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Perhaps what do you like? is the better solution. Ask for the cuts you get when you buy at the store. Most lockers offer their version of smoked meats, sausages etc. You can smoke pork chops etc. Try some of their samples if offered, if not buy a package of a few you think you may be interested in. I have no idea of your life style, but if yours is like most you may consider precooked sausages. Most smoked meats are many times considered cooked. I personaly just take the bacons, hams, tenderloins out and make 1/2 inch pork steakes out of the rest, thus only the scraps are made into sausage. This will help keep the cost down. I can buy the rest just as cheap off the meat counter, and cheaper if you watch sales. That being said, you are going to have two in the freezer so I would suggest you get a variety. I once got it into my head to smoke everything possible because it tasted so good. A 400# sow can help a person get over wanting smoked meat. Now be sure to get a estamate or general idea, because you will be thinking cheap home grown pork up to that point. $147, $149, $158 is the processing for the last three times at a Larger Locker. Another locker is just over 1/2 that cost. This is for approx 240# butcher. A friend that owns a locker plant tells me she can buy boxed beef cheaper than her buying live and doing the slaughter. As far as prep, did ya notice a bruse on your arm turns dark? Same thing in a hog, if you bruse the meat, it will be blood shot. This will not hurt the flavor, just that it looks bad prior to cooking. Young wives seldom want the lard, but grandmas many times do need it for pie crust. This may put you in a free pie gift mode if delt with properly. My father in laws neighborhood always had to have the hogs killed and hanging before the sun came up to make good pork. I'm not so sure the lage packing houses follow that rule. My dads unkle always shot the hog while the hog slept to keep the meat tender. A neighbor only fed the hogs and beef straw and water the last week so the fat would mix in the meat. I could probably think of more dumb notions that have been maybe proven false. We never fed them the last two or three days as they would be willing to get out of the pen and out the door looking for food. The guts would always be alot less to deal with also, that was always us kids job.
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