Homemade Sausage Making

For those folks that live on the west coast of the USA, the Savemart grocery chain has porkbutt on sale for 99≠ a pound till next Tuesday. I got mine! RAY

Ray, we will have to start calling you "Ross Hill" shortly.
Poor farmers are going broke at those prices!!
Cheers,
Jan.

lean hogs are selling for 89 cents a pound on the futures market live weight. I don't know how they can sell prime cuts for 99 cents.!

I was just to Sam's Club today and checked the price on pork butts by the case, $1.39. Been that price for the last several weeks.
I'm wondering when that hog virus that taking its toll on the hog supply is going to be reflected in the price. The news says it's found in 20 states now. Predominately out west.

I thought the big drop in the feed corn harvest the last couple of years was going to really drive prices up, didn't happen. I did take notice last week when I picked up a pork belly,(be smoking bacon tomorrow), that in three months the price had risen from $2.65lb to $4.22lb. The next time I order a pork belly I won't just assume it'll be close to the same price as before. RAY

Ray,
You guys might be following the Australian trend. Pork bellies $ 12.00 kg. slabs of ribs(dogfood) $ 13.00 kg.
Now the best, forequarter $ 3.99 - $ 5.99 kg. why else would you buy anything else.
Cheers,
Jan.

I just don't get the whole thing. This ten pound pork belly is about fifty percent fat and cost me $42

I'm up at 3:30am and have the brined belly drying getting ready for the smoker at 4am.

It's 37° in my backyard right now and very dry, I'm figuring a two-hour drying session and I'll pop the hanging bellys into the Pro 100 right at 6am. I'm going to reach a happy medium between CW's temperature directions and PS Seasonings, the maker of my smoker. I'm going to start a five-hour smoke with moist hickory at 120°, then change the chip pan and raise the temp to 140° for another five hours. After the ten-hour smoke I'll remove the chip pan, close the dampers, and raise the smoker temp to 165° until the internal temp of the meat hits 128°, then lower the smoker temp back down to 115° and let the bacon bloom for a couple of hours. I was thinking of making bacon from the butts I bought the other day for 99≠ per pound but after removing the cap fat for bacon I've got a hunk of meat that's too lean for sausage. What's done is done, tomorrow breakfast will be better than todays. RAY