KuneKune Pork Shoulder Steak from Raising ’em Right Homestead, Hastings, Michigan
At Valor Provisions, we partner with American farms that can show you exactly how the animal was raised. Raising ’em Right Homestead in Hastings, Michigan is a first-generation family farm raising purebred KuneKune pigs on 30 acres of rolling pasture. This is their Pork Shoulder Steak: a bone-in blade steak cut from the shoulder of a slow-grown, grass-grazing heritage pig, with marbling that looks more like beef than pork.
Why a KuneKune Shoulder Steak Eats Like Beef
The shoulder is the hardest-working muscle on a pig, and on a commodity hog that means a lean, chewy steak that needs a braise to get tender. KuneKune shoulder is a different animal. The breed grows slowly, roughly two years to weight instead of six months, and the Rausers feed a daily fermented ration of non-GMO barley, wheat, oats, alfalfa and beets, with no corn, which keeps fat where you want it: threaded through the muscle. The result is a deep red steak with marbling in every bite and a sweet, clean-tasting fat that bastes the meat as it cooks. Grill it like a ribeye.
Why You’ll Love It
Heritage KuneKune Pork – KPPA certified purebred herd, every pig with its own pedigree.
Pasture Raised and Rotationally Grazed – 30 acres of Michigan hills, managed to rebuild the soil, not strip it.
Non-GMO, Corn-Free Ration – Fermented barley, wheat, oats, alfalfa and beets.
Marbled Like a Steak – Deep red meat, generous intramuscular fat, forgiving on the grill.
Family Raised – The Rauser Family first-generation farmers since 2020.
How to Cook It
Two ways, both simple. Grill or sear: salt generously, cook over medium-high heat about 4 to 5 minutes per side to an internal temperature of 145°F, then rest 5 minutes. The marbling keeps it juicy where a commodity pork steak would dry out. Low and slow: for pull-apart tenderness, braise or smoke at 250°F until it reaches 195°F, the same way you would treat a small pork shoulder. Approximately 1 lb per steak.
The Raising ’em Right Story
The Rausers were city kids. In 2020 they moved their growing family out of Minneapolis and started over on seven wooded acres in central Michigan with a garden, a couple of goats and a few KuneKune pigs. They outgrew it fast and settled on 30 acres in Hastings, where they now run one of a small number of KPPA certified, AKKPS registered KuneKune farms in the country. They opened a store on the property so more than 30 neighboring families could sell what they grow and make. Every steak keeps a Michigan family farm, and the community around it, in business. That is the Valor mission on a plate.
