Trimmings

[Chris S in YEG]

I had spare ribs a couple weeks ago. I picked up 2 racks untrimmed from the butcher. I trimmed them down to a STL cut which left me with a pile of meat bone a cartilage.

Last week was brisket that I trimmed up. I could have gone alot more aggressively with the trim to make it even and save on the over cooked ends. I did not because I figured I might as well smoke it all and keep the good and toss the over cooked stuff at the ends.

Now my question to you all. Do you keep your trimmings? What do you use them for? I understand toss the little bits and hard fat but what about meat from ribs or brisket?

I have seen ideas for sausage or beans. If it goes into beans would you cook it first?

 

[timothy]

I always smoke my rib tips and flap meat along side of the ribs. Cooks treat for a snack or dice them and add to beans, rice etc.
Brisket is good to save for grind, but smoked it does wonders for beans..

Tim

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I make sausage out of it. I haven't really trimmed that much meat off brisket but If I do, I'd save it for sausage. I do use my brisket fat in sausage and I've rendered it for tallow. The hard fat is actually what I like. It holds up really well when cooking sausage.

This is my sausage recipe:

Texas Hot Guts Revisited.

Texas Hot Guts I decided to revisit my sausage recipe. I called it Texas Beef Sausage in an earlier post but since I also put pork in it, I figure that's false advertising. I general put my sausage recipes in percentages and use metric measurements. This allows me to easily scale a recipe up...

tvwbb.com

I've since tweaked it a little bit and I plan on making a post this weekend. Basically I've taken out the herbs, lowered the black pepper, and bumped up the cayenne a tad. I typically use a chuck roast but brisket trimmings work just as well. I've used pork butt before but in my latest batch I used to some trimming in the freezer from when I cut some ribs St. Louis style. Essentially, you want a sausage that's roughly 70/30 meat to fat. That can be kind of tough to do with scraps.

This is a great video on sausage making. This guy is a little goofy, but trust me, the knowledge and skill is there.

He works for Evan Leroy and I got the basics of my sausage recipe from an interview with Evan. He mentions that in a perfect world you have perfectly lean meat to mix with pure fat to achieve that 70/30 mixture. In the real world you have to eyeball it.

 

[Brad Olson]

Now my question to you all. Do you keep your trimmings? What do you use them for? I understand toss the little bits and hard fat but what about meat from ribs or brisket?

You can always use them for burgers.

 

[Rich G]

This is a great video on sausage making. This guy is a little goofy, but trust me, the knowledge and skill is there.

Well, you weren't kidding, Dustin, that guy is goofy! I liked the video, though. Straight forward explanation of some of the key steps to making good sausage at home.

......now, I still haven't made your hot guts......need to fix that!

R

 

[Chris S in YEG]

I make sausage out of it. I haven't really trimmed that much meat off brisket but If I do, I'd save it for sausage. I do use my brisket fat in sausage and I've rendered it for tallow. The hard fat is actually what I like. It holds up really well when cooking sausage.

This is my sausage recipe:

Texas Hot Guts Revisited.

Texas Hot Guts I decided to revisit my sausage recipe. I called it Texas Beef Sausage in an earlier post but since I also put pork in it, I figure that's false advertising. I general put my sausage recipes in percentages and use metric measurements. This allows me to easily scale a recipe up...

tvwbb.com

I've since tweaked it a little bit and I plan on making a post this weekend. Basically I've taken out the herbs, lowered the black pepper, and bumped up the cayenne a tad. I typically use a chuck roast but brisket trimmings work just as well. I've used pork butt before but in my latest batch I used to some trimming in the freezer from when I cut some ribs St. Louis style. Essentially, you want a sausage that's roughly 70/30 meat to fat. That can be kind of tough to do with scraps.

This is a great video on sausage making. This guy is a little goofy, but trust me, the knowledge and skill is there.

He works for Evan Leroy and I got the basics of my sausage recipe from an interview with Evan. He mentions that in a perfect world you have perfectly lean meat to mix with pure fat to achieve that 70/30 mixture. In the real world you have to eyeball it.

I always wanted to try sausage. Getting a meat grinder for my stand mixer wouldn't be that expensive. The sausage stuffer may not be. I got to do my research and give it a try.

 

[Chris S in YEG]

I always smoke my rib tips and flap meat along side of the ribs. Cooks treat for a snack or dice them and add to beans, rice etc.
Brisket is good to save for grind, but smoked it does wonders for beans..

Tim

I always make chili the day after a brisket and use the leftovers. If I were to trim earlier I could add it to my beans.

 

[J Hasselberger]

I always make chili the day after a brisket and use the leftovers. If I were to trim earlier I could add it to my beans.

Smoked brisket chili is tho only chili I make anymore. And remember -- no beans.

 

[Chris S in YEG]

Smoked brisket chili is tho only chili I make anymore. And remember -- no beans.

Sorry I'm a beans guy. I put my cast iron pot of beans on the smoker underneath my meat of choice. The drippings land in my bean pot and the beans slowly cook for 16 hours. I make enough beans to add to my brisket chili.

 

[James H]

totally smoke the tips along with the spares....awesome anticipatory snack (mostly for the cook)!