Our pork is slaughtered on farm. We find it means less stress for the animals, and the waste stays on the farm lungs and stomach to be fed to dog, lungs to the cat, and guts are composted. Ken eats heart and tongue; I eat liver. So, although we are not quite nose to tail, we work to respect the animal and use as much as we can and waste as little as we can.
And the heads. Pork heads have a lot of meat and cartilage. We bring them to a slow simmer and when the meat is tender I pick it off like one does with the Thanksgiving turkey carcass. Then we return the bones to the stock post and slow simmer to break down the cartilage and get the marrow from the bones.
Today I canned the pork stock. I use a pressure canner to process batches of twenty pints. We use this stock in soups, stews, and gravies throughout the year. Here is the caner and second batch
Here are my three batches
