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About Meat Cuts and Preparation
Appears in
By Helen Witty and Elizabeth Schneider
Published 1979
To make succulent sausage, you must use a sufficient amount of chilled fresh pork fat—whether hard fatback (the easiest to handle), loin fat, belly fat, or leaf fat from around the kidneys. It must be clean and smooth and trimmed of any rind or membrane. The fat usually makes up about one-third of the total volume of the ingredients, if not more. Do not be tempted to use less fat than specified, or you will have a dry, sawdusty product.
For the lean part of the sausage meat, you may use cuts from the loin, shoulder, butt, or leg (fresh ham) of the pig—any or all. The meat should be cold when you cut it and grind it, both so it can be tidily trimmed and so it will blend more easily with the fat. Weights in the following recipes are for meat that has been completely trimmed of all membrane, connective tissue, and sinewy or gristly parts.