My father and I butchered two pigs last weekend, our first attempt at doing pork. All went well. I am in the process of making ground pork and probably some sausage. I am thinking that I probably dont need to trim the .meat up near as much as you do with deer? One of the pigs did have a lot of blood spots in the meat of one of the hams an loins. I've never seen this in deer before. Is this something that happens with pigs? Should I just grind the blood spotted meat?

You are right that you don’t trim is nearly as much as deer since deer fat is gross. It may not have been bled out good enough. But I wouldn’t grind up those cuts. I’ve cut probably around 300 pigs and if they’re bled while the heart is still pumping it’s last few beats you won’t see the blood spots

Yes grind it up for sausage you won’t taste it a bit. And as far as
Pork sausage goes I like it around 60 percent meat to 40 fat!

pork fat= pig candy

i hate sausage ya gotta add fat to fry and make gravy.

Last sausage I made I bought 12 pounds of pork loin on sale and 12 pounds of country style ribs on sale. Didn’t trim either. The “ribs” I found out are actually pork butt not side meat like I thought. Plenty of fat on the “ribs”. I’m with cotton. Sausage needs fat in it.

I have made bacon with that pork butt “ribs” before too and was great. Tasted like pork belly side meat bacon.

i dont every trim much from it
one thing I do recommend, when making sausage - season the meat before grinding and you can season it again after grinding. but i find if you try to season it all after its been ground, yo'ull never get the seasoning mixed in good

What we did that worked well for us was season the chunks of cut up meat before we ground it. Then when you run it through the grinder a couple times it mixes itself up. Good luck!

Trim out the blood spots.Also,,if putting the front shoulders (pork Buts) into sausage,trim out the glands when chunking up the meat for grinding.I make about 1,000 lbs of pork sausage every year.

You shouldn't have to trim any fat off.
It'll be lean enough if your putting shoulders in.

That's how I do it also.

I've heard of guys grinding it twice...thoughts?

My thought is it's to dependent on the grinder being used and temp of the meat when grinding to say if you should grind once or twice.
That said, we never ground it twice.

For kielbasa we grind once and then half again on a 1/4 inch hole plate. The only trimming is the bones and glands cut out. Season after it is ground, sprinkle it on in the mixer or mix it in by hand in a big tub. Keep your meat cold too, nothing worse than working with bloody sloppy meat.

I make sausage in small batches 3-5lbs at a time with my KitchenAid mixer. I use the grinder attachment with the larger holed plate, grind into the mixing bowl, and add my spices to the bowl and use the mixer to do the mixing. Works great. A little ice cold water in the meat/seasoning will help it mix better. I use about 3/4 cup per 5 lbs of meat. You'll never know its in there. I prefer 25% fat to 75% meat on breakfast sausage. I've never ground twice either. If you're stuffing casings for smoked sausage or links I prefer less fat 15-18%.

You got it. That's how to do it.

One word of caution (and this is a personal preference item): When you using the mixer to blend the spices, you can start to extract the proteins and then cause a natural binding process in the final product. Adding salt and agitation to meat is what causes this to happen. In some processes, this is desirable as it causes smaller parts to stick together- like when they make the deli ham you buy in the store that gets sliced for sandwiches. It's the process they use to make turkey bacon (dark meat and light meat "glued" together).

In sausage, it can cause a "chewy" patty. There is a balance between a crumbly sausage patty and a "gummy' one. The amount of salt and the time of agitation are the factors that contribute to this. Overgrinding, through too many plates or too many passes will also do this.

Well made some italian and breakfast sausage, and about 20 lbs of ground pork. It all turned out good. That new lem #12 is a beast.

Thanks for the info.