American and British Cuts of Pork

There are different names for the various pork cuts depending where you live Britain, America, and France.

Trotters - Front and rear trotters or hocks can be cooked and eaten in soups and various other ways including pickled in which the feet of hogs are salted and smoked in much the same manner as other pork cuts, such as hams. Pickled pigs feet or trotters are then placed large jars and covered with a solution of hot brine containing vinegar. This method of preservation allows them to be preserved without need for refrigeration until they are ready for consumption.

Pig Ears - Can be used in a number of ways including salads, pickled, and stewed. The ears are usually boiled first then they can be either baked or fried. Barbecued pig ears are also very tasty, just be sure to wash the ears well in lemon juice first to reduce the residue. When cooked, the outer texture is gelatinous, a bit like tofu, and the center cartilage is quite crunchy. In Okinawan cuisine (Japanese), pig's ear is called mimigaa and is prepared by boiling or pickling and are served with vinegar or in the form of sashimi (raw fish). Pig's ears can be eaten either hot or cold.

Pig Hocks - What the British call the upper part of a pigs trotter. Hocks are the lower part of the leg, between the shank end of a ham or picnic ham, and the pigs feet, the portion of the leg that is neither part of the ham proper nor the foot or ankle. Hocks can be used to make smoked ham hocks, used in soups such as pea and ham soup, and braised or roasted and simply eaten on their own.

Slab Bacon - A side of unsliced bacon is called a slab and usually comes with the rind or skin of the pig. Slab bacon is often the only way to find good quality bacon. Slab bacon is most often readied for eating by broiling, panbroiling, panfrying, roasting, or baking. If you like your bacon nice and thick you can purchase slab bacon to slice yourself. A pound of slab bacon will yield around 16 to 20 slices.

Pig Head - Pigs heads can be roasted and served with vegetables and barbecue sauce, with this method you get a lot of nice crunchy skin and a several different tasting kinds of meat. To make head cheese the head is simmered in a large pot until the meat starts to fall off the bone. The meat is picked off the skull and chopped into pieces. Seasonings and sometimes vegetables are added to the chopped meat. The liquid used to boil the head is strained and added to the chopped up meat. The mixture is then poured into molds and refrigerated until set.

Hand or Arm Shoulder - Pork shoulder is the top portion of the front leg of the pig. The lower portion of the shoulder is most known as the arm picnic and the upper part of the shoulder is often called Boston blade roast. The pork shoulder arm roast is prepared by removing the shank and leaving both the round arm bone and the meaty part of the arm picnic. Uses of the pork shoulder include braising, bbq, roasting, stewing, and can also be cured on the bone and used to make cured or smoked ham, or sausages.

Loin - Mainly cured to make back bacon or Canadian bacon, sometimes both the belly and loin sections are cured together to make a side of bacon. The loin cut can also be made into roasts including - blade loin roasts, Pork tenderloin, center loin roasts, pork loin crown roast, sirloin roasts (front, center, or rear part of the loin cut), back ribs (baby back ribs, or riblets), pork cutlets, and pork chops.

Spare Rib Roast or Blade Shoulder - Can be made into a rolled roast or cured and made into collar bacon. Boston pork shoulder blade roast uses the top portion of the whole shoulder and some intermuscular fat. Pork shoulder blade steaks are also made from the pork shoulder. Pork shoulder arm steaks are similiar except they are cut thinner and use the the round arm bone and the meaty parts of the arm picnic.

Spare ribs - Are taken from the pig's ribs and include the meat around the bones. Some uses include roasting, baking,barbeques, broiling and grilling. A rack of pork spareribs has a lot more to it than just the ribs. The actual rib section is only a portion of the whole spare rib section. Get to know your ribs and how to trim them properly and you will be able to smoke or grill great barbecue ribs easily without uneven cooking them.

Legs or Hams - Usually used as cured hams. The Legs and shoulders can also be used for roasting, or leg steaks can be cut from the bone. Common cuts of the leg include the rump (upper portion), center, and shank (lower portion). Pork leg whole is usually covered with skin and fat about halfway up the leg and is usually prepared by roasting, whereas smoked ham whole has the same muscle and bone structure as the pork leg whole, but it is also cured and smoked.

Pork Belly or Pork Side - The pork belly is the underside of the pig, from which bacon is made in the United States, in other parts of the world bacon is mostly made from back and side meats. Used for steaks or diced for use as stir-fry meat and is very popular in Chinese and Korean cooking where it is marinated and cooked as a whole slab. Pork belly is also used to make sweet and sour pork and can be rolled for roasting or used to make streaky bacon.

Pork chops - A cut of meat cut perpendicularly to the spine of the pig and usually containing a rib or part of a vertebra and served as an individual portion. The center cut or pork loin chop includes a large T shaped bone and is similar to the beef t-bone steak. Rib chops come from the rib portion of the loin, and are similar to rib eye steaks. Blade or shoulder chops are cut from the shoulder end of the loin.

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