Pork – special cuts

Pork belly is the cut that bacon is sliced from.  We offer our certified organic pork belly in slabs weighing 5.5-7.5 pounds (2.5-3.4 kg) each, depending on the options you choose:  fresh or cured, with skin on or off.

WEEKLY SPECIAL:  Right now, we’re giving you our maple smoked, skin-off pork belly for 22% off.  The exact same freshness and quality of pork belly as always, just at a discounted price for our weekly special.  Limited supply.

If you’re roasting pork belly as a whole slab, it’s usual to leave the skin on — we suggest that you score it to let it crisp up into delicious crackling.  Or if you’re cutting the pork belly into your own thick-sliced rashers of bacon, you may prefer it with the skin off.

We also offer you a choice between fresh pork belly, which is left just the way it comes off a dry-aged side of pork…

…or maple smoked pork belly, which has been wet-brined for 24 hours, smokehouse smoked, and marinated in real maple syrup — the same way we cure our much-beloved bacon.  This gives you melt-in-the-mouth texture and amazing flavour.

The ideal way to cook pork belly is with a reverse sear.  Braise, sous-vide, or slow-roast it at a low 170°F (77°C) for as long as 10 hours, then dry it thoroughly and broil it at high heat for a few minutes to crisp it up.  It will be quite rich, so serve it in fairly small pieces, and everyone will keep coming back for more helpings.

Our family-run butcher hand-cuts each pork belly from our certified organic sides of pork.  Because our pigs are raised all-natural and free-range, we think it has the best flavour you can find anywhere.

Our fresh, skin-on pork belly is priced at $12.97/lb, and our maple cured skin-on pork belly, which has been wet brined, smokehouse smoked, and marinated in real maple syrup, is $14.69/lb.

Sold in whole slabs, and delivered frozen to your door.  Individual pork bellies may vary in weight by ±10%.

WEEKLY SPECIAL:  save $21.23 off maple-smoked skin-off pork belly, this week only.

Pig’s ears are considered a delicacy in a number of world cuisines, and also make a great dog treat.

Soul food, Latin, and Asian cuisines all make use of pig’s ears.  Generally they are boiled for about 3 hours, usually with herbs and vegetables, after which they have a satisfying texture similar to al dente pasta.  They can then be sliced thinly and added to salads, or fried or grilled with additional flavours.

2 pig’s ears per package, approximately 1 lb (454 g).

Pig’s trotters, also known as pettitoes, are often used to make soup stocks and sauces, as they have great flavour and are very high in gelatin and collagen.  They are also served whole in a number of traditional recipes from around the world.

Regardless of how you plan to use your pig’s trotters, you will need to braise them slowly at low temperature for a number of hours, until the meat is falling off the bone.  At that point, they can be served in a number of ways, including being pickled in brine.  Or for a rich stock, you can continue to simmer them for up to 24 hours.

Our organic pig’s trotters are butchered from our certified organic hogs — grown without antibiotics or synthetic hormones, free-range on organic pastures.  They live a stress-free life, with no cages or crowding.  We believe that the extra time and care we take to raise our hogs results in the best trotters you can find anywhere.

2 pig’s trotters per package, approximately 1 lb (454 g).

Pork tail (or pig tail) can be smoked, fried, or roasted in barbeque sauce.  In The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, chef Fergus Henderson says: “On other pages, I have sung the praises of how the pig’s snout and belly both have that special lip-sticking quality of fat and flesh merging, but this occurs in no part of the animal as wonderfully as on the tail.”

You can braise your pig tails with herbs and vegetables at 325°F (160°C) for around 3 hours, until the flesh is well softened.  After partially cooling the tails to let them firm up, they can be breaded and browned in butter.  Or you can cover them in your favourite barbeque sauce and oven-roast them until they are a dark mahogany colour.

1 pork tail per package, approximately 1 lb (454 g).

Pork fat is traditionally rendered to make lard, a highly versatile product used for cooking, baking, pastry making, candle and soap making, and skin care products.  A number of traditions also cook pork fat directly, not to mention adding it to pâtés and sausages, especially to give leaner meats a boost.

Lard is making a comeback in home use.  Despite all of the negative press it got over the last 100 years or so, it turns out to be nowhere near as bad for our health as it was made out to be.  It has less saturated fat, less cholesterol, and more unsaturated fat than butter.  And unlike vegetable shortenings, it has zero transfat.

Because animal fats can concentrate environmental pollutants, we highly recommend using fats only from certified organic, pasture-raised animals like ours.  Pastured pork fat also has other health benefits, like over 1000 IU of Vitamin D per tablespooon.

We sell our certified organic pork fat in 1-pound packets, shipped frozen to your door.