we turned to the rest of the meat processing. We did one side as loin roasts and the other as pork chops. Next time, we’ll probably do both sides in pork chops — they have been amazing, incredibly flavorful and tender. The loin roasts tend to dry out a bit more before cooking completely.
Anyway, we used a reciprocating saw to cut in between the ribs, for 1 1/2″ chops, and then a sharp knife to cut through the meat and fat.
I use the word “we” a good deal, but honestly my husband did all the meat cutting and I did most of the meat packaging, meat grinding, sausage spicing, and baby holding. We were very grateful to our neighbors for having our older three kids over at their house and yard for most of the day while we worked. The kids came in a few times to watch and we’ll involve them more as they get older.
Our neighbors also have five acres with backyard chickens, and are now planning their own pig raising and butchering for the coming year.
Here is a picture of the pork chop cutting:
The bone-in pork chops made a nice stack as we cut them — I wish I remembered exactly how many we ended up cutting from that side:
And here they are neatly packaged in freezer bags:
Before our next pig butchering, however, we will purchase a vacuum food sealer to extend the freezer life of our meat — with the inevitable air that remains in the freezer bags, you invite freezer-burn.
A few nights after our hog butchering, I made pork chops for dinner. I’ll share the recipe in a later post, but the basic method was to pan sear the chops to caramelize the fat and bring out an intense flavor, then finish the baking in the oven while making a dried plum sauce in the frying pan used to sear the meat.
Oh my goodness, these were the best pork chops I’ve ever cooked.
Or eaten.
So. Delicious.
