Pork Butt vs Loin


 
A

Aaron Patterson

New member
I used 8.8lbs of pork butt for my most recent batch of salami. Breaking down the pork butt seemed to take a very long time. I noticed loin prices were slightly more expensive than butt, but I think loin would be much easier to break down, and have less waste.

My main question is, would switching to loin impact the flavor of my cured meats? Should I stick with pork butt?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Aaron,

I would base your decision on how your latest salami turned out. Personally I would use butt as I think it would produce better flavor. The loin is much more lean, but with less fat comes less flavor IMO. True there is less waste with a loin, however with salami and other sausages; fat content is critical for both flavor and mouth feel. A lean sausage, to me, is not as good as say one with +/-30% fat content. Do another batch with loin and compare. Please report on how this current batch turned out.

Paul
 
I made some breakfast sausage out of pork loin this past winter(trying to get something a bit less fatty cause my wife doesn't do well with pork fat) personally I would stick with the butt althought the sausage came out really good, but u could really tell the difference! Course try it and see what happens! Sometimes it's all about personal taste!
 
A mix of loin plus belly or back fat is ideal for control of you lean to fat ratio. I usually discard some of the fat cap on a butt to keep my ratio a little leaner than straight butt. For salami, back fat is a bit firmer and holds up through mixing and stuffing so you get the nice white chunks in the finished salami.

I'm not sure why breaking down the butt was a struggle. I typically go through a lot of extra cutting to extract some treats before I chop up the rest for grinding. I find the work enjoyable and not that time consuming.
 
Don't use loin. As already stated, the lack of fat will not be pleasant.

In an aside, I used eye of round to make some hamburger. EoR is very lean.

I have to add a tablespoon of oil each time I fry the burger up for a dish.

The flavour is just not right without the fat.
 
Aaron,

Plenty of accomplished charcutiers use lean pork + back fat for making dried sausages.

I believe it's more common to use ham meat than loin meat, as ham meat is actually leaner and more flavorful. However you will be able to achieve the same effect using loin meat.

For optimal presentation and to prevent fat smearing, the best way to proceed using lean pork with added pork fat is to use hand diced fat, and only add it right at the end of the mixing process. That is, grind your lean meat, add salt and seasonings and cure etc, and mix until you achieve the primary bind. Only at that point do you add the hand-diced fat and fold it in to mix. This will ensure that the fat stays cold and does not smear within the sausage, while at the same time allowing you to have a nicely-bound mix.

The main thing to take away from the above comments and my comment here is that if you want to use loin or other lean meat, you have to add fat to the mix to achieve 20-30% fat total in the mix. Failure to do so will result in unpalatable sausages whether fresh or dry-cured. This is why lots of people use butt, it tends to contain the requisite 20-30% fat already and needs no additional fat added. Good luck!
 
Originally posted by j biesinger:

I'm not sure why breaking down the butt was a struggle. I typically go through a lot of extra cutting to extract some treats before I chop up the rest for grinding. I find the work enjoyable and not that time consuming.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. Once I got used to breaking down a pork butt, it takes only about 10 minutes. By doing this you can extract some very tasty muscles, and you can be sure to find the glands that should be removed, which you won't necessarily find just by cutting the whole thing into strips.

I don't find there's a lot of waste from a whole pork butt - everything that isn't a gland or a muscle I want to cook/cure separately gets cut into strips and ground for sausage.
 
Be very careful using ham trimmings for sausage that is to be dried since the chemistry of the ham muscles can vary greatly. Shoulder and back fat are the preferred cuts.
Loin trim would be somewhere in the middle for preferrence.
Ph and water holding capacity of the raw maerials is critical for proper drying
 
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