The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Bumblebear on November 13, 2012, 06:33:32 pm
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I am so confused. I want to make the most of these piggies and I decided forward thinking I want spare ribs for Barbies next year (there WILL be sun) and I'm wondering whether I should have a lot of mince. Is sausage eat just blended mince or is it more technical than that? I'm googling too but wanted personal input. What do abattoirs generally do with offal as we never got the lambs livers back? Any pointers gratefully received.
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I know people make their own,as have we, but I think sausage making is a bit of an art and if you want really good ones then I'd ask your cutting people to make them. We are a bit spoilt though, our slaughterhouse/butchers is known for good sausages. We get charged £1.05 per LB.
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Do you use the one in Melton mrs s?
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BB are you using howards ? their sausages are really good so you will be ok with them.
our old cutting list we used when we went there was as follows.
leg joints
shoulder joints
chops
belly either rolled or slices
spare ribs
ofal = liver, lungs, kidneys.
sausages from trimmings
hocks
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Fab that's what I wanted! Yes we are using Howard's. did you get trotters/heads? Did you get your lambs liver back because I've just noticed that we didn't.....
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just add head & trotters to your cutting list.
re liver some times livers are held back if the meat inspector condems them but you should get notification if that the case, but again you should request them on your cutting list.
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Sorry I don't get the cutting list. For example shoulders are large .I will have 4 shoulders in front of me next month and will cut each into several bits to yield shoulder steaks, boned joints, blade joint and large chuncks (not trimmings) for sausage meat ( ideal meat to fat ratio). The first time I butchered a pig from a book I found it so lacking and found myself with the large fore and rear sections having to think of all the many different cuts available in the butchers and in receipe books. These quarters are pretty big and can yield may different types of cuts.
I think that, when I get around to it,my cutting list will be pretty big next month.
I know some people worry that they may not get their own pig back from the abbatoir and others on this forum have concerns that they do not get back all cuts, mince or sausage. Cutting yourself is a real eye opener on just how much the pig yields.
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I wish we could cut ourselves, but we can't. So a cutting list it will have to be.
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Bumblebear, a good idea is to tell the butcher for how many people the roasting joints need to be, e.g. shoulder in joints for 4 people, 1 large leg to feed 15 people at Christmas... rather than trying to guess the weight of what you'd like. The butcher will then automatically know the size required.
Sausage meat is simply mince that sticks together more than normal mince, and you can do this yourself. When you have mince and make, for example, a kind of spaghetti bolognese sauce (very nice with pork instead of beef :yum: ), the mince will fall apart into bits in the pan. But if you make meatballs or burgers, you kind of squash the meat together and pat it a bit into shape, and it will hold its shape in the pan. Sausage meat is like mince that's been squashed / kneaded / whatever you want to call it, but for longer so that the texture changes to a mince that sticks together very well.
I just use the egg beaters of the electric handheld mixer when we make small batches of sausages, as working the meat by hand gives me freezing cold hands (since it's kept at fridge temperature) and I hate the cold ;) Having said that, we don't make many sausages anymore, it's easier to make meatballs as it's quicker and easier to try new recipes.
Re livers etc, ask for what is called 'the pluck'. The pluck consists of liver, heart, lungs, and some connective tissue and bits e.g. oesophagus or windpipe bits. Yucky the first time you see it, but you get used to it very quickly and it's all part of having livestock. :) When you take the pluck out of the bag, you'll be taking it out as one pack of organs and cut off the liver, heart and lungs (if wanted), and discard the rest.
Kidneys are not part of the pluck, they are cut out of the carcass separately, so just add them to your list.
Also get the head for headcheese. You could ask to have the jowl removed for curing (gunciale). We found the head difficult to deal with the first year (the gross factor - I couldn't face looking at them the first year) , but you get used to all these cuts.
The trotters will make excellent jelly.
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Thank you Eve. I had read somewhere that I could ask for the head in halves or something which makes them easier to handle and to look at hopefully! So you get all yours minced and make sausagemeat rather than ordering sausage meat?
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Sorry I don't get the cutting list. For example shoulders are large .
we use 3 different slaughterhouses and they all ask how many people you intend to feed from the joints and cut them accordingly, same as packing chops etc so they are packed to suit.
BB don't forget you might want a big joint for Christmas !
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Do you use the one in Melton mrs s?
Ruse in Long Melford, Suffolk. Been around for 150 yrs, can't recommend them highly enough. Courteous, helpful and kind to the stock. They do not provide a full packaging service though so when you get halves back, they are in a box, cut. Sausages are in one big bag, per flavour. Great though if you want to divvy your stuff up and know exactly how much meat you would use per meal.
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Bumblebear, I went through this for the first time in Sept. There is another thread on the subject around that time which might help.
Apparently abattoirs are different in how they deal with it so I ended up ringing the abattoir to ask. They told me to give them a list of what I wanted. On the morning they butchered they rang me to clarify a couple of points, rather than doing it wrong. So I was happy with that.
With regards to sausages I had a lot done by them but also asked for some mince so that I could have a dabble myself. I think that worked quite well so you might want to consider the same before trying to do a lot of sausages yourself. I found it quite hard work and would have struggled (actually there were 2 of us doing it) to do lots myself. Having said that, although I was disappointed with the flavourings, the sausages looked pretty good after the first few deformed specimens. ;D
Sally
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BB, yes, ask for the head in quarters (or in halves if the jowl is removed - but quarters is easiest). If they're bigger they won't fit in even the biggest of domestic stock pots and you'll have to take your saw out to saw them in half (been there, done it, and sawing through an animal's head is unpleasant). Unlesss you have some 50 litre stock pots, of course, in which case halves will do.
The heads and pluck can make for some intriguing biology lessons ;)
Yes, we have all our mince as just mince and make a few meals' worth of sausages / meatballs etc as we go along. Your mince may come in large quantities, in which case you can divide it at home per 1/2kg or whatever suits you best.
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I've found this which is very good! www.redmeatreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/PorkCutsLarge.gif (http://www.redmeatreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/PorkCutsLarge.gif)
And this one! I'm loving the crown roast for Christmas :)
http://www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/pdfs/fact-sheets/Cuts%20of%20pork.pdf (http://www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/pdfs/fact-sheets/Cuts%20of%20pork.pdf)
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Now that is a list ! thanks - I may print it off.
The picnic/Boston Butt are large shoulder joints and I note all the different "steaks".
I have my 2 pigs to butcher next month but today read of 2 pigs ( ready for slaughter) for just 80 Euros each. My neigbour and the master of the hunt who humaneley kills the pigs are both keen on buying the two (rady for slaughter). We could hae a massive session going on as black pudding and fromage de tete are so popular here and that is before we cook the kidneys to respect the pigs - its cut cut cut therafter. We plan a village fete de porc when we have finsihed.
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This is very good too :)
http://www.johnpenny.co.uk/cooking-our-meat/recipes/pork/cuts-of-meat/head.html (http://www.johnpenny.co.uk/cooking-our-meat/recipes/pork/cuts-of-meat/head.html)
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Making your own sausages is a great way to spend an evening with kids..... or friends. We did it with our first pigs. obviously for your own consumption but very tasty and relatively easy