Homemade Sausage Making

After reading the grocery ads yesterday morning I rushed off in a hurry to cash in on chicken thighs at 89≠lb and pork shoulder at 98≠lb.. After grabbing forty pounds of chicken thighs I tossed two packs of these pork shoulder roasts into the cart

When I unwrapped the package the bottom side wasn't covered with a nice layer of soft fat, it was covered with skin! I trimmed off the skin and was left with a hunk of meat that appeared to me to have insufficient fat for sausage. The real fun came in trying to debone the dammed thing, then I knew it wasn't a porkbutt

I guess I was too stupid to read the labeling, turns out they're picnic hams. The one I cut up will be used for sausage in the future, tho I'll have to add some backfat. The second pack I separated the two halves and shrink-wrapped them for the freezer, pulled pork maybe? Time to get to work deboning those thighs, the Chicken-Apple sausage project is back on. RAY

Hey Ray - I've also bought picnics for sausage and had to add back fat. But I add back fat most all the time anyway. Helps me keep my weight up. Those picnics with the skin on and the bone in smoke up real nice. Or you could make...picnic ham! Then when you've boned out your finished ham you've got the prime ingredient for split pea soup. So many possibilities! Especially for you, with all that primo equipment. So I don't know if I'd call that a shopping error. You got a great deal, even if they are bone-in picnics.

Cheers,
Jeff

You bet Cab, one to smoke and one for pulled pork sannys! I could put darned near one of those halves after it's smoked into a double batch of split pea soup. My wife says I like just a little soup with my ham and I always make a double batch, I love the stuff. RAY

Looks like a Hobbit leg bone to me! (But maybe I've been to too many J.R.R.Tolkien movies lately.)

el Ducko wrote:Looks like a Hobbit leg bone to me! (But maybe I've been to too many J.R.R.Tolkien movies lately.)

What's a hobbit? Is that something you smoke, or deep fry? Sounds like some kind of rodent, I don't eat those, 'cept for cottontail bunnies. RAY

I had them saw a picnic into thick slices and cured and smoked them for pea soup and baked beans.

ssorllih wrote:I had them saw a picnic into thick slices and cured and smoked them for pea soup and baked beans.

After putting them in the freezer yesterday I was up at 4am and placed both halves back in the fridge to thaw slowly. I'll lop off that big swatch of skin and brine both for smoking whole a week later. Split pea soup was the driving factor, great minds think alike! I've never made a big batch of beans from scratch, tho I do love them. I most often get something like Bushs' canned beans add some ham, onions, maple syrup, maybe a little honey or BBQ sauce. Might have to check that out. RAY

This recipe for baked beans for canning makes a good starting place.:http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/beans_baked.html

After getting that skin off, both picnic hams are brining and will be ready for the smoker next Friday. I only lost a buck twenty on the skin, tho I've skinned whole hogs in the time it took me to do those two hams, and my arthritic hands much prefer the feel of a freshly killed warm hog to a ice-cold slab of meat. I'm a porkbutt guy, not a picnic guy, I won't make that mistake again. RAY

I've been there before too. Lot of waste in that skin. Have you any plans for using the skin?

It's in the garbage can now. I know that cracklins can be made of it, tho it's just pretty much fried pure fat, I get enough fat in my diet. I like to eat meat that at one time was attached to a bone, not much on eating guts either. RAY