Making the most with what I've got?

[AlyM]

Good morning y'all.

I've been slowly but surely going through all the meat we processed last week. Prior to deboning, here's what we had

• Fat: 16 pounds, 10.2 ounces
• Spine: 27 pounds, 8.45 ounces
• Back legs: 16 pounds, 4.25 ounces
• Front legs: 8 pounds, 12.35 ounces
• Organ: 9 pounds, 9 ounces
• Necks: 9 pounds, 1 ounce

After deboning, it came up to 33# (not including organ meat and fat) of meat. I cooked 3/4ths of the bones (the rest will be ground whole, raw, for cat food) and pulled the bits of meat off to get 5# cooked meat that I think I can toss in to boudin. I took about 7# out to make tasso, which leaves (let's give a generous rounding down) 25#. Tasso is now curing in the fridge.

I'd like to make 3 things: 1. Boudin; 2. Smoked Sausage; 3. A *small* batch of breakfast sausage, with EXTRA fat.

I've cut up the meat into chunks, rinsed it, and stuck it in the freezer on pans to get a little solidity to them and then I'll toss them in the grinder. But I'm hung up on how to divide this up... I could add a few more # of meat by grabbing some of my pork stew meat in the freezer and adding to it, but I have 5 x 5# rolls of 80/20 ground beef I picked up on clearance that I was going to make into cat food. I know some sausages have beef in them too. I'd love more info on that. I'd also like to see any recommendations for a mild breakfast sausage, mom asked me to make a little for her. She's on the carnivore diet and she loves the breakfast sausage patties and links (not in casings) and wants me to add a bit of extra fat into it to help her gain extra fat in the diet (she's not a fan of butter bites, ew).

I'm a science nerd to if you wanna share articles with me to teach me about the different types of meat, fat percentages, and why's of what you do, I'd love to read them. Anyways, off to go chop up veggies. Thanks in advanced.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Welcome to the forum.

First thing I would recommend is a book
“Home production of quality meats and sausages “ by Stanley Marianski. Very comprehensive read on all things meats and sausage as well as curing, the hows and whys as well as the what’s are all covered along with a lot of recipes.

My Cumberland breakfast sausage is popular and very delicious, you can mix it up 70/30 for patties just fine.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/more-cumberland-sausage.326035/

Otherwise if you use the search function at the top right of the main screen (magnifying glass icon) there are lots of other breakfast sausage recipes to read through.

Always ask any specific questions you may have and many fine folks here will chime in to help you.

 

[chef k-dude]

Hello! I like detailed folks! Your biggest challenge is going to be the boudin. I worked for a couple years to develop a recipe that is pretty good. I plan to share it here at some point, but it's a LOT of work for maybe a 6lb yield. I only make it once in a while and the wife and I will eat it maybe once every 3 weeks for lunch and regard it as a "special treat". In lousinanna they sell the stuff everywhere, like gas stations. The recipes are all over the board.

I'm not a Lousianian, my experiences are having different brands shipped and also a Cajun transplant buddy who used to bring boudin back when he visited family. Few people in Virginia have a clue what the stuff is.

In my opinion the best I ever had is Don's Specialty Meats, but even them, the last batch I got wasn't quite as awesome as prior orders, AND shipping has gotten insanely expensive. So I reluctantly broke out my recipe which is geared to try to replicate Don's. It's a LOT of text and a two day recipe/method for me.

 

[AlyM]

I've finished making the breakfast sausage.. I found a jimmy dean's seasoning copy on here and mom said that she liked JD's so I figured I'd go with that. Mixed up 6#, took out 2# to give to a friend, then added 1# extra fat to mom's .

Tasso is done now, I put it on the smoker FAR too late at night... I go to bed early, but my husband stays up late, so I made him tend to the smoker until he went to bed after 2AM, I got up at 5, bumped the temp up to finish it really quickly, and took it off a few minutes ago. It's almost black from smoke, it's going to be good.

I keep trying to make the boudin and have to remind myself I need to do the sausage first because it has to go on the smoker, the boudin doesn't... I need to get it in early so that I'm not tending to it at night or in the morning tomorrow, I've got to work tomorrow.

I found a thread on here asking about how a sausage was made and read through the whole thing because I realized that they were talking about my husband's family... I let my husband know and he said he had to call his cousin because that was his cousin's paw paw that owned the little store. His cousin would be proud that people loved their food. I told him to ask if his cousin knows any of the family recipes... I'm trying to learn how to recreate a lot of his family recipes because he doesn't know them but he misses the good stuff... except, when I followed a recipe from his uncle, I about died it was so SPICY. That man liked it HOT! He offered that if we ever feel like it, we can come down and he'll teach me. I should take him up on that offer one day. He told me my little smoke box wasn't enough to make good sausage, but I disagree, it's small but it can make great stuff in small batches. I can't build a massive smokehouse like he has, LOL.

For the next time, I'll check out the book and see what I can learn , and as always, decide how I feel about the recipes I followed this time and tweak as I go. Thanks