Ground Back Fat

Shuswap · Post by **Shuswap** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 18:48

I grind my back fat frozen and with the 3/16 plate. When I try to blend with the meat it turns into large lumps which takes time to break up back into small pieces. Is there a trick to doing this right?

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sat Feb 22, 2014 20:52

You are allowing it to warm up. Just as quickly as you have you ground put it back into the freezer. The ground meat is in the fridge all of this time of course.

Shuswap · Post by **Shuswap** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 01:32

ssorllih wrote:You are allowing it to warm up. Just as quickly as you have you ground put it back into the freezer. The ground meat is in the fridge all of this time of course.

I realize now that I ground in reverse order. I ground the frozen back fat first and immediately ground the 3# of lean pork which had been in the freezer for an hour. I immediately began mixing both. I should have done it meat then fat.

The fat strings coming out of the grinder were about 6 inches long. I'm going to take those strings, probably after re-freezing, and chop them into small bits. Lay them out on a cookie sheet and re-freeze again before mixing with the meat.

We're snacking on a piece of cervalet salami made by a local butcher and the fat is evenly distributed in small balls. I would like to achieve that.

Post by **redzed** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 08:44

Shuswap wrote:We're snacking on a piece of cervalet salami made by a local butcher and the fat is evenly distributed in small balls. I would like to achieve that.

Ask the local butcher how he/she does that. He probably has a much larger gringer or maybe even a bowl cutter. I also tried to grinding frozen fat separately and then mix it and this works only if you do a coarse grind. Doing a fine grind resulted in long strings of a spaghetti-like mass which would form into large lumps when I tried to mix it with the meat. Now when I want nice pearls of fat to show in the sausage, I cube the fat to 2 or 3 cm chunks, freeze it solid and then grind with semi frozen or well chilled meat.

Shuswap · Post by **Shuswap** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 14:00

redzed wrote:Now when I want nice pearls of fat to show in the sausage, I cube the fat to 2 or 3 cm chunks, freeze it solid and then grind with semi frozen or well chilled meat.

Chris do you mean that you run the two thru the grinder at the same time - if so, I like that,
Phil

Post by **Bob K** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 17:17

Phil-
I totally agree with Chris- Grind them at the same time to get better distribution.

I know some recipes call for separate grinding, however that has never worked well for me.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 21:50

The method I use starts with freezing the boneless meat in about 4 pound chunks and then thawing in the fridge until I am just able to cut it into small cubes this has the advantage of cutting all of the sinews and fat into short and small pieces.

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 22:18

I go along with Bob and Chris, everything gets ground at the same time after being partially frozen for a bit. A nice trick that I always subscribe to now is freezing the throat of my grinder overnight, same with the tank for my vertical stuffer. Of course I picked that trick up from CW, pay attention or pay the price. RAY

Shuswap · Post by **Shuswap** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 23:06

Thanks y'all (as my Dallas DIL says) for the replies. When I started B2 I didn't expect so many opportunities to be less than perfect but I'm finding out

Post by **redzed** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 04:16

Phil, further to your question about wanting to duplicate the show fat and distribution in your cervelat. This type of product usually has a fine grind and is tightly stuffed with nice little pearls of fat evenly distributed. What I would do here is grind the well chilled or semi frozen meat first through a 10mm plate and then add hard frozen chunks of backfat to the ground meat, mix it well and then regrind everything with a 4.5mm plate. This way much of the fat will not be blended with the meat and be visible in the finished product, but not as large chunks that turn many away.

If you are making a sausage where you want to mix the fat better with the meat, grind the fatty meat and if you want, extra fat through the 4.5 plate. Grind the lean meat through the 6m plate and mix well. Or mix the finely ground fatty stuff with the lean cubes and put everything through the 6mm plate. That way you can have 30% fat and everyone will complement you on your lean and tasty sausage,

Shuswap · Post by **Shuswap** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 16:00

redzed wrote:What I would do here is grind the well chilled or semi frozen meat first through a 10mm plate and then add hard frozen chunks of backfat to the ground meat, mix it well and then regrind everything with a 4.5mm plate. This way much of the fat will not be blended with the meat and be visible in the finished product, but not as large chunks that turn many away.

Thanks - will do in next batch. My Moulinex grinder has only the 10mm and 6mm plates

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 05:40

Shuswap has a terrific question here. It is important. Let's have another look at it and learn!

I grind my back fat frozen and with the 3/16 plate. When I try to blend with the meat it turns into large lumps which takes time to break up back into small pieces. Is there a trick to doing this right?

Our buddy Red wrote some mighty fine tricks here. This is great info and most relevant to us sausagemakers. I'm going to reiterate Red's post by posting his message in a highlight. Thanks Chris!

This type of product usually has a fine grind and is tightly stuffed with nice little pearls of fat evenly distributed. What I would do here is grind the well chilled or semi frozen meat first through a 10mm plate and then add hard frozen chunks of backfat to the ground meat, mix it well and then regrind everything with a 4.5mm plate. This way much of the fat will not be blended with the meat and be visible in the finished product, but not as large chunks that turn many away.

If you are making a sausage where you want to mix the fat better with the meat, grind the fatty meat and if you want, extra fat through the 4.5 plate. Grind the lean meat through the 6m plate and mix well. Or mix the finely ground fatty stuff with the lean cubes and put everything through the 6mm plate. That way you can have 30% fat and everyone will complement you on your lean and tasty sausage,

Shuswap · Post by **Shuswap** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 06:16

Hey CW - I beat you. I've already highlighted it by printing his advice in 14 pt and posting at my work station so, being an elder, I won't forget it. Just goes to show, as a beginner, I'm learning, eh

spud · Post by **spud** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 05:46

Experts that you all are, might I please have some of you collective wisdom.
Have just ordered a supply of Back Fat, comes in 20kg Box, expect it to be frozen as well.

My sausage making to date has been "experiemental & not as good as it could be" so my Domestic Controller tells me.
I dont agree but there is a margin that needs attention. I put it down to being a jew when it comes to fat content. So thats going to be arrested and we will hopefully see improvements that will close the "Domestic Quality Assurance Dept" for good.

I had a great conversation with Local Butcher & medal winning Sausage Maker. He offered to sell me his own pork back fat that he uses and the cost would be $10/kg as thats what its worth to him for his Sausage Recipes. he says great back fat is gold to a quality sausage maker & for him it pays the rent on his Shop. needless to say he is getting someone else's Fat in for me from a wholesaler. $5/kg. How does that compare.......

Ok so now I have a problem.
1, dont have space for a block of 20kg size in freezer space, average size of my batches is 2.5kg
so thinking if I break block down to 750g lots. That gives around 300g /kg meat ?
...................................................................................................................................
2, See that its best to keep the Fat as a block and grind as and when needed, is that still the
preferred way?
...................................................................................................................................
3, Time in freezer before Fat is not the best. My guess would be maybe a couple of years as I
will be VAC packing as well ?

Thanks Spud

crustyo44 · Post by **crustyo44** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 07:53

Hi Spud,
Good to see you posting again. Keep it up Mate, we want to know what you are mincing, stuffing, curing, smoking and drying!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did you read about the Bactoferm 600 being available shortly to us hobbyists.
If your 20 kg block of backfat is frozen, I personally would ask the butcher to have it sawn in slabs that fit comfortable in bags and vac pack it.
for the freezer.
To really make a great tasting sausage you will need around 25% fat. If you are worried about your arteries, get a prescription from your quack for Astorvastatin or learn to live with stents.
All bullshit aside, I can't buy any backfat at all here. I even missed out on half of a sow some months back.
Before I forget, have a go at making Coppa with UMAi bags or the Misty Gully bags in your kitchen fridge. I did and they work!!
Cheers,
Jan.

Ground Back Fat

Ground Back Fat

Back Fat & Freezing