Commodity Pork Belly vs Red Wattle/Heritage Pork Belly

As I was in class this morning I was looking at the bellies we had cured and that were getting ready to dry before smoking it to make bacon.  As I looked at it I noticed how lean it was and how little fat it had.  This came from a Yorkshire-Cross pig that I had cut with my students at the college.  It got me thinking about the heritage pigs that I had recently gotten in for Single Barrel from TD Niche Pork and so I looked up a picture of a couple of bellies that we had cured from a Red Wattle a few weeks back.  Big difference in appearance and the bigger difference will also be in the yield. 

Both of these bellies were cut off the hog by me and I never trim off any of the extra belly fat because I like it cured and smoked.  All I did was remove the spareribs off of each and I always cut the spareribs lean because I want maximum yeild on my bellies.

Just another reason why I am such a huge supporter of Heritage Breed Pork and the way that it is raised outdoors versus the lean por or as my friend Travis says "show pigs" that you get from the commodity raised pigs.

Commodity

Red Wattle/Heritage

Brandon

Single Barrel Update

I haven't posted up anything really about the progression of Single Barrel so I thought it would be about time.  Here are some pictures of the progress of the  construction of the kitchen.  

 a huge chunk of our china

 The new band saw.

 Walk-In cooler

 Walk-In freezer

 This picture was taken from the hallway that leads to the stairs to the hot kitchen.  The kitchen space in the basement will primarily used for cold prep and butchering.

 This is taken from the other door into the basement prep/butcher area.  Hopefully hand, prep and 3 compartment sinks will be added.

 This is the back walkway behind the hot line that leads to the basement kitchen.  This space will be a small prep space.

 This is looking out from the side of where the hot line will be.  You can see the window leading into the expeditor area.

 The expeditor station and the door way to the dish area.

This is the look from the dining room over the counter to the expeditor station.

More coming soon.