Hi john,
I always trim. I always make fresh breakfast sausage from the trim. I may save the trim for a day or two before I get around to making the sausage 'cause I'm lazy. It only takes about a minute per rack to do the actual trimming down to St. Louis-style. And, it isn't really difficult at all. Grinding and making sausage isn't difficult either. The hardest part is sanitizing the kitchen work area and the equipment used.
I grind the well chilled meat with a coarse grinding plate--having holes about 3/8ths inch or about 10 mm. I
grind well chilled meat trimmings once through the grinder, add the mixed herbs and spices to the once ground meat and stir or mix the herbs and spice mixture throughout the meat until well blended and chill again. Once chilled, I grind through the coarse plate for the second time. Form into sausage patties or sausage rolls. Wrap in waxed paper and aluminum foil and refrigerate or freeze. Great sausage! Sausage recipes abound on the world wide web.
I use this recipe:
For each pound of pork, add:
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon Accent (MSG)
So, if you have 3 lbs of pork trimmings, multiply each ingredient as listed above by 3. If you have 2.5 lbs of of pork trimmings, multiply each ingredient as listed above by 2.5. Etc.
I mix the herbs and spices together and add them to pork after it has been ground once. Mix throughout the ground meat well. Chill the meat, grind a second time through the coarse plate.
Be sure to remove any bone or cartilage from the trimmings before grinding. Use the coarse grinding plate
twice. Don't use a fine grinding plate. Don't use stale herbs and spices! If you have stale herbs and spices you cannot make up for the lost volatiles by adding extra of the stale herbs or spices. The precious volatiles are lost and gone forever!
Grind chilled meat
TWICE with the coarse grinding plate. Don't use a small grinding plate.
Trimming to St. Louis-style and making sausage gives you two completely different delicacies!
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