Sawhorse, I agree that some of these cuts are more expensive. I'll also mention that I believe this slaughter house does more custom slaughtering. They for example wouldn't always have pork bellies available, as the pig owner would take those in bacon. Now probably 99.9% of pig owners don't request ...

Ducko, you're too much!!! LOL

Although there is more truth than poetry there, as there are several of us on this forum who do love our blood products!

Freeze dried, is that a yuppie term for dehydrated?

Thank you Ducko for your comments. I understand your situation, as it is only my wife and myself here also. Although I do have two sons, and other family members that know our hobbies, my sausage and bread making, and my wife's chickens, so they always stop looking for any extra's we might have! As ...

I consider myself fortunate in that I have a small inspected slaughter house about 30 minutes drive from me. I've befriended one of the head workers who always accommodates my unusual requests. I have gone to larger slaughter houses and requested fresh blood and due to their size and work load, they...

I was reading some of these posts, and there seemed to be a concern about freezing meat and a build-up of ice crystals, and cells bursting, etc. ?????? Now I'm just a run of the mill everyday sausage maker and savvy shopper. If I run across a good buy at the meat market, I've been known to buy extra...

CW, For a second, I thought i knew that pig! They saw my heads down the center at the slaughter house for me. Never had souse, but I'd have to spice it up more as he suggested.

I may have mislead you in thinking that I freeze my casings, which is not the case. Sorry. I did read somewhere that freezing them does weaken them.

Ross, that's true, and if I figured 7 oz. of salt, and 6 oz. for spice and the rest roughly. That leaves about 25 oz., approximately 1 1/2 #. Still pretty expensive. Well it's something I'll have to investigate further. Like a bulldog, sink my teeth into something and it's hard to let it go!

Duk, I appreciate the effort there. Boy, that stuff is pricey. I just looked at my package of mix, and it's 2.38 lbs. and enough to do 25#. I'll bet 2 lbs. of that mix is the maple granules, and the mix sells for $13. So about $6.50 per lb. would get me in the ballpark of making my own. I'll put ya ...

Jeff, no I didn't have a bad experience really. It's just that after you blanch those tongues, and considering the size of them, they remind me of an old woman's arthritic twisted finger after 100 years of knitting! Them buggers are just kind of hard to handle is all. Shoot, its just sausage, if it ...

Well the flavor for one, is more intense than using pure maple syrup. It's the same principle as with spices. Take garlic for instance, When I purchase granulated garlic at my local Penzey's, I never use it 1 for 1 against fresh garlic. If a recipe called for a 1/4 cup of chopped garlic, I wouldn't ...

Seems like this time of year I always catch the bug to make a bunch of sausage. In so doing, I always wonder how good those casings are in my dedicated sausage fridge in the basement. I always keep them well salted and in the crisper. In fact, I've had the wife vacuum seal the ones that don't get us...

Hello to everyone, We all have our favorite sausages that we always make on a consistent basis. So I have a bit of a confession to make. My favorite at the moment that everyone in the family asks for is a maple breakfast sausage I make. I have to confess, it's using a pre-mix from PS Seasonings. It'...

Butterbean, I looked in the Rytek book under head cheese, and he does have the curing process listed for the meat. That pretty much answers my questions. I believe he calls for tongues and snouts. I have a head in the freezer I was planning on using along with the other cuts. Many thanks for your he...