Some musings on a variety of subjects

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 19:19

I only buy meat when it is on sale and then I cut it and freeze it. Last night I got a package of chicken drum out that were packed in October, 2010. I use coated freezer paper for these projects. The drums were bright, completely free of frost and freezer burn. Cooking them today they are perfectly fresh tasting. A 150 square foot roll costs about four and a half bucks.
On another subject I did some reading about boudin sausage. Every recipe I have found makes boudin sausage with bony pork and pork liver and as rich a stock as can be made. Rice is always a major ingredient. It is appears to me that the use of liver in this all cooked meat sausage serves as the glue that holds the sausage together. I was thinking that boudin sausage was born of the hard times that people have because the ingredient list is not from the prime cuts and the rice helps to make a little go a long way.
There is always a lot of meat left on a backbone when it has been stripped of the large muscles. So all of those bones would likely get thrown into a pot with onions and carrots and celery to cook the meat off that the knives had left.
People love to roast a half pig for a big shindig but the leftovers can't be allowed to go to waste. If the pig was killed for the party then the liver was also there. Some recipes suggest frying the liver instead of poaching it. These variations all suggest to me tha boudin is/was a sausage made from leftovers.

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 21:26

ssorllih wrote:If the pig was killed for the party then the liver was also there. Some recipes suggest frying the liver instead of poaching it. These variations all suggest to me tha boudin is/was a sausage made from leftovers.

I agree with your assertion of boudin being a 'leftover' or 'extra pig parts' creation. Using rice and other extenders in sausages are an economical method of 'stretching' the dollar. Making sausages such as boudin from non-prime, inner or leftover cuts is a no-brainer for cost-conscious cooks.

I was watching Anthony Bourdain's show where he traveled to the heart of cajun country and the whole neighborhood gathered for an early morning party & pig-slaughter. They broke the whole hog down in no time-simply amazing, particularly for a city feller like me to witness- and had multiple stations each using portions of the pig to create some wonderful concoction. Virtually EVERY part was used, plus plenty of good sausage from some highly-unusual pig parts. Fascinating to watch.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 22:13

I bought some extra sharp cheddar the other day for about 4 dollars a pound. I have a fire going in my smoker running cold smoke on a piece of shoulder. I cut a couple of 3/4 inch thick blocks for the 2 pound brick and laid those in the smoke. They sell smoked cheese for about 8 dollars a pound here.

lowpull · Post by **lowpull** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 22:43

When people were slaughtering their own pigs and making boudin they also used the blood in the boudin. But nowdays it seems that the liver is used for taste and richness.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 22:49

I think that the only way to get fresh blood for sausage making is to do your own butchering. I know when I was a kid they always just spilled the blood on the ground.

Swallow · Post by **Swallow** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 23:51

Way back when I was a kid on the farm, when we slaughtered hogs we didn't throw anything away, not even the Squeal. That we stuffed in a sack and only let it out to bait coyotes and foxes with. back then the whole family would get together and we would slaughter nine to twelve hogs in a single day and these were large hogs, 550 pound Landrace sows mostly. It was a lot of work and back then when meat tasted like meat a good slaughter was based on how much lard one got. The more lard the better the butcher. We had seven rendering cauldrons at our place and during the day of the slaughter they all went full tilt. Now with the razor back lean hogs one is hard pressed to even get ones hands greasy.

Swallow

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 00:20

WOW! The logistics of processing that much meat in one day overwhelms me. I found this site today. http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/member.php?u=78260
Butchering a single hog is an awful lot of work and doing a dozen would require quite a team.

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 00:35

ssorllih wrote:WOW! The logistics of processing that much meat in one day overwhelms me. I found this site today. http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/member.php?u=78260
Butchering a single hog is an awful lot of work and doing a dozen would require quite a team.

Ross, I'm still trying to figure out about how butchering hogs relates to owning a sail boat. Is it some sort of initiation into sail boat-ownership? Seems like one would come away with really greasy, porky hands which could impair one's ability to belay the jib or mizzen!

Kevin

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 00:56

whoops!

http://www.thepigsite.com/articles/600/ ... g-for-meat

Swallow · Post by **Swallow** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 01:18

Well Ross, there were a lot of people involved. When I say the family I mean the whole bunch, my grandparents plus their eight sons and daughters ie. my uncles and aunts and their families. The hogs were shot at 5 am sharp, then came the scalding, scraping and the gutting. Everyone had their work cut out for them.The kids five and up carried water for boiling and wood for the cauldrons, the women worked inside cleaning guts for sausage and doing the baking for supper while the older girls shaved pigs feet with double edged Gillette razors, the men worked on the hogs outside, cutting up the meat and such. Each man had a hind quarter that was used as a larding station, that is it was used as a platform for slipping the fat from the rind which was then ground up and used to render lard and to make crackling as well as the ribs which were deep fried along with the crackling. Those ribs were just Too good for words. After that came all of the front quarters and the rest of the meat which was all ground for farmer sausage, we made a lot of sausage. The hinds were all joint packed and salted down in large oak curing barrels and after a prescribed amount of time they were smoked for a very long time.

It was a lot of work but it was to feed 9 families and you would be surprised at what nine men with sharp knives can get done esp. when they have been doing it all of their lives.

And then of course there came the late supper of smoked sausage, crackles and smoked ham from the last slaughter, and as my granddad used to say " that a meal like that after a long hard days work, even the hogs would agree that it was "simply to die for".

Swallow

Swallow · Post by **Swallow** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 01:31

NorCal Kid wrote:
ssorllih wrote:WOW! The logistics of processing that much meat in one day overwhelms me. I found this site today. http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/member.php?u=78260
Butchering a single hog is an awful lot of work and doing a dozen would require quite a team.
Ross, I'm still trying to figure out about how butchering hogs relates to owning a sail boat. Is it some sort of initiation into sail boat-ownership? Seems like one would come away with really greasy, porky hands which could impair one's ability to belay the jib or mizzen!

Kevin

Well Kevin it has quite a lot to do with owing a sailboat. sailboats are very handy places for butchering hogs, Keel hauling a hog is a very good way of washing a hog down,plus it relieves tension in the crew seeing that they ain't the ones getting it the hogs can be hung from the yard arms or spreader bars using all those ropes and pulleys , but most importantly the guts can be cleaned and prepared for use as sausage casings (are yuh ready fer it?) ON THE POOP DECK.

Swallow

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 15:19

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/boudin.html
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2011/ ... udain.html
http://southernfood.about.com/od/sausag ... 30321s.htm
I have my doubts about this one as there is no liver: http://www.cookinglouisiana.com/Cooking ... recipe.htm
Another without liver: http://www.realcajunrecipes.com/recipes ... in/228.rcr
This one is also without liver and the writer measures salt with a spoon. One TEASPOON of kosher salt for five pounds of meat.: http://www.lets-make-sausage.com/boudin-recipe.html
Several recipes here. rather hard to read with the light print and poor contrast but good content. http://creoles.us/1_4_Boudin-Recipes.html
That is enough for a start. I have to light the fire in the smoker.

nuynai · Post by **nuynai** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 15:54

Being of Polish decent, we have a food similar to Boudin. It's called Kiska. One uses blood in it and the other doesn't. It uses the scrap parts of the pig and instead of rice, we use groats/buckwheat. As usual, the homemade is much better then store bought.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 15:59

There are plenty of lists of wood species( http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=5154 ) suitable for smoking meat but not many lists for sources. Most of america has trees within a mile of most houses and here in the east we have trees every where. When we learn to identify a tree species by leaf, twig and bark we can find good smoking wood just for picking it up from the ground. This link will take you to the forestry school at Virginia Tech. and give you the botanical name and the common name and discription of practically every woody plant. http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/sy ... _frame.cfm
I have walked through my neighborhood with a five gallon bucket picking up sticks that have fallen out of the trees some quite large and filled the pail in less than a half mile. That is enough wood to fire my smoker for a batch. Besides I need the walking.

nuynai · Post by **nuynai** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 16:06

If you have any orchards within driving distance, give them a call, as this is the time of year they trim their trees and would be happy to have you clean up the scraps.

Some musings on a variety of subjects

Some musings on a variety of subjects

Re: Some musings on a variety of subjects

more musings.

Waste

lots o hogs

ah uh

boudin recipes

On finding wood for smoking