The same cuts you recognise as a joint are maybe even better known in the form of these delicious morsels. Broadly, a side of pork breaks into the main ‘primals’ - shoulder, belly, loin, leg and head. Each of these cuts can produce roasts both bone in and boneless, chops, steaks, strips and dice, as well as all the trim to make sausages. On top of this, each has its own traditional use as a cured or cooked product.
Loin
A pork loin runs down the back of the animal, from the shoulder, the rib end, all the way to the rump or ‘chump’ as it’s known in pork and lamb. It’s got a delicate eye of meat set against a rack of ribs and covered in a firm layer of creamy white fat. At the rib end are what we think are the best chops with a nice set of interlocking soft muscles and a nice arc of fat. This is also the section where the ‘rack of pork’ is cut from – this is achieved when the bones are French trimmed and the joint is tied. Further down the loin the muscle simplifies into a single eye with a layer of fat, and this is where most of our pork steaks and boneless loin roasts come from. On the inside of this part of the loin is the prized tenderloin section, effectively the ‘fillet’, the softest muscle on the carcass.
This is also where back bacon comes from – if you look at the eye of the meat and imagine a rib against it, you’ll be struck by its resemblance to our favourite pork chops and steaks.
Shoulder
Our Pork shoulders are arguably the most forgiving when cooking, with the best payoff out of our range. Free range pigs build up gorgeous creamy fat that transforms the joint when slowly rendering in the cooking process. The shoulder actually breaks into two cuts, both of which are available from Field and Flower – the Hand & Spring is the ‘arm’ section of the shoulder, an economical cut that holds a combination of lean, rich and hard working muscles that suits a range of pallets when cooked gently.
The remaining section is known as the ‘neck end’ and is what most people will recognise as a shoulder of pork with the blade running through it. It gives fantastic pulled pork when gently slow cooked either bone in, boneless or even as a ‘boston butt’, where all bones are removed except for the shoulder blade, which yields in a single motion after a few hours on a low heat. We are privileged that the shoulders from our free-range pigs also give fantastic steaks like our pork ribeye and pork collar steaks – these have a good amount of fat through and hold fantastic flavour, while being undeniably soft and juicy after a flash fry or a few minutes turning under a hot grill covered in sea salt, black pepper and plenty of fragrant thyme.
Belly
The pork belly has undergone a renaissance since about 2010, becoming more desirable than the loin. This is because it’s got such a perfect balance of hard working muscles and layered fat – when it’s cooked off slowly as a piece, the fat works its magic and gives delicious soft meat as well as stunning crackling. We also sell it as boneless slices and chops. It takes a marinade well because of how well the fat renders down, so we use a range of marinades on it ready for the grill, the barbecue or even just a hot oven.
The belly also gives us streaky bacon when rubbed in salt, sugar and a few aromats. Outside of British charcuterie, it gives us Pancetta, as well as being rolled with the loin to give us our stunning porchetta roasts – when the belly and loin are kept together, this cut is very simply called the ‘middle’ of pork.
Leg
Pork leg is comprised of large, lean muscles, and has dwindled in demand as a roasting joint in the age of pulled pork. It is suitable for a traditional fast roast, and makes for great cold cuts due to nice, lean centre. The bottom half of the leg is the hock or shank, which makes for a great braising cut or even a slow roast for two to share. Pork legs start to get more familiar with the transformative power of salt and time. On curing, a pork leg becomes a gammon. If this is cured boneless with the ‘slipper’ muscle removed, that is a horseshoe gammon, because of the ‘C’ shape of the remaining muscles. The hocks can cure into ham hocks and be enjoyed smoked or unsmoked. When a gammon is cooked, ham is born. A misconception is that gammon and ham are separate parts of the animal or different processes – the truth is that ham is just a gammon once cooked. This is obviously fantastic sliced and ready to go, but there is something really magical about simmering a gammon, skinning and scoring and glazing up into your own sticky, delicious ham joint.
After the main primals, what's left?
Sausages
Sausages are made up of rich well marbled muscle and fat from across the pig, and are one of the food world’s best answers to ‘trim’. Every culture the world over has thought of the ingenius idea of flavouring and mincing trimmings and stuffing them back through the cleaned intestine of the animal – think german Wurst, Italian charcuterie, Spanish morcilla and chorizo, black pudding, South African borewors, and all of our gorgeous bangers here in Britain. The key differentiators in sausage making are the skin used, the seasoning, the meat and the way it’s been minced. Lamb skins make chipolata sized sausages, hog skins make traditional sausages and larger beef skins (or ‘bungs’) make the larger black pudding sized sausages and a lot of quite well known charcuterie. Coarser mincing only once produce very traditional European sausages like Toulouse and classic Italian, while finer mincing once or twice gives smoother sausages in the german style, like our Cumberland and Lincolnshire.
Ribs
Ribs The rib section of a side of pork is split in half when the belly and loin are separated, and this creates two sets of ribs – baby back ribs on the loin side and belly/spare ribs on the belly side. Both of these sets of ribs are gorgeous and soft when cooked slowly and slathered in barbecue sauce, and our best recommendation is to remove the pale membrane from the outside of the muscle – this means they won’t tighten up when cooking and remain meltingly soft.
Cheek
Our pig’s cheeks are the small inner cheek muscle, prized away from the fat of the jowl – they’re a real delicacy, and when slow-cooked they become meltingly tender. Braise in red wine and serve with creamy mashed potato for a beautiful dish for colder nights. The entire jowl can also be cured, and this makes Guanciale, the traditional lardon for pasta carbonara.
Trotters
This is a cut that’s often overlooked. Trotters are the foundation of the mother stock of some of the best restaurants in the world, but must be slow-cooked so the gelatine breaks down and thickens your stock. Trotters are often used in Chinese recipes such as braised trotters marinated in star anise, chilli paste, cinnamon and sugar.