It's amazing what people waste. I never buy salt pork. We have several friends that just dispose of the fat slabs from pigs, so we just salt it down and share. Likewise the small pieces of fat-we try it out for lard to fry donuts. Oh the cholesterol!!
>>>if company comes unexpectedly,<<<
Hmmm Maine - 7 1/2 hours drive... but for Mincemeat, I just might make that trip!!! (I usually make some and can it) The rest of the family ‘tolerate’ it, but I love it! So, when I make a mincemeat pie, they eat a thin sliver each and I eat the rest! Well, not all at one sitting - usually finish it off for breakfast the next morning - Now that’s the way to start the day!!!
>>>>It’s amazing what people waste.<<<<
I know... I usually do 9 or 10 chickens at a time, and it takes me two days. But when I am through, I have 2 cases canned, livers in a package, take de-boned scraps, gizzards and a couple of livers and make chicken scrapple - Get about 16 pounds of that - then I can the broth for cooking veggies and for soups. Feathers, innards, bones and feet go to the chipper/shredder for the compost pile. I know they say not to put meat scraps in compost, but that is the way the commercial chicken farms dispose of theirs regularly. Works great, and I have never had a problem with it.
>>>>Oh the cholesterol!!<<<<
Sometimes I think that cholesterol hype is just that... I eat about 4 eggs a day and my cholesterol is LOWER than it was before. LDL is lower and HDL (the good kind) is higher. Lard is absolutely fantastic for cooking! I cannot eat a french fry from McDonald’s - can’t get past the rancid tallow smell (at least that’s what it seems to me).
I really need to get my wife to reconsider on having a couple of pigs. She isn’t too keen on them, but they would certainly fill a void in my preparedness - AND you can use just about everything but the Squeal. Plus, I miss the lard for cooking, the hams, pork sausage (even though I make venison sausage and am going to do chicken sausage from the next batch) but most of all, I miss a nice slab of smoked bacon... where you can slice it to the thickness you want. Mmmmm Good!
I used to have my deer done at a butcher shop, but they keep going higher and higher in price and you get less and less meat, so this year I went back to doing it all myself. My wife was amazed - couldn’t believe I knew how to do all that... (grin) Gotta keep her surprised... (it’s fun)