No pork fat
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This is why there needs to be more information about the differences between butchers and meat cutters. Meat cutters (which I was for almost 7 years) open boxes and cut mostly pre-trimmed, subprimals into roasts and steaks. They mostly work with pre-ground products for burger and only the little bit of trim they produce from steaks and roasts is truly ground fresh in store. (I’m only commenting on things in the USA by the way, other countries can be very different.) These hardworking guys and gals make up the vast majority of what people mean when they say “butchers”. While the amount of knowledge they may have varies on the individual, they just don’t work with the same products or produce the same materials. Butchers (which I am now) on the other hand, work with primals, whole carcasses and even the living animals. Because they work at the beginning of the process, they often have access to all of the animal (in cases of plants where slaughtering is also done) or at least more bones, fat, offal and specialty cuts (like hanger steak ect.) then a meat cutter would. Often shops focused on retail direct to customers, do not have butchers, but meat cutters. If you are looking for fat (or anything else your local meat cutter can’t get for you) look for a USDA inspected butcher. Call and see if they can put some aside for you or even ask them which of their customers sell it. Especially, with smaller plants who do a lot of butchering for people that buy whole, 1/2, or 1/4 animals, there is usually a surplus of “by-products” like fat.
Deepwoodsbutcher That is excellent advice and information! We have more fat and hard to find stuff than we know what to do with at times. We make a lot of ‘food for pets’ with offal and trim and have also started saving some for bears! Next spring we will be donating to the WSU bear rehabilitation center.
Better Living Through BBQ!
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Deepwoodsbutcher That is excellent advice and information! We have more fat and hard to find stuff than we know what to do with at times. We make a lot of ‘food for pets’ with offal and trim and have also started saving some for bears! Next spring we will be donating to the WSU bear rehabilitation center.
Joe Hell that’s great! And thank you.
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This is why there needs to be more information about the differences between butchers and meat cutters. Meat cutters (which I was for almost 7 years) open boxes and cut mostly pre-trimmed, subprimals into roasts and steaks. They mostly work with pre-ground products for burger and only the little bit of trim they produce from steaks and roasts is truly ground fresh in store. (I’m only commenting on things in the USA by the way, other countries can be very different.) These hardworking guys and gals make up the vast majority of what people mean when they say “butchers”. While the amount of knowledge they may have varies on the individual, they just don’t work with the same products or produce the same materials. Butchers (which I am now) on the other hand, work with primals, whole carcasses and even the living animals. Because they work at the beginning of the process, they often have access to all of the animal (in cases of plants where slaughtering is also done) or at least more bones, fat, offal and specialty cuts (like hanger steak ect.) then a meat cutter would. Often shops focused on retail direct to customers, do not have butchers, but meat cutters. If you are looking for fat (or anything else your local meat cutter can’t get for you) look for a USDA inspected butcher. Call and see if they can put some aside for you or even ask them which of their customers sell it. Especially, with smaller plants who do a lot of butchering for people that buy whole, 1/2, or 1/4 animals, there is usually a surplus of “by-products” like fat.
Deepwoodsbutcher i like reading that. Someone that actually understands
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Deepwoodsbutcher Good information and thanks for sharing!
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Deepwoodsbutcher i like reading that. Someone that actually understands
lamurscrappy thank you
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BobbyMac said in No pork fat:
MT Elk Hunter I didn’t even go to my local food store because I had a feeling they get their meats pre trimmed.
I ended up going to 3 local small business butchers one was actually 40 minutes away. It seems butchers hoard pork fat here in NJ
Just another thing we can’t get in NJ I guess.
Ended up buying a large pork butt, but @ $3.99 per pound that gets expensive
Wow $3.99 for pork butt!! And I thought $1.54 was high! Guess I’d better count my blessings!
I am able to find specials and get pork butt for 99 cents. Also found a butcher down the road who can provide pork fat for 50 cents a pound as they butcher every couple days.
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Hey guys so I’m having a really hard time trying to find pork fat local to me. Every butcher I’ve gone to says they don’t have any for me to buy. I’ve gotten excuse after excuse as to why and they all say “just use beef fat”
Now will this really make that big of a difference? I’m making some breakfast sausage today and have enough pork fat on the picnic but when I’m making other items I’m not sure if this will taste different.
Any input? I really wish I had lamb fat available to mix with my pheasant but that’s even further out of the question lol
BobbyMac Hog is about $0.60-$0.75 per pound hanging weight this time of year, plus killing fee. You get all the trimmings and fat you need. A small half might be 115 lb and once broken down will be a lot less. That’s an option. If we are making several products we just by a half skinned.
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BobbyMac Hog is about $0.60-$0.75 per pound hanging weight this time of year, plus killing fee. You get all the trimmings and fat you need. A small half might be 115 lb and once broken down will be a lot less. That’s an option. If we are making several products we just by a half skinned.
srg158 Interesting, id be better off buying a whole hog and doing the butchering myself lol.
So far I have still searched all around for a butcher or local Asian market to sell it to me and had no luck.
However I do have a restaurant depot that someone mentioned and I just need to purchase a membership. I could also find where the butcher get their meat from and cut the middle man out lol
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Hey guys just wanted to post a little update today, went to my local BJ’s wholesale club and they actually sell pork butts for $1.39 per pound. Nice and fatty too haha. I was trying to avoid going to the larger box retailers as I do like to support local business however for $3.99 per pound on pork butt just to use it for fat doesn’t make sense.
Thank you all for your input and I will let everyone know when I start another project. Thank you again!
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BobbyMac Sometimes you can and sometimes you can’t support local businesses! In our opinion, it’s usually best to try but when there is a price disparity like that, you can’t ignore it!
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If you are going to use ground pork in this case, look for Regular (not lean or extra lean), which generally tops out at 30% fat content (in Canada); you may also find 50/50 labelled pork in some shops. Go with that if you find it, and calculate the amount you want for end product (I aim at 30% or so for most of mine). Good luck finding fatback or trimmings!
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If you are going to use ground pork in this case, look for Regular (not lean or extra lean), which generally tops out at 30% fat content (in Canada); you may also find 50/50 labelled pork in some shops. Go with that if you find it, and calculate the amount you want for end product (I aim at 30% or so for most of mine). Good luck finding fatback or trimmings!
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I am in L.A. of all places. I found a local butcher shop that processes wild game. They regularly order fatback so that they can make sausages for their customers. They wouldn’t sell what they had, but they would order for me from their source, just took a day or so to get. I think they charged me $3 lb but I use only 20% fat rather than 50% pork butt at similar prices. Plus I am trying to use my meat, not buy more meat that I don’t want or need.
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Big Game lol I just aked where you were from in another post. If you see this 1st no need to respond to that. We don’t have a ton of customers we have great relationships with in LA. I think Choice Meats was one I used to work with when I was in CS but they wouldn’t be able to do a bear.
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