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What makes our Tender Belly Pork from Heritage Hogs different? Well, first of all, heritage swine is a protected genetic breed of swine with a long history in the U.S. The Livestock Conservancy has stated heritage swine as endangered, which created higher standards for the livestock. In order to label a product as a “heritage” pork product, it must be in compliance with a few conditions.
Heritage breed hogs must be handled in management practices consistent with the history of the breed. This includes a healthy diet, access to an open pasture environment, no growth hormones or antibiotics, and a few more conditions that ensure and healthy and happy life for these hogs!
Heritage breeds are prized for juiciness, flavor and tenderness. The meat is pink-hued and heavily marbled. High fat content makes heritage pork suitable for long cooking and high-temperature cooking. Heritage pork is prized by top chefs, 5-star restaurants and knowledgeable consumers.
Tender Belly sticks to insanely high standards not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes for superior tasting pork. Our hogs are raised to the same higher standards, by partnering with farmers who raise heritage breed hogs, without any antibiotics, ever, raised on a vegetarian diet and crate-free. We smoke our pork with applewood for a sweet and salty balance of goodness and natural taste. After all the effort has been put into the product for it to be Certified Awesome, we send it off to you guys!
Tender Belly gourmet bacon comes from the ultra-tender bellies of Duroc Heritage breed hogs that are given time to mature, which creates that extra marbling for added flavor and juiciness. Then we hand-apply our signature dry-rub recipe made from the highest-quality ingredients and slow-cure each belly in small batches. And we mean slow — we give it 12 days to absorb the standout flavors of the dry-rub — then smoke it in Cherrywood for eight hours. Because we don’t brine cure, you get more meat per package, plus, it won’t pop, splatter and shrink down to nothing when you cook it. Finally, we cut it nice and thick for that meaty, rich texture we’re known for.
Try the Tender Belly Heritage Breed pork and find out for yourself the Tender Belly difference. We are here to show the world how amazing bacon should be; but not just bacon, franks, pulled pork, pork jerky and ham.
Find more foodie information along with recipes in our blog.