Lunch break!
The really ironic part is on days like this I usually just grab a sandwich (and a few "test tastes" as the sausage gets stuffed to make sure the spice mix is right) since we're so busy; kind of like I don't drink beer when brewing.
This is the first time we've used the LEM 10lb stuffer we got last year and MAN is it vastly better than the "attach to the meat grinder tube" setup. Whoooo... takes a lot of the pain out of bigger batches. I can see some 30-40lb batches in the future no problem. Cindy asked if a "real" meat grinder was as much better as this is (we have one on the bosch mixer which is better than the kitchen aid but still...) and I replied "yep". I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see a new meat grinder show up one of these days..
Progress is made!
The beerwurst is stuffed and drying a bit before I fire up the smoker here in a couple minutes, contrary to my remembrance its only about 20% bacon not 50%, I guess it would be a bit to fatty otherwise.
The brauts are stuffed and setting to dry before wrapping.
The duck is butchered and the breast is curing in its salt pack, in a day or so I'll take it out of that, rinse and then dry hang for a week (might put a little pepper rub on it then). The bones have been scraped and then roasted for the soup later with the trimmings. The wings and legs/thighs are in the fridge for dinner later this week. The fat is in the fridge, I'll render it out later (maybe tomorrow) and then put the little crispy bits of skin that come out of that on some sort of salad or something (tbd).
Cindy has the Harissa made for the lamb sausage flavoring, made a bit extra since lamb is on the menu
Next up in order:
- start smoking the beer wurst
- butcher the lamb
- make the lamb sausage
- Maybe get to trimming the eye of the round and put the cure on it (probably, won't take to long to do that).