Buying meat in bulk

The "bag measurements" are really helpful, too -- it still isn't something I can do now, but if I can get some people to split something with me ...

In the meantime, I buy food from by local co-op foodstore. There are plenty of organic fruits/vegetables, local products and local, farm-raised meat. When I was on my "bonless chicken thigh" kick a while ago, I got some from the co-op. The next time, I got them from a chain grocery store and they were TWICE the size, which made be think, "Do you really want to eat chicken that has so obviously been injected with growth horomones?"

I keep thinking about Jeffrey Steingarten - did he try to make his own proscuitto? Anyway, time to get serious about a smoker. And learn how to make those pork pies.

And a smoker is a great investment, especially as you can pick them up as cheaply as 32 dollars like we did (from a bass pro shop of all places)

I take all studies regarding food with a grain of salt and tend not to react to them. Cholesterol was bad for you; oops, no it's not that, it's the (ex-healthy) manufactured hydrogenated fats that were supposedly so pure and wonderful. Crisco - it's digestible! Butter and real cream are better for a person than any chemically processed soy or cottonseed crap, as long as the cows weren't eating pesticides (which are stored in fat, including butterfat). We don't eat much nitrate-laden processed meat; we don't eat crappy ersatz substitute foods; we don't eat overprocessed junk or fast food. So no, I'm not going to stress over eating what we enjoy.

Besides, we all get to die of something, and I'd much rather it be for enjoying excellent chow. The memorial plaque can read "She certainly ate well."

The only glitch - the butcher misunderstood the cutting order and chopped all the hams into 5 lb roasts, as well as the side pork, so while we might cure some pancetta or bacon, we won't be curing an air-dried ham this year.

Mr. Jaq got me the food grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid at xmas, but aside from looking at it and reading the directions, I hadn't used it. UNTIL YESTERDAY! When I made fresh pork sausage and ground up a couple additional pounds of pork fat to render into lard. We bought 2 lbs of farm-raised pork stew meat at the market and I ground it with about 3/4 lb of fat - not quite enough, the sausage is a bit lean for my taste, but really tasty this morning for breakfast. Grinding the fat for rendering made a HUGE difference. I thought I'd get less than a pint of lard from the amount of fat I ground up, based on previous years' experience from chopping the fat into rough cubes. Instead, I got a pint and a half AND it rendered in 2/3rds the time. Definitely the way to go.

OMG, I organized a buying club for grass-fed/finished meat at work and got orders for over 100 lbs of meat on the first go-round.

Talk about disappointing - I went to collect the meat this morning from the guy delivering it from the east side, and they had forgotten every bit of my order.

OK not about buying meat 'in bulk', but about curing. I'm intrigued by this lamb bacon idea.

?: dude says to roast it for 2 1/2 hours at 250º; is it then ready to eat? That seems implied by roasting it until the internal temp reaches 140º. But what if you want to fry the bacon instead of roasting it? Who roasts bacon?

i guess the roasting is just 'smoking' it. like, it's already cured after the sugar/salt combo??

I guess? So then I can fry it up?

yeah dude give it a go and report back

I'll have to get up the courage to ask my butchers if they have lamb saddle. They're the grumpiest dudes in the world.