What pork to buy?

[soda]

I'm a culinary novice, too many years on junk food and tins of stuff. Since October I've been mending my ways and actually cook stuff myself now. I just found out I can get cost price pork through work but not sure what my best option is. Any advice welcomed and options as follows.

Loins, 5/6kg
Boneless loins, 4/5kg
Fillets, bag of 5 around 2/3kg
Gammon, 8/12kg
Lean trimmings, bag at 5kg
Butts, 2kg

Am I correct in thinking loins make chops?

[Mobile Chicane]

Depends on the pork.

A slow-raised animal with a decent covering of fat on it is a joy. Anything else: 'meh'

[calibrax]

Butts (which aren't actually what they sound like... they are in fact pork shoulder) is fabulous for slow cooking/smoking on the BBQ.

[soda]

calibrax said:

Butts (which aren't actually what they sound like... they are in fact pork shoulder) is fabulous for slow cooking/smoking on the BBQ.

I'm liking the sound of that, love it when the meat is so tender it falls apart. Looking at them I reckon there should be a couple of days munching from one

I might try a couple of them and see how I get on, cheers.

[Flibble]

I quite like the tenderloin, but it's very lean so you have to be a bit careful with cooking or you end up with boot leather.

[Pints]

Slow roast gammon with a honey & mustard glaze (and don't forget the cloves) is hard to beat.

[Stu R]

calibrax said:

Butts (which aren't actually what they sound like... they are in fact pork shoulder) is fabulous for slow cooking/smoking on the BBQ.

This, by a country mile.

Slow cooked, smoked pork is a fabulous thing.

[vladcjelli]

One of Mrs Cjellis meals of the moment is pork stroganoff.

Made with thinly sliced fillet, very simple but very tasty.

Recipe here

[dazco]

vladcjelli said:

One of Mrs Cjellis meals of the moment is pork stroganoff.

Made with thinly sliced fillet, very simple but very tasty.

Recipe here

Mashed potato with strogonoff? Very odd.

[vladcjelli]

dazco said:

vladcjelli said:

One of Mrs Cjellis meals of the moment is pork stroganoff.

Made with thinly sliced fillet, very simple but very tasty.

Recipe here

Mashed potato with strogonoff? Very odd.

Optional. We had it with rice one time and mash another. The creamy sauce lends itself well to accompanying mash.

[soda]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks, I'm a greedy sod so will be ordering a couple of butts and a gammon to start me off.

Loving the smoked shoulder idea, just have to convince myself using the BBQ in January is perfectly sensible

[Roger645]

Diced Shoulder slow cooked in a jalfrezi sauce works well!

[Mark Benson]

As the former PH pork producer (see here), I'd say it's not so much the joint you buy, but the animal it comes from.

Supermarket and most butcher's pork is from commercial breeds which are mass produced and tasteless, only good to act as a protein and which needs flavouring heavily - so if that's all you want, buy a shoulder, slap on a BBQ rub and slow cook.

If you want flavoursome pork, find some rare breed, slow reared stuff - you won't believe the difference to anything produced commercially. It's harder to find, but your local Farm Shop is a good place to start, ask about where the pigs come from, what breed they are and who rears them etc. and if they can't tell you, don't buy.
Alternatively type 'rare breed pork' into Google and you'll find plenty of places to buy online.

[soda]

Mark Benson said:

As the former PH pork producer (see here), I'd say it's not so much the joint you buy, but the animal it comes from.

Supermarket and most butcher's pork is from commercial breeds which are mass produced and tasteless, only good to act as a protein and which needs flavouring heavily - so if that's all you want, buy a shoulder, slap on a BBQ rub and slow cook.

If you want flavoursome pork, find some rare breed, slow reared stuff - you won't believe the difference to anything produced commercially. It's harder to find, but your local Farm Shop is a good place to start, ask about where the pigs come from, what breed they are and who rears them etc. and if they can't tell you, don't buy.
Alternatively type 'rare breed pork' into Google and you'll find plenty of places to buy online.

Useful to know, thanks for that link as well.

This pork will be of the commercial variety, I'm trying to eat lots of protein and at the prices I can't look past it. I'll be going down the flavouring route with this.

I did get pointed in the direction of a great farm shop a few weeks back, couldn't believe the difference in the steak I tried. They also do pork, only sampled the black pudding and streaky bacon so far and it was far superior to supermarket stuff. Planning on treating myself a couple of nights a week from there

[kiwifraser]

Thinly sliced pork fillet makes a great Thai Red Curry

[Cotty]

calibrax said:

Butts (which aren't actually what they sound like... they are in fact pork shoulder) is fabulous for slow cooking/smoking on the BBQ.

Or oven cooking http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/sp... love this

[KungFuPanda]

997 C2S

[soda]

Cotty said:

Or oven cooking http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/sp... love this

:dribbles: That looks fantastic, I foresee soda vs food and me finishing the entire heap in one sitting

[Roger645]

KungFuPanda said:

997 C2S