Hog Curing and Sausage-making....

Today was the 4 hour seminar on curing and sausage-making. This was certainly not as comprehensive or interesting for me as the butchering class yesterday as I already knew a lot more about these processes than I did about butchering, and the staff knew less of the details about these things than they did butchering. They stuck to very very basic methods that would have been typical of the period in northern Texas.

We ran the hand-crank for a little bit to give folks an idea of the amount of manual labor that would have been involved.


For the other 9 lbs we used an electric version


This 5lbs was destined for a breakfast sausage. It was portioned out into corn husks, then would be placed in the smokehouse.


I couldn't have engineered better lighting for this shot of the final product.



All of the trimmings were ground then rendered down. the skin was separated from the fat, and made into cracklings



23lb ham from the RHS of the sow. This was as simple as measuring out X amount of sugar cure for each Y lbs of sow, then rubbing it into the exposed meat. There was particular care given to packing the cure in around the ball joint as that is a place where bacteria thrive.


Now it's ready to begin curing. There will be 2 additional applications of sugar cure every 7 days from now, for a total of 21 days of curing time before being moved to the smoke house


The Morton Sugar Cure product. I'm not sure if this contains sugar or not, but it's primarily a salt compound that has the nitrates and nitrites already measured out.


Last year's hams/butts still hanging in the smoke house. All through the heat of the Texas summer. They will remain good for years.


spices/salt for the cased sausages


Final product. This is about a 60/40 blend of meat to fat. The casing are hog intestines. In this instance, they are not from this hog but are a commercial product.


And a sepia version to give an old-fashioned mood



I certainly enjoyed the class, but much more the first day than the second. I'd recommend anyone give this kind of class a try. Met some cool people and learned a lot.

 

Hot dang! Now we are getting to my favorite part...Eating!

 

Seems like a good day in any case. I have not done that much research on it but my impression is prior to the 1890's the nitrates and nitrites were supplied by the wood smoke and the process was much more drawn out, while still the same basic steps. . Do you get a chance to come back and try the products?

 

Unfortunately, the nanny state forbids it. :/

 

As with your butchering thread, thanks for posting this. Your words and photography are much appreciated. Shame you can't take the products home.