Soft fat
Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 16:21
I have been using the meat from a couple pigs I raised. When I butchered them I separated the soft, internal fat from the hard back fat. The pigs were a tamworth/mangalitsa cross. What I've discovered is:
- the fat from these pigs is really tasty, and has such a clean, non-greasy taste in your mouth that it is hard not to plow into it as if it were meat
- the back fat is thick and hard. When you hold a piece of it vertically, it stands up and salutes
- using lard is a whole new cooking experience - what great stuff! My butter bill has dropped considerably.
- cracklins should not be left on the counter if you are concerned about your weight
- the intermuscular fat from these pigs is quite soft, which leads me to my problem...
So far I've used meat from these pigs to make sausages that require soft fat, such as morcella (Portuguese blood sausage) and braunshweiger. They turned out fine. But the kielbasa and kabanosy I made weren't good. When I poached the kielbasa, most of the fat rendered out into the water, and the sausage tasted good but was dry. Broke my heart! We choked down 10 lbs. of it nevertheless. When I poached, I kept the water temp down to 170F and poached very slowly, as I have done many times with fine results.
I made kabanosy with trim, but not backfat, as the trim was a good mix of lean and fat. I have always cold smoked kabanosy, then baked it in a low oven till it reached an internal temp of 165F. That's what I did this time. But too much fat dripped out, and the sausage came out dry.
Any suggestions before I ruin another batch? Here is what I can think of, but I would really like the wisdom of the forum on this!
- Use the leaner cuts, so that most all the fat in the sausage will be from hard backfat. (This might work, but I already butchered the loins into chops, and they were so good on the grill that I really don't want to hack them into sausage meat!)
- Cut out the intermuscular fat from cuts like Boston butt and picnics, and add in backfat only
- Poaching...is there a technique I need to know about? I brought the water up to temp, then added the sausages, and very slowly brought the temp back up to 170F, and kept it between 170 and 175F - mostly at 170.
- Baking...I pre-heated the oven. Probably a mistake, even though that's what I've always done before without problems. If I start with a cold oven, and very slowly increase the temp, I might get better results. But I am still concerned I will loose too much fat once the target temp is reached, and I really don't want to experiment with another 10 lb. batch.
Anything else or different that I should do? Help is greatly appreciated!
Jeff
- the fat from these pigs is really tasty, and has such a clean, non-greasy taste in your mouth that it is hard not to plow into it as if it were meat
- the back fat is thick and hard. When you hold a piece of it vertically, it stands up and salutes
- using lard is a whole new cooking experience - what great stuff! My butter bill has dropped considerably.
- cracklins should not be left on the counter if you are concerned about your weight
- the intermuscular fat from these pigs is quite soft, which leads me to my problem...
So far I've used meat from these pigs to make sausages that require soft fat, such as morcella (Portuguese blood sausage) and braunshweiger. They turned out fine. But the kielbasa and kabanosy I made weren't good. When I poached the kielbasa, most of the fat rendered out into the water, and the sausage tasted good but was dry. Broke my heart! We choked down 10 lbs. of it nevertheless. When I poached, I kept the water temp down to 170F and poached very slowly, as I have done many times with fine results.
I made kabanosy with trim, but not backfat, as the trim was a good mix of lean and fat. I have always cold smoked kabanosy, then baked it in a low oven till it reached an internal temp of 165F. That's what I did this time. But too much fat dripped out, and the sausage came out dry.
Any suggestions before I ruin another batch? Here is what I can think of, but I would really like the wisdom of the forum on this!
- Use the leaner cuts, so that most all the fat in the sausage will be from hard backfat. (This might work, but I already butchered the loins into chops, and they were so good on the grill that I really don't want to hack them into sausage meat!)
- Cut out the intermuscular fat from cuts like Boston butt and picnics, and add in backfat only
- Poaching...is there a technique I need to know about? I brought the water up to temp, then added the sausages, and very slowly brought the temp back up to 170F, and kept it between 170 and 175F - mostly at 170.
- Baking...I pre-heated the oven. Probably a mistake, even though that's what I've always done before without problems. If I start with a cold oven, and very slowly increase the temp, I might get better results. But I am still concerned I will loose too much fat once the target temp is reached, and I really don't want to experiment with another 10 lb. batch.
Anything else or different that I should do? Help is greatly appreciated!
Jeff