Hog Butchering: Offal List

Well, I couldn't find this listed anywhere on the Web, so I compiled my own list. 

These are my requests to the butcher who is processing a pig for us.  I included diagrams (unattached), so he could see where the parts are.  We'll see whether I get what I want. He's only used to cutting meat, so this is a lesson for him and I expect him to charge us for his education. Large animal dissection is not an easy thing when you are up to your ears in guts and have little ideas what you're looking for. In addition to his finding the parts, he'll have to process, cut, vacuum pack and label them.

Pork parts, each item vacuum packed, labeled, as noted:

·      Head:    Split in half, packed separately

Ears, cut off, packed together

Tongue, deeply cut

Brain, halves packed separately

·      Feet, packed in pairs

·      Hocks, with scraped skin

·      Tail, skinned

·      Skirts/diaphragm, both thin and thick, and pads, in medium portions

·      Trimmings not used for sausage

·      Bones, all, un-scraped, in medium sized bundles, large bones split and/or cut into pot sizes

·      Fat, all, whatever is not needed for sausage, in medium sized portions

·      Caul fat, in small, ±1 foot, portions (also called lace fat, wrapped around organs)

·      Skin, scraped of hair and packed in medium sized amounts

·      Organ meats, packed separately by type, labeled:

o  Thyroid: at neck, below voice box, one on either side of, and bridging, bronchia, dark colored, see diagrams

o  Pancreas, if large, pack in lobes: long, dark, crossways of the body, under liver at the stomach toward the spine and kidneys, see diagrams,

o  Spleen, cut in medium sizes, packed separately: a long, dark, organ, wrapped around and under stomach, see diagrams

o  Thymus, not usually found in adults: two smallish, dark organs, beside the bronchia or in the front of the chest just under the ribs, see diagrams

o  Liver, unsliced, packed in lobes

o  Kidneys, one per pack, two if small

o  Heart, whole

o  Lungs, without bronchia, cut in lobes, packed separately

o  Stomach, packed in medium portions

o  Testicles or uterus and ovarian structures

o  Penis

o  Blood, coagulated, in quarts/half gal portions, in blocks or large cups

o  Tripe, cleaned, packed in medium portions