Tamworth project: part 2

This post is a continuation of the last one, which described some of the receiving and butchering process of a half (102 lb)  of a Tamworth pig. Here’s the rest of the process turning great meat into great sausage.

Below is 23.2 kg (51 lbs) of partially frozen meat ready for the grinder. The grinding blade and tray have been in the freezer for a while so they’re very cold too.

Grinding begins….and nine minutes later, I have a 51 lb bowl of ground pork. The grinder is a 1.5 hp  monster. Do not wear a neck tie or long scarf when operating this thing!

The plastic wrap is taped to the grinder to control any splattering when the meat is working through the gears. It is a simple trick, but I went for many years cleaning splattered meat from the walls before learning about this.

There is about 20% fat in this bowl of meat.

Below, the ground meat has been weighed and separated into 2 kg piles. This makes it easy to do the math and measure ingredients without wondering how much meat I have to work with.

Spices are prepared for different types of sausages.

My hands were a bit messy while mixing the meat with spices, so there are no pictures of that process. Hopefully you can imagine pretty accurately what meat mixing looks like.

Below , pork in the food processor is being turned into a very smooth emulsion (paste) to be used in hot dogs and a separate emulsion for mortadella.

…and here are the hot dogs.

Bratwurst ready for tailgating at any Big Ten football game. Except these taste better than anything found in central Illinois. Where’s the bucket of  Old Style to go along with these?

Final results of my work. This collection started out with102 pounds of pig. The only waste I ended up discarding was about a cup of dirty fat and a few glands that didn’t belong in anyone’s food. Other than that, we have soup bones, rendered lard, pate, bacon,  and a bunch of sausages.

Not a bad collection of food to pick from over the next few months.

Tamworth Pig

With just a few weeks left in 2010, it is time to take stock of my world of meat.

Herschel the prosciutto is 14 months old and looking good. Firm to the touch, sweet-smelling, and no sign of troublesome molds, bugs, or other unwanted natural intruders.

Construction on the kitchen (meat processing facility) is complete and it is a great setup. Yes, it is small (180 square feet), but it allows me to do all the butchering, sausage making, and food prep that I can handle.

The goal of building this space, getting the USDA’s approval of my work, and selling artisan meats is becoming very real. With just a few more tasks to document and complete, I hope to be working under USDA inspection with approved legal sausage for sale soon. The transition from librarian to sausage-hobbiest to artisan meat business is very real. Once I’m up and running, of course I’ll announce it here.

Below is my latest project in the new kitchen. A friend of mine was co-owner of a Tamworth pig that was raised just north of Seattle. The animal was slaughtered two days ago. I now get to take 100lb (half the animal) of this beautiful meat and turn it into sausage, bacon, a few other meaty meals for his family.

Below is the 100lb Tamworth pig I just got. 44lb of belly, 31lb shoulder, 26lb leg, and enough offal for everyone subscribed to this blog.

Below is a reminder of the tight quarters (my home-kitchen) I used in March 2010 to do a similar project. As much as I tried to convince myself, this is not work that can easily be done in a residential kitchen. My commercial workspace is certainly not huge, but the difference is pretty obvious.

Here’s the 44lb mid-section of the pig.

Below: that’s all from the same mid-section shown above. The belly on the right will be bacon.

I’m getting used to monitoring temperatures every hour as I work. As long as the meat temperature doesn’t ever exceed 41 degrees, things are safe. The belly was 36.1 degrees F at the start of this small project. And below, you can see that it is 37.3 degrees F when I put it into the cooler. We’re safe!

All the meat is in the cooler until I’m ready to process the rest of the pork.

And on a very different note….

If anyone knows how to knit well, let me know. I want one of these!

(from http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/01/neck_sausage_scarf.html)

More Kitchen Progress

The kitchen is definitely coming along.

Below are some photos of the meat processing facility I’ve built over the past three months. It is exactly as big as it looks…an 18′ x 12′ stretch of real estate (aka, my former garage).   There are some tweaks to make still, but the space is exactly what I had in mind.  After reading chapter 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations (Title 9 chapter 3 part 417….to be exact) numerous  times, I’m getting very close to applying for a grant of federal inspection on this space so I can sell some meat made here. There are a lot of rules to follow that don’t seem directly related to the production of amazing sausage, but the intent of the USDA is to keep people safe and healthy, and I’m on board with that.  But with a 3-comp sink the size of my old Chevy Citation (works more reliably than the Citation) and FRP walls all around for easy cleaning, this room is built to do exactly what its meant to do…..cut, grind, spice, stuff,  package, and (hopefully) sell a ton of great sausage.

That’s Herschel on the table. I pulled out the leg just for the photo shoot. A bit like Waldo or the red couch.

I don’t know if it was a good idea, but I managed to successfully put 4 castors on the refrigerator without assistance. I didn’t break the fridge or my back. Not bad!

Big shiny knives are the reason I do this. I don’t want to explain.

Below are sample packages of sausage I made last week using Tails & Trotters hazelnut-finished pork from Portland, OR. I used 67 pounds of meat to start testing the new kitchen and test all of my equipment and processes. There’s a lot of Italian and Jalapeno sausage ready to share. So far, so good.

Oh…..and Herschel is just about 12 months old. Since salting and hanging that prosciutto a year ago, I’ve learned an awful lot about meat. Fun stuff!

Building a Meat Kitchen

After more than 10 years of grinding, stuffing, curing, fermenting, drying, and exploring the world of sausage-making, the past few days have been big ones. I began construction on a commercial kitchen which will serve as a USDA inspected production site for fresh sausage, and eventually cured meats. The goal is to make and sell sausage, and that does not happen legally without being blessed by the US Department of Agriculture.

Learning to make good sausage is one thing, but getting the city, county, state, and USDA on the same page regarding what is and is not expected in a facility like the one I’m building is a whole new experience in this culinary celebration of ambiguity. Well actually, the USDA is not ambiguous at all. The  Code of Federal Regulations spells everything out regarding Animal Products, Food Safety, and Regulatory requirements under Federal Meat Inspection. There are a lot of rules to be aware of and to follow, but the Feds are a pretty decisive group. Not a lot of small talk or chatter, but so far, I’ve gotten helpful, succinct, and specific answers to all of my questions about making safe meat and building an acceptable kitchen.

Every jurisdiction has its own role to play in monitoring and regulating commercial food production. It looks a bit like this:

• The city of Seattle  has responsibility for building permits and zoning. Are you even allowed to build the thing you intend to build, and are you allowed to operate the type of business you hope to run?  That’s their  domain.
• The county is the land of the department of health, plumbing inspections, and all retail-kitchen oversite. If you intend to sell wholesale, than the county backs off with the exception of plumbing expectations. Someone has to keep an eye on what’s being  flushed down the drain, right?
• The State of Washington…..well, the secretary of state granted me a business license, but so far, I don’t see the State being involved in my work. But as there are so many layers in the story, I’m prepared to be corrected.
• And finally the trump card….the USDA. Meat can not be sold wholesale to the public for resale purposes unless its production has been inspected by the USDA. Getting the little USDA “bug” (the circular logo identifying a USDA facility number) on your food label is a big deal, and among other things, this involves applying for a grant of federal inspection….which requires lots of stuff: HACCP Plan for each unique type of meat product you plan to sell. Sanitation Operation Plan. And of course, plenty of specific facility expectations which dictate how the construction of the kitchen must proceed.

There are a lot of rules and expectations to be aware of, but I think I have most of the story figured out. Here’s where I am on the project so far.

Entry to the “lab”

Walls are firred out flat and prepped for plastic panels, which are washable.

FRP (fiberglass reinforces plastic) plastic panels are attached to the walls. Its going to be a bright white room. My newly acquired 3-compartment sink is in place for the plumbing rough-in. That’s 109″ of sink in the picture. Pretty damned large.

Plumbing rough-in is complete. Water, drains, and vents are in place and ready to be connected to the equipment.

Next week, it is onto electrical work in the room. Then, the plumbers come back to connect everything and make the room functional, and get inspected by the county department of health.

As I said, things are moving quickly. It will be good to get through the next few weeks, and get closer to making sausage.

Herschel Update: Herschel the prosciutto is 10 months old now. Everything’s looking (and smelling) good. The photo below also shows a curing sheep liver wrapped in a bug net.  It is just about ready to eat, so I’ll try to share some details about that soon.

Welcome to September!