Interactive Chart
The Cut Map
Where every cut sits on the animal. Pick a species, then hover a primal or a cut name to light it up on the chart — and hover the chart to find the cuts in each primal.
Pork · 6 primals
Jowl
2- Guanciale (Pork Jowl)The cured pork cheek of central Italian cooking — richer, more intensely flavored than pancetta, and irreplaceable in carbonara and amatriciana.
- Pork Jowl (BBQ Context)The pig's cheek smoked low and slow renders into a lusciously fatty slab with a crackling bark — entirely distinct from its Italian guanciale incarnation.
Shoulder
6- Coppa / Pork Collar (Capicola)The neck-to-shoulder collar muscle seam-separated from the Boston butt — prized for extraordinary fat marbling in Italian charcuterie, Korean BBQ, and Iberian butchery.
- Korean Pork Cuts — Samgyeopsal & MoksalThe two foundational Korean grill-table pork cuts: samgyeopsal (three-layer belly) and moksal (neck/collar), sliced to precise thickness for tableside charcoal or gas grilling.
- Pork Collar — Thai Larb Slice (Moo Yang)The pork collar (neck/blade end) sliced 5–8 mm against the grain — Thailand's preferred cut for kor moo yang (grilled pork neck) and the rich-fat foundation of northern-style larb moo.
- Pork Shoulder — Boston Butt vs. PicnicThe pork shoulder primal splits into two distinct subprimals — the upper Boston butt and the lower picnic — each with different muscle groups, fat distribution, and ideal cooking applications.
- Presa IbéricaThe prized shoulder cap of the Ibérico pig, threaded with extraordinary fat infiltration and prized for its deep, nutty flavour.
- Secreto IbéricoThe 'secret' Ibérico cut — a thin, intensely marbled fat-seam muscle tucked between the shoulder blade and external fat layer, ideal for fast, ferocious heat.
Loin
4- Baby Back RibsBaby back ribs are the curved, compact rib bones attached to the loin — leaner and more tender than spare ribs, with a distinctive arc that sets them apart at the butcher counter.
- Pluma IbéricaA small, feather-shaped loin-tip muscle from the Ibérico pig — thin, quick-cooking, and marbled with the breed's signature oleic fat.
- Pork Loin — Sirloin End, Rib End & Center CutThe full pork loin breaks into three distinct sections — rib end, center cut, and sirloin end — each with its own fat distribution, bone structure, and cooking temperament.
- Pork Tenderloin vs. Loin ChopThe tenderloin and the loin chop come from the same primal but are anatomically distinct muscles with opposite fat levels, radically different cooking windows, and no real substitutability for one another.
Belly
6- LardonsShort, thick strips of pork belly or back fat cut from a slab — the workhorse pork garnish of classical and bistro French cooking.
- Pancetta Tesa vs. ArrotolataThe same cured pork belly — one pressed flat (tesa), one rolled into a tight cylinder (arrotolata) — with different slicing applications and aesthetic identities.
- Pork Belly — Skin-On Slab & CutsThe layered fat-and-lean ventral slab of the pork carcass — source of bacon, pancetta, samgyeopsal, and char siu — prized globally for its alternating strata of snow-white fat and rose-pink lean.
- Pork Belly Thin-Slice for Hot PotPaper-thin 1–2 mm machine-sliced pork belly, frozen first for structural rigidity, producing translucent fat-and-lean spirals ideal for swishing through Sichuan malatang or Japanese shabu-shabu broth.
- Pork Spare Rib Membrane RemovalPeeling the tough pleural membrane from the bone side of spare ribs so smoke, rub, and bark can develop on the exposed surface.
- Pork Spare Ribs — St. Louis Cut vs. Full RackSpare ribs are the long, flat belly-side ribs of the pig — trimmed to the St. Louis cut for competitive-BBQ uniformity or left full for maximum yield and the cartilage-rich rib tips.
Ham
2- Chamorro (Pork Hock) PreparationThe lower leg of the pig, scored through its thick skin and braised or fried to yield fall-apart meat and crackling.
- Pork Hock vs. Trotter (Paya)The hock is the knuckle joint above the foot; the trotter is the foot itself — both are collagen-dense extremities prized for their gelatin yield and deeply savory braising qualities across dozens of cuisines.