Opinions about fresh beef bung
Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 17:23
As I always start my post... I am not an expert (or anywhere near) in fact I have 0,05% experience, where that 0,05% was earned in the past few months attempting to make a mortadella with citric acid (not ECA), drying a salami in the fridge with no temp/humidity control and drying a spanish chorizo in the same fridge with a non-calibrated sensor (it was reading 75% RH but it was actually reading 50%).
I'm about to finish an arduino temp/humidity controller and I want my first project to be a small coppa. I have been struggling to find large casings as in my country (Venezuela) dry meats are not common (not common beyond the few dry sausages found in special supermarkets (which by the way are awful... the dry sausages, I mean)).
Anyway I came to know that a friend works in a slaughter house (I'm pretty sure that's not the right word) and he got me 3 fresh beef bung (there were holes all over the thing, but can't complain since it costed $0).
Now, I tried to clean the things yesterday but since I couldn't find any information about the right process I did it anyway and found 4 things.
1- I couldn't trim the external fat in 100%. It was so hard to do it without cutting the thing itself that made me think that removing 100% of the fat by hand was almost impossible. I tried to scape it with the dull side of the knife but saw that I was breaking the thing.
2- There is a external white memabrane that peeled off like plastic. No idea if that was necessary. The next membrane was almost impossible to remove so I didn't try it.
3- Found some black spots in the inside 2 of the bungs. The spots are black, tough and if I prick it or press it with my fingers (like a pimple), somethin yellow popped out. It made me think that maybe both animals were not healthy and that I should not use those casings, but I thought of asking you guys who do know about this. If I scrap these spots they go away but they do leave an almost impercetible black mark and also, to scrap them off I have to put a bit of force on the knife.
I'm about to finish an arduino temp/humidity controller and I want my first project to be a small coppa. I have been struggling to find large casings as in my country (Venezuela) dry meats are not common (not common beyond the few dry sausages found in special supermarkets (which by the way are awful... the dry sausages, I mean)).
Anyway I came to know that a friend works in a slaughter house (I'm pretty sure that's not the right word) and he got me 3 fresh beef bung (there were holes all over the thing, but can't complain since it costed $0).
Now, I tried to clean the things yesterday but since I couldn't find any information about the right process I did it anyway and found 4 things.
1- I couldn't trim the external fat in 100%. It was so hard to do it without cutting the thing itself that made me think that removing 100% of the fat by hand was almost impossible. I tried to scape it with the dull side of the knife but saw that I was breaking the thing.
2- There is a external white memabrane that peeled off like plastic. No idea if that was necessary. The next membrane was almost impossible to remove so I didn't try it.
3- Found some black spots in the inside 2 of the bungs. The spots are black, tough and if I prick it or press it with my fingers (like a pimple), somethin yellow popped out. It made me think that maybe both animals were not healthy and that I should not use those casings, but I thought of asking you guys who do know about this. If I scrap these spots they go away but they do leave an almost impercetible black mark and also, to scrap them off I have to put a bit of force on the knife.