Lean pork + sausage making = ?? an acrimonious relationship
Lean pork + sausage making = ?? an acrimonious relationship
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.
Do no harm. Margerine is the biggest food crime
- Butterbean
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- Location: South Georgia
Don't know if you know anyone in the grocery business but if you do you can get out of date bread and tortillas if you ask the right person.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.
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
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