How to Cut and Cure Pork

Enlarge Image Image Gallery It pays to do a neat job of butchering and trimming. PHOTOS: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF

Click on the Image Gallery for the referenced step-by-step photos.

OK, homesteaders . . . here's another installment of Morton Salt's superior booklet, A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HOME MEAT CURING.  How to Butcher a Pig told you how to butcher, halve and chill a hog. This section takes you most of the way through curing the pork that results. 

Again, our special thanks to Murray J. Pearthree, Morton Salt Regional Sales Manager, for granting us written permission to reprint from the booklet.

It pays to do a neat job of butchering and trimming

The black guide lines in the picture show where the different cuts should be made for cutting up the carcass. Well trimmed meat cures out better and with less waste. The principal cuts are ham, loin, bacon, shoulder. and jowl. All of the other pieces can be classified as trimmings.

There is both pride and pleasure in unwrapping a neatly trimmed ham, shoulder, or bacon side months after the meat is cured. By doing a neat job of trimming all of the small extra pieces can be used to greater advantage for sausage, head cheese, scrapple, etc. than if they were left on the larger cuts where they would dry up in the cure and be of little value.

Meat should not be cut up and put in cure until it is thoroughly chilled. Bone souring is often the result of meat being improperly chilled or from the application of salt on warm meat. It is often believed that meat should be trimmed and salted as soon as butchering is completed or it will not take the salt properly. Nothing could be further from the facts than this, because actual harm instead of good can easily be done by salting warm meat.

When salt is applied on warm meat it helps hold the animal heat in and this heat, along with moisture, gases, and a little blood that is usually in the joints, makes an ideal combination to start bone taint which in a short time may cause souring and spoilage. Meat spoilage can result from a number of causes. If the hogs arc hot and excited when butchered, the meat will be in a feverish condition, making it much easier for souring to start before the meat can take the cure. If a good bleed is not obtained, the excess blood around the joints can easily cause souring to begin. If a good chill is not obtained, the natural bacteria in the meat multiples faster than the cure can take hold. If salt is applied on warm meat. this can cause souring to start by helping hold the animal heat in the meat instead of allowing it to escape.