Sauscutapalooza (AWSS5 - the final conflict)

Ozzie_Isaac · March 2018

Epic! This is not next level, this is a whole new game sh!t.

YukonRon · March 2018

Absolutely enjoyable read. My hats off to determined folks to conquer equally determined animals.
I have had some of the best laughs ever from this thread.
I do, in fact, know how difficult it is moving livestock. Hats off to y'all.

20stone · March 2018

Couple shots from the continuation last night:

Left, the second batch of roasted bones (in the LBGE, mind you). Right, about 15 qts of stock from the first batch. I had to do the stock in batches since I don’t have a REALLY big pot (we cap out at 25 qts).

I combined the Batch 2 bones with the Batch 1 stock and it will simmer all day.

Lesson from my mom.....If a recipe calls for water, it is almost always better if you use buttermilk, cream or stock, depending on the recipe.

The semi-emulsified mortadella.

Tasso (Cajun “seasoning meat”) - sliced shoulder left over from the coppa (money muscle) we pulled.

In my weakened state (2 days of AW/SS), I made a formula error in the vaunted recipe scaler spreadsheet, and all the seasonings (except salt) we’re about 2x. I was measuring out cayenne, and it was calling for 25g, and thankfully, I looked at about 12g of cayenne as I was measuring, looked at the 5lbs of meat, looked back at the cayenne and thought “Rug roh, Rorge”. Mistakes were almost made.

Tasso gets cured for a few days in a heavy spice, hot smoked and then dried for a few days in the meat locker. You use it a slice at a time to make vegetables taste like food.

Guanciale (cheek) seasoned with salt, pepper and toasted fennel. This is one of the few curing cuts that does not call for curing salt. It gets a few days in the fridge (vac bagged), then reseasoned and hung in the meat locker. It make THE BEST carbonara.

Coppa and culatello up later.

caliking · March 2018

i'm super stoked about the cuts saved for charcuterization this round. can't get the thought of beans with smoked ham hocks out of my head either.

SciAggie · March 2018

Congratulations on an epic amount of work and glorious product. I got a really good laugh at the livestock handling adventure. I grew up in the cattle business and ran the family ranch for 20 years - so I've experienced many difficult moments myself. They are always maddening at the time and give a great laugh later.

Sometime I'll write about the time that a friend and I spotlighted, tranquilized, and roped and loaded a couple of wild and crazy cows in the middle of the night. (All legal) That was an adventure I won't forget.

20stone · March 2018

caliking said:

i'm super stoked about the cuts saved for charcuterization this round. can't get the thought of beans with smoked ham hocks out of my head either.

One side note on the guanciale, for whatever reason, there were only three cheeks in the tub. I can only assume that the fourth was mistaken for something else (belly, perhaps) and converted to sausage.

Canugghead · March 2018

You guys are so porking awesome

Legume · March 2018

Tasso gets cured for a few days in a heavy spice, hot smoked and then dried for a few days in the meat locker. You use it a slice at a time to make vegetables taste like food.

I love this quote.

lkapigian · March 2018

Well Played By All, would love to be there some day!~

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2018

caliking said:

I didn’t get the hanging glory shot of the mortadella, but here it is in the making (or stuffing):

I pan fried a sample of the masalawurst, and ermagerd... it’s farkin good.

dude- you have dropped some serious lbs! nice work!

20stone · March 2018

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:
dude- you have dropped some serious lbs! nice work!

Thanks. Down around 20 from New Years and 30 from last fall. Trying to fit in my wedding dress again.

FarmingPhD · March 2018

Thanks for taking the time to document and share pictures, looks like a blast. We had hogs growing up, farrow to finish. I was the youngest and was always put on sorting gate duty, every Thursday was auction day, we would load 20-25 "fat" hogs (230-270) in the livestock trailer sorted out of 4 pens. Like someone else said, smart animals. Remember watching my dad man handle some hogs, me weighing probably around 60 lbs and just trying not to get run over.

20stone · March 2018

FarmingPhD said:

Thanks for taking the time to document and share pictures, looks like a blast. We had hogs growing up, farrow to finish. I was the youngest and was always put on sorting gate duty, every Thursday was auction day, we would load 20-25 "fat" hogs (230-270) in the livestock trailer sorted out of 4 pens. Like someone else said, smart animals. Remember watching my dad man handle some hogs, me weighing probably around 60 lbs and just trying not to get run over.

You are still miles ahead of us on the learning curve. We were just gentlemaen ranchers trying to grow some great pork. Our hogs were twice as big and three times as old as the ones you sold, and way hairier to boot.

Thanks for sharing the memory.

lkapigian · March 2018

I feel guilty with my motorized stuffer thinking I am doing mass quantities with 15-20 pounds

Sea2Ski · March 2018

@20stone says “Coppa and culatello up later. “

I say:

FarmingPhD · March 2018

@20stone, you guys did great by my account. They are a rambunctious animal with incredible neck strength, there is a reason sorting gates are typically flat and have no holes except for handles. My brother has a large finishing barn and processes a couple hogs a year out of one of the herds with my cousins. I live 12 hours away these days and don't get to participate, so I enjoy threads like these and I can forward this on and tell him he needs to raise his game!

I take some some of you have some pretty good meat processing background to take on not just sausage but all the curing and and items like mortadella?

caliking · March 2018

FarmingPhD said:

@20stone, you guys did great by my account. They are a rambunctious animal with incredible neck strength, there is a reason sorting gates are typically flat and have no holes except for handles. My brother has a large finishing barn and processes a couple hogs a year out of one of the herds with my cousins. I live 12 hours away these days and don't get to participate, so I enjoy threads like these and I can forward this on and tell him he needs to raise his game!

I take some some of you have some pretty good meat processing background to take on not just sausage but all the curing and and items like mortadella?

oh man, if you only knew what a motley crew we are.

Some of us are more fastidious than others. Some (one) of us shows up an hour or so later than promised/intended. But remembered that fingers can find fascial planes better than any knife can. One of us has a panache for commercial refrigeration. And accounting. And a very understanding spouse who put up with a bunch of miscreants every few months (big ups, @20stonespice !!) All of us put in a lot of sweat equity. And have been very pleased with the results.

As far as meat processing background is concerned, we're all relative city-slickers. But very much interested in porky greatness. More than once, a voice would question, and @20stone would throw down the look that said "motherfvcker. I read about this. TWICE!!"

We all learned a lot though, and not surprisingly, now I have a 4yo who understands that its ok to name your hogs and make sausage out of them.

Because they taste good.

20stone · March 2018

lkapigian said:

I feel guilty with my motorized stuffer thinking I am doing mass quantities with 15-20 pounds

You should never be ashamed of having to use a motorized device when working with sausage alone.

FarmingPhD said:

I take some some of you have some pretty good meat processing background to take on not just sausage but all the curing and and items like mortadella?

+1 on @caliking’s response to this. All the experience we got doing this we did together through this project. While gourmands, we got some real instruction on our first couple of hogs.

That being said, we still make our share of missteps. Case in point, I read up a few weeks ago on making a culatello. I described what I was looking for to the guys cutting up the hams, and got exactly what I asked for....which was the wrong muscle. Packing them in cure tonight I figured out that the culatello is a muscle group, and we had separated out the fiocco, a big single muscle, but smaller than the culatello. We have done a couple af prosciuttos, but for this, I should have had the book out. The good news is I hadn’t bout the beef bladder yet, and can buy a hog bladder instead (and yes, you can buy fresh hog bladder online).

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/ds/hpm6uxazgkv3.jpeg

Fiocca ties and about to be cured.

Case in point 2 ( of me being an idiot on occasion). We have made a few coppa (dry cured pork collar) and was going to make one out of this batch. However, we are gearing up for a Muffalettapalooza, and needed mortadella and capiacola to go with the Genoa salami we made in December. So, one collar for coppa and one for capiacola...that was the plan for a couple of weeks....until I learned that they are the same thing.

Genius. Very stable genius.

Also, these collars are monsters, twice as big as the last ones.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/k7/je165u136jwj.jpeg

18 pounds of pork, already leaching liquid from the cure.

The good news is, if you raise a good pig, carefully handle the meat, and carefully weigh the salt, you can leave this stuff hanging for months, never cook it, and feed it to people without killing anyone (even if our porcine anatomical knowledge has a few gaps).

More pics in in a few weeks when stuff comes out of the cure.

lkapigian · March 2018

Thinking you should start "Sausage Camp".....wait, didn't sound right

20stone · March 2018

lkapigian said:

Thinking you should start "Sausage Camp".....wait, didn't sound right

That is definately in the works. We have about 80 lbs of high quality back and belly fat, and are contemplating a “bring your own lean protein” Sausage Camp.

Professional uncertainties are impeding the planning process, but that stuff should be ground and stuffed.

blind99 · March 2018

Just.... wow. This is some fantastic work on so many levels! Thanks for documenting it all.

theyolksonyou · March 2018

I'm going to miss these threads. You guys need more livestock. Maybe try your hand at beef. Just think, fresh brisket and ribeye cap.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2018

theyolksonyou said:

I'm going to miss these threads. You guys need more livestock. Maybe try your hand at beef. Just think, fresh brisket and ribeye cap.

stop.

SciAggie · March 2018

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

theyolksonyou said:

I'm going to miss these threads. You guys need more livestock. Maybe try your hand at beef. Just think, fresh brisket and ribeye cap.

stop.

I was thinking goats. We could have the whole asado cross thing revisited, make goat milk cheese...
Or lambs. The silence of the lambs...

Legume · March 2018

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

theyolksonyou said:

I'm going to miss these threads. You guys need more livestock. Maybe try your hand at beef. Just think, fresh brisket and ribeye cap.

stop.

See? It’s not just me. How about that hill country property with a cave for hanging cheese and charcuterie? Maybe raise some bees?

jeffwit · March 2018

And a vineyard.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2018

I can assure you that many, if not all, of these options have been strongly considered by at least one of us.

Why not throw a cup class racing sailboat in the mix? Or a race horse? perhaps a race car?

you people are not helping.

SciAggie · March 2018

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

you people are not helping.

We're not really trying to help...lol

jeffwit · March 2018

How hard could it be to raise a Wagyu cow?

Foghorn · March 2018

jeffwit said:

How hard could it be to raise a Wagyu cow?

That’s a legit question.

(Says the guy who just pays his share of the bill and occasionally shows up to help with the actual work).

The America’s Cup thing also sounds fun...

Sauscutapalooza (AWSS5 - the final conflict)

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