Homemade Sausage Making

Chuckwagon has a recipe called Bullshippers Brats. I have a question about the Pork Trim. Normally I buy Boneless Pork Shoulder from Costco. Clearly I can get the lean pork from that by cutting in cubes. My question is regarding the Pork Trim and exactly what that is. How much fat is in trim? I have not been able to find Back Fat at any of my local butchers. Can I use extra fat from the shoulder.
Thanks for any help you can give.

Doyle

This should help Doyle. For trim you would get more class ll from a boston butt as opposed to a picnic.

http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... on/classes

DoyleS wrote: I have not been able to find Back Fat at any of my local butchers. Can I use extra fat from the shoulder.

Yes you can and also the fat cap on loins. If you are looking for well defined fat in your sausage don't give up the search for back fat.

Thanks Bob,
That does help alot. It will clearly change the way I cut up a Butt and separate the meat into different groups. It also pretty much says I can use the harder Butt fat in place of FatBack.
Thanks again for the quick reply.

..Doyle

I took a chance and called a new custom butcher shop in Folsom, Ca and he carries and sells BackFat in 3 lb bags at $1.65/lb. For the quantities I make, that is a good deal.
I did cut up 15 pounds of the Costco Butts and came out with 6 pounds of very lean and 7.5 pounds of Trim which is what the recipe called for. I will use 1.5 pounds of the backfat even though I also have about that amount from the butts.

..Doyle

Boxed pork trim is usually sold as having 28% fat, although the quality can vary from box to box. So the recipe that you were referring to might be asking for that amount of fat content. Small shops and large producers buy boxed pork trim from the packers and use if for making sausage. Lots of guys buy it to mix with venison.