Lean pork + sausage making = ?? an acrimonious relationship

markjass · Post by **markjass** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 09:50

A lot of the pork I buy in NZ is very lean. And yes I am taking of the shoulder (boston butt) I usually buy 1/2 a pig direct from free range farm and a local butcher cuts it up for me. Because of the nature of the pork farmed today, due to demand, it is very difficult getting a fatty cut or back fat. When making sausages I add pork belly in a ratio that looks right for the 20% rule. I have to be careful when hot smoking these sausages as belly fat, being soft melts at a lower temperature than back fat.

Cabonaia · Post by **Cabonaia** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 16:32

Hey Mark - I've found the same to be true here in the states. Unless you want a very lean sausage, you need to add fat. Can't you buy back fat from the same farmer?

Cheers,
Jeff

crustyo44 · Post by **crustyo44** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 20:47

Mark,
You might have to put your name down for half a sow with this farmer. The same problem is here in Australia. Everything is too lean but a sow should solve your problem and the meat tastes better anyway.
Cheers,
Jan.

Janlab · Post by **Janlab** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 14:28

I'm going to buy a small Berkshire sow and fatten her myself on maize meal! Will be more expensive, but worth it, considering the measly lean stuff they breed here in the false hope of combatting heart disease!
Jan L

Post by **Butterbean** » Sun Sep 28, 2014 01:15

Don't know if you know anyone in the grocery business but if you do you can get out of date bread and tortillas if you ask the right person. I've fed a few out this way. Also, if you get whole corn and let it sour in a drum they really like this and will fatten real fast. Adding a bit of lye to the water and corn will also flush their system of parasites and make them fatten fast. If the lye treatment sounds bad, this is essentially the same way you make hominy.

Cabonaia · Post by **Cabonaia** » Sun Sep 28, 2014 04:55

Sounds like a plan! Butterbean's advice is good. I have not raised many pigs and am no expert, but the last ones I raised happened to be Berkshires and they came out great from a sausage making perspective. Good balance of fat and lean.

I don't know how much your little sow will cost you, but don't be so quick to say it will be more expensive. If you compare the meat you raise with the stuff at the grocery store, you are comparing apples and oranges. The pork you raise can be of a quality that you could not otherwise afford.

If you butcher the meat yourself, you'll save a lot. I think butchering is fun. There is a guy near me who slaughters and scalds market size pigs for $40 each. He does that part, I do the rest. Butchers here want $1 lb hanging weight, which means $250 for approximately 180 lbs. of meat. I don't begrudge them that at all. I just enjoy cutting them up myself.

Cheers,
Jeff