Have you ever bitten into sausage only to find yourself biting into small bone chips, or hard white gristle? Do you like sausage but perhaps don't like all the fat that can be found in some store bought sausages? Depending on the type of sausage, government regulations can permit up to 50% of the sausage to be fat.

Make your own sausage at home using a meat grinder and a primal cut of pork. Pork shoulder is one of the best pork cuts for making home made sausage. Pork shoulder is the top portion of the front leg of the hog. The lower portion of the shoulder is most commonly called the arm picnic. The upper part of the shoulder, often called the Boston blade roast or shoulder butt comes from the area near the loin.

The Boston blade roast or shoulder butt is a well marbled cut and thus a very good pork cut for making sausage. You can have the meat trimmed or trim it yourself to control the amount of fat that you want in your sausage. As you cut the shoulder butt into strips about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches square, for easy feeding into a meat grinder, you can remove as much fat as you wish. Also watch out for gristle, bones, connective tissue or other ligaments.

Published 12/12/2009 12:00:00 AM

Tags: Sausage