Makin Bacon

[user.69169]

Seem like if you smart enough to ask you just ignorant not dumb.

Maybe dis help you out

 

[TnAndy]

Dumb city brought up boy here with a dumb question. What part of the pig is used for bacon. I have cut up deer for meat, and buy a side of cow from a butcher, but never thought about where bacon comes from. Glad you guys got a laugh on me. LOL. Jon

Never know until you ask, Jon, and nobody born knowing it all ! I didn't grow up around butchering on the farm like a lot of folks here, but learned what little I know by simply jumping in.....oh, and I AM a graduate of YouTube university....ahahhaaaaa

From a half of a pig split down the backbone, there are 3 "primal" cuts....the front primal cut is between the 4th and 5th rib counting back from the head has the front leg/shoulder, etc. The next primal is the center section containing the rest of the ribs, the back loin, etc. The last primal on a side is the back section of the back leg, where the large ham comes from.

Here is a pic of that center primal....a whole loin including the belly which is what makes up bacon. This pic is looking at the top of the backbone, the right side is the front end of the pig, the left the back leg.

Same loin section, viewed from the end where the front primal is separated. Look under the ribs and you can sorta recognize that 'bacon look' in this cross section cut

Here is the other end of that same loin primal, removing the 'tenderloin' that lays inside the backbone. On a cow, that is often left intact and when steaks like Porterhouse or T-bone are cut, that portion is the smaller pc of meat to the side of the T in the bone. You could do the same to a pig, but it would make a heck of a big pork chop, and is traditionally cut out hole like I'm doing in the pic. We then slice it into thin cross pcs for frying or left whole as a very tender roast if big enough.

Once that's removed, I saw down the ribs couple inches below the top of the spine and cut out the whole top loin. That can be deboned with knife to make a whole, boneless loin you cut into chops or roasts + "baby back" ribs you get from the leftover short spine/rib pc. I usually leave my loin whole, and saw out chops with bone in, cook on the grill, and the dogs enjoy the bone.

Bone in chops + roasts from the "sirloin" end which is the end toward the back.

What you're left with is the belly section with the rest of the ribs still attached. You work the knife between the ribs and belly, filleting out the "spare" ribs as a whole plate, leaving the boneless belly section to be trimmed up and cured into bacon.

 

[civilian]

Thanks, TnAndy. Butchering a deer and pig is similar, so I can follow along with your description. Jon

 

[tallyho8]

I had never paid attention to the pre-cooked bacon in the stores until I read this thread. Since I love BLTs for breakfast and am cooking challenged, I thought it might be a great idea for those mornings when my wife likes to sleep late and I want my BLT. I bought a pack to try out and was quite surprised that it came out crispy when heated a few seconds in the microwave and actually tasted pretty good. :licking:

Now she can sleep late and i can have my BLT too. :thumbsup:

Amazing the things you can learn in a tractor forum.

 

[Richard]

All this time I thought bacon came from down isle 4 in the meat section.

 

[ponytug]

Wonderful postings! Thanks so much for sharing.

All the best,

Peter

 

[old and tired]

Wondering why you don't vacuum seal the uncook bacon? Use Parchment paper between serving sizes.

 

[TnAndy]

Wondering why you don't vacuum seal the uncook bacon? Use Parchment paper between serving sizes.

Could do that, but by pre-cooking, you remove a lot of the fat you would be leaving in uncooked bacon. That fat tends to go rancid, even in the freezer, after 6-9mo is our experience.

Since I'm killing two pigs, we'll end up with around 45-50lbs of bacon. Canning it reduces space taken up in freezer PLUS lasts much longer. We'll probably skip a year of pig raising next year, so I want to have bacon until the following year when we'll raise two again.

From my first post: "27lbs of raw slab bacon reduces to 16 pint jars of 8oz each or about 8lbs of 3/4 cooked bacon."