Wet Run #2 – Sausage

Walter Breaking Primals
Today we did our second wet run, cutting another half pig in our brandy-new butcher shop. The second time through went much faster and smoother. It will get better and better with practice.


Stuffing Sausage
Once we finished doing all of the cuts and vacuum packaged them for freezing I got out the spices. We made up a 10.45 lb batch of chorizo – our first sausages.

Will Linking Sausage
We each took a turn at running the grinder and guiding the casings as the sausage meat came out of the cone as well as linking.

Cloths Washing & Drying
Cleanup is a breeze since the room is all sealed, waterproof and washable. Cloths then get sent to our laundry. Many small meat processing facilities – e.g., butcher shops – utilize outside laundry services to handle the soiled linen. Laundry services, be they in-house or out-house, are required by the regulations. Either that or you’ll be disposing of everything each day. I prefer to wash cloths so we have a tiny laundromat stacked vertically in a closet. While we were doing construction I kept my eyes on sales so I was able to snag these two high temperature sanitizing washer driers for less than half price. It pays to not be in a rush when buying.

Hope and Pig
Hope shows off the freezer full of pork from today’s cutting. This was half of a very small pig, Skinny Pig as we called it, so it fits in our home freezer. Since we do not yet have our license this meat was not cut under inspection and can not be sold.

It is better to spread the meat out if you’re trying to freeze it. In this case I’m using the freezer for a holder as we’re going to go through this fairly quickly.

This afternoon we loaded pigs and one of them may be coming back here next week as the carcass to be first cut under inspection, provided our paperwork is all set by then. Keep your fingers crossed!

Sausage Pie
For dinner Hope made this delicious chorizo sausage and vegetable pie with a flakey pastry crust. A delicious reward for a hard working farm family.

Trotter Medallions
While practicing with the bandsaw I sliced up trotters into thin ³/₄” medallions which we vacuum packaged.

Chef Hope says that with the large surface area of exposed marrow and connective tissue will make a wonderful stock or broth. Bake in the oven and then simmer in a pot of water with vegetables to make a delicious soup base. A little salt, a little pepper and you’re cooking with pork!

While we were in cutting meat granite grout arrived for the south road Will and Ben are building to improve our access to the south field. Ben, the outside man, took care of receiving that. Since we can’t be going in and out of the clean room it is nice to have someone outside who keeps an eye on things and handles deliveries like this, the whey, etc.

Outdoors: 74°F/52°F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 66°F/62°F

Daily Spark: Immortality or death!