Berkshire vs Iberico vs Duroc. Which one is best?

[JohnDS]

Hello, I've never tried Berkshire pork yet, but I thought Berkshire was like the Kobe of beef until I came across these other two names. Iberico, Duroc.

Was looking to do another pork shoulder. Does anyone know the difference in quality between the three? Berkshire vs Iberico vs Duroc?

 

[Greg Jones]

Of the heritage breeds, to my knowledge I’ve had Berkshire, Duroc, Tamworth, and Hampshire. My family actually used to raise Hampshires, and we butchered our own pork. All heritage breeds are going to be superior to ordinary supermarket pork, but when smoking pork butt I don’t know if I could tell any of them apart. Just curious, do you have a source that has all three, or are you looking at different sources?

 

[sdynak]

I am sorry I don't have a full answer but I recently started with Bershire through Wild Fork and very happy so far and so was the bride. The bone in thick chop I thought was a little better than the thick Coppa steaks. Not sure of the others sorry. Hope this helps.

 

[JohnDS]

Of the heritage breeds, to my knowledge I’ve had Berkshire, Duroc, Tamworth, and Hampshire. My family actually used to raise Hampshires, and we butchered our own pork. All heritage breeds are going to be superior to ordinary supermarket pork, but when smoking pork butt I don’t know if I could tell any of them apart. Just curious, do you have a source that has all three, or are you looking at different sources?

I dont have a source for all 3. I was on snake river farms and i was reading the reviews for the Berkshire shoulder and one person said they like Duroc better, and another said they like Iberico better. But Im asking because i dont trust reviews that much.
Why do you ask?

When you said you couldnt tell any of them apart when smoking them, are you referring to the heritage breeds compared against eachother or the heritage breeds vs supermarket?

 

[Greg Jones]

When you said you couldnt tell any of them apart when smoking them, are you referring to the heritage breeds compared against eachother or the heritage breeds vs supermarket?

I apologize, when I mentioned that I didn’t mean to imply that I have that much experience smoking each of the heritage breeds that I mentioned. What I was wanting to communicate was that when comparing heritage bacon to supermarket bacon, or heritage country ham to supermarket ham, or heritage pork butt to supermarket pork butt, there is a clear difference in taste. What would be harder, IMO, is for someone to declare ‘This particular heritage pork butt is superior to other heritage pork butts when smoked.’ In other words, I don’t know if, all other things being equal, that I would be able to tell them apart.

And I asked if you had one source that supplied all three as I would be interested to know if anyone does that.

 

[JohnDS]

I apologize, when I mentioned that I didn’t mean to imply that I have that much experience smoking each of the heritage breeds that I mentioned. What I was wanting to communicate was that when comparing heritage bacon to supermarket bacon, or heritage country ham to supermarket ham, or heritage pork butt to supermarket pork butt, there is a clear difference in taste. What would be harder, IMO, is for someone to declare ‘This particular heritage pork butt is superior to other heritage pork butts when smoked.’ In other words, I don’t know if, all other things being equal, that I would be able to tell them apart.

And I asked if you had one source that supplied all three as I would be interested to know if anyone does that.

 

[JohnDS]

Thank you for clarifying. I'll probably try the Berkshire from SRF. Just $125 for a shoulder is steep.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Also, a breed isn't the only measure. They still need to be raised/fed/aged well, even slaughter technique can matter. I agree with your notion that reviews can be "mixed" in validity. Whenever I see a "the best I've ever had...." type comments I'm happy that person has discovered better is possible, but without knowing what they're comparing to it's otherwise meaningless. In the end you need to experiment with sources til you find one that provides the product that pleases you, and can do so with repeatability and reliability.

 

[C. Keeper]

My animals like to be wined, dined and maybe a massage before being "taken out."

 

[DesertRat]

Also, a breed isn't the only measure. They still need to be raised/fed/aged well, even slaughter technique can matter. I agree with your notion that reviews can be "mixed" in validity. Whenever I see a "the best I've ever had...." type comments I'm happy that person has discovered better is possible, but without knowing what they're comparing to it's otherwise meaningless. In the end you need to experiment with sources til you find one that provides the product that pleases you, and can do so with repeatability and reliability.

 

[DesertRat]

I noticed you mention pork being aged. I grew up on grain fed dry aged beef in Dad's freezer, later my own . That was in Nebraska and iowa. Now in Nevada.

But I know nothing about pork. I get 30# mixed packages from a Utah ranch of beef or pork. The beef us way better than the stores and their wet aged nonsense, IMHO, being dry aged 21 days, I'd prefer 30. But it's grass fed.

So please explain a little about aging pork.

Thanks.

 

[JohnDS]

Thanks for the info guys. I have a weird question. Has anyone cooked a pork shoulder and caught all the drippings and reintroduced them back into the pulled pork? Or would that just be too much fat?

 

[Uncle Bob]

I noticed you mention pork being aged. I grew up on grain fed dry aged beef in Dad's freezer, later my own . That was in Nebraska and iowa. Now in Nevada.

But I know nothing about pork. I get 30# mixed packages from a Utah ranch of beef or pork. The beef us way better than the stores and their wet aged nonsense, IMHO, being dry aged 21 days, I'd prefer 30. But it's grass fed.

So please explain a little about aging pork.

Thanks.

Within the context of that sentence I was referring to the on the hoof age (too young too lean, too old too tough?) of the animal prior to slaughter, but I understand why you zeroed in on the term. As for aging after slaughter, I've had heritage pork that has been dry aged 8 days. Honestly don't know if that's significant or not as the heritage pork itself was so much better than commodity pork from the super market that any improvement from the dry aging might have just been along for the ride.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Thanks for the info guys. I have a weird question. Has anyone cooked a pork shoulder and caught all the drippings and reintroduced them back into the pulled pork? Or would that just be too much fat?

Some do this regularly, though what I've noticed is they use the rendering that accumulates when they choose to wrap in foil at the stall. Butts yield a LOT of fat renderings so capturing it all would probably be too much if you're thinking of using it all. That said, the best choice, if this is perceived as a good thing, is to only use as much as contributes to the desired outcome and then dispose of the rest.