The basic butchering will be gone over with you by the meat cutter. The real differences lie in how you chose to do, say, hams or smoked shoulder. Some places do wet or injection curing and others do a dry tumble cure on the large bone-in cuts. The injected or wet cure ends up with a moist product after the smoking while the tumble cure offers a drier, firmer product. I prefer the tumble cured hams.
Shoulders can be boned and done as picnics, just like hams, and are a great piece of meat that’s always tender and moist. Another idea for a shoulder is to have it boned, then bundled and cured and smoke like ham, After its had a chance to set up good it can be dried some then sliced like thick bacon. Its called cottage bacon and as far as I am concerned its about 10 times as good as conventional bacon.
You may want to opt for one loin going into Canadian Bacon. This is always a super good treat food.
I always look at a whole hog as being family food so I can see spending a little more to get a variety of meats from it to keep meals interesting. If I am looking for meat beyond the customary trim meat for sausage and brats I wait until pork shoulder goes on sale for $.99/pound and buy a 50 pounds of it. Boneless pork neck meat can be bought by the 50 pound lug at around $1.50/pound and is generally a 40/60 to 45/55 fat lean ratio that’s great for sausage making if you’re looking for meat for summer sausage. A lean pig won’t offer a ton of trim so what is available maybe should go to breakfast sausage if you do breakfasts on a regular schedule.
