How did I not know about ground pork?


 
Grant Cunningham

Grant Cunningham

TVWBB Pro
We just picked up this year's pig from the processor. In years past I've always had the scraps made into sausage, which is pretty good, but we've got a lot of it left from the last couple of years; as it turns out, there's only so much sausage even I can eat. This time I had the extras made into plain ground pork, figuring I could try it in places I'd normally use ground beef.

After putting everything into the freezer I pulled out a package of the ground pork and made some burgers from it. Mixed the meat with some finely chopped onion, a little S&P, made 6-oz patties and threw them on the grill. Nothing fancy on the cook, just a Vortex loaded with Cowboy charcoal. I mopped each side with some Carolina-style mustard BBQ sauce (the same stuff I use for pulled pork).

Holy cow! What have I been missing all these years?!? Juicy, tender, and delicious.
( ^^ ^^ —pun intended)

Pulled pork has just become my new favorite burger meat.
 
Grant Cunningham said:
We just picked up this year's pig from the processor. In years past I've always had the scraps made into sausage, which is pretty good, but we've got a lot of it left from the last couple of years; as it turns out, there's only so much sausage even I can eat. This time I had the extras made into plain ground pork, figuring I could try it in places I'd normally use ground beef.

After putting everything into the freezer I pulled out a package of the ground pork and made some burgers from it. Mixed the meat with some finely chopped onion, a little S&P, made 6-oz patties and threw them on the grill. Nothing fancy on the cook, just a Vortex loaded with Cowboy charcoal. I mopped each side with some Carolina-style mustard BBQ sauce (the same stuff I use for pulled pork).

Holy cow! What have I been missing all these years?!? Juicy, tender, and delicious.
( ^^ ^^ —pun intended)

Pulled pork has just become my new favorite burger meat.
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Asian style burgers, with diced shrimp, green onions, oyster sauce and some minced water chestnuts. Cooked in a cast iron or grilled. Ground pork is an excellent protein.
 
Brett-EDH said:
Butt. You need the fat in it. If you buy bone in, save the bone for soup stock too. Just freeze the bone. I package into 1# or 6oz packs so I can use the pork in multiple recipes.
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Yes!
I recently had some leftover* pulled pork. Divided it into smaller packages, and then froze it.
It was always ready to help out with meals the next week. Made things so much easier. Whatever you got, you can always throw on some pulled pork. It can be used for flavor, or it can be used for richness. Ut can bebused to balance a profile, or continue one. Sure the profile is not always the right one to add to some dishes, but it still made things less stressful.
*it was actually a box of Costco pulled pork. Different, but okay. And the price was easy.
 
Brett-EDH said:
Butt. You need the fat in it. If you buy bone in, save the bone for soup stock too. Just freeze the bone. I package into 1# or 6oz packs so I can use the pork in multiple recipes.
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Would using pork loin along with fat trimmings from a butt work?
 
DanHoo said:
Would using pork loin along with fat trimmings from a butt work?
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I think that’d be too lean. Pork loin has very low fat content and marbling. The butt has a lot of marbling and is more like dark meat than loin which cooks like white meat. Butt comes in at around 70/30 on average, lean to fat. But it’s more than just the ratio. Butt has a richer, fattier flavor than loin which is a more clean, pork flavor. Both cuts marinated, take on flavor differently.
 
Grant Cunningham said:
Always looking for new pork chop recipes! (We have a lot of them in the freezer!)
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Grant, PORK CHOPS!!!!!! One of my favorite foods!!!

In my "Recipe Index" binder (where I keep the title and rating of all recipes made since 1990) I have 81 pork chop recipes listed, but only 45 of them received a "VERY GOOD" rating and 9 of those we made again. See you on the PORK recipe site.
 
Love ground pork and beef mix actually a bit higher on the pork for meatloaf, chilli, spaghetti, stroganoff, and of course Hamburger Helper.
It just adds another layer of favor.
 
I like picking up a jar of breakfast sausage seasoning, or mixing my own, and adding that to ground pork. It's a nice break from the tube style, and don't get me started on the frozen links or patties.
 
Ground 2 pork butts, for a total of about 21#, a few months back. Miriam made a small batch of Andouille; I did a batch of hot Italian sausage and froze the rest in 1# packages. Add a little salt, sage, thyme and cayenne for tasty breakfast sausage or country gravy. Use it as is to make sloppy joes, tacos and SOS. Love ground pork or beef/pork mix for burgers and meatloaf. Can you tell we like pork?
 
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