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Visited a whole-animal butcher in Portland and it changed how I handle trim
I stopped by this place called Chop Butchery on Alberta Street last month just to see what they were about. The guy behind the counter was breaking down a whole pig and he showed me how they save every bit of scrap for sausages and pates. I always just tossed my trim into the grinder for burger mix but he had this whole system for sorting fat, lean, and sinew into different bins. He said they get about 30% more yield out of each animal that way. I tried it at my shop this week and honestly my burger sales went up because the texture is way better now. Has anyone else tried sorting trim by type instead of just grinding it all together?
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lilyg831mo ago
The fat-to-meat ratio is the whole game really. Once I started separating the hard fat from the soft fat it made a huge difference in how my sausages bind. The lean trim needs to go into its own bin too because it grinds up cleaner when you're not fighting against sinew getting caught in the plate. I keep a little notebook with the ratios for each batch so I can write down what worked and what didn't. It turns cooking into more of a science project but the results speak for themselves when people keep coming back for more.
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