From the Field to the Table
As I mentioned a while ago, a couple months ago myself and a couple other people went down to Woodside to butcher a pig. I should have gotten a little bit more info before we went because our pig turned out to be a pot belly pig, and an old and mean one at that. It was a really cool trip and I learned alot about the differences between a domestic pig and the older semi-wild type one. I have shot and butchered wild boar before but this pig was different from those. Some people were worried that the pig was too old but after contacting several food US food bodies I was almost completely assured that the pig was ok to eat. Besides cutting the pig into some large primal cuts I also ground about pounds of it. I did freeze the pork for days in my deep freeze which is enough time to kill pretty much most of the bad stuff. I then took a bunch of the ground meat and made a air dried sausage.
Recipe as follows1 pound pork shoulder fat, diced4 pounds pot belly pig shoulder, cubed
7 grams meat starter culture
1/4 cup distilled water
1.5 oz kosher salt
1 tsp Cure #2
3 tbs dextrose
1 tsp ground white pepper
2 tsp ground garlic
1/4 cup Sauv Blanc 1. Ground fat in medium die
2. Ground meat in large die
3. Combine meat and fat in large mixing bowl
4. Preparied starter culture and added it and rest of ingredients to meat/fat.
5. Using the paddle attachment on mixer I mixed everything for 1 minute to combine.
6. I stuffed into synthetic 5 inch casings.
7. I hung the sausage in my bathroom with the portable heater set at 85 degrees for 12 hours.
8. Into the chamber which is at 47 degrees and 75 % RH.Question: Most recipes call for 1/4 cup of Bactogerm F-RM-52, I have used Bactoferm F-RM in the past so I used it this time. What is the difference between the two. Secondly, the manufatures of both cultures say "Each 25-gram packet of Bactoferm™ F-RM-52 will do 220 pounds (100 kilo) of meat. You can use the whole packet in 100 pounds of meat or use half of the packet and refreeze remaining culture." 1/4 cup is almost the whole packet for only 5 pounds of meat sounded like to much. So I used about 1/4 of the packet, or 7-8 grams, does this sound ok?
