Mostly about food, this blog is just a place for me to throw things that are of interest to me. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by an look around. This represents just some of the stops on the various pathways that this amateur home cook finds himself.

You may find that these foods tend toward protein and away from carbohydrates - this is due to diabetic issues, so I try to only sparingly use carbs, and good ones at that. Of course, sometimes I forget....

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I want to thank you for the time that you spend here, and hope that you can find useful things here.

Hagoonee'


Wednesday, March 4, 2009

FrankenSwine!

It's a profusion of Pork.
pro⋅fu⋅sion   /prəˈfyuʒən/ [pruh-fyoo-zhuhn] – noun
  1. abundance; abundant quantity
  2. a great quantity or amount of
  3. lavish; extravagant
Who likes pork? I mean, really likes pork. Well, I do. After thinking about this for a while, I present my first attempt at an ultimate pork treat - a little something for everyone. So pull up a knife and fork, and watch the magic happen.

First, select two long links of your favorite sausage types. I like to mix them up, but you can have them all the same if you like. If fresh, put them in the freezer until the get nice and hard, making sure they are kept straight and not curved as they freeze. It is better if you do this the day before your planned smoke. In this smoke, I used home-made chorizo and bratwurst.

Next, I took an 8 lb.+ packer pork loin and sectioned about a 3 lb. roast from the large end. I'll be using the rest for other treats in the future.
Your roast section should be about 2 inches longer than the sausage. The roast could be just a little frozen inside for the next steps, it will make it easier to remove the silver skin and help keep the knife straight for the plunge cuts. Take you time and trim it well.
Trim off all the residual fat and silver skin, as you don't want anything interfering with the pure pork goodness. Above you see the process half-completed. Below, the finished product.
Now comes the tricky part. Using a long thin pointed knife, make X-shaped incisions through the whole length of the roast. Told you it needs to be a long knife! It's important that these plunge cuts don't go astray, so that the X is preserved through the length of the roast. It doesn't have to come out the other end. You need to make two of these, equally spaced from each other and the outside surface of the roast.
Now, take your sausages out of the freezer, and if you like, remove the casings from them, as it makes a better presentation and lets the meats melt together.
Make sure your X-cuts are longer than your sausages. Next, firmly insert them through the X-shaped holes you made in the roast. They ought to be long enough to just make it from end to end, or better, a little shorter by an inch or two.
It's better if you can't see the ends, as it makes for a better presentation and a nice surprise later when you slice it. Besides, it's a nice pig nose.
For the final touch, a bacon weave is created for the roast. I used a combination of some home-made buckboard bacon and longer commercial bacon because it is more interesting. I imagine any bacon will work just as well.
I put the weave in the freezer to firm it up and make it easier to work with, and then applied it to the roast. Time to load the bomb into the smoker and wait for the creation to come to life.




Ready?









It's. . . FrankenSwine!

From his oversize pig nose to meatball eyes, bacon ears to curly bacon tail, he's all edible and all tasty.
And finally, what you have waited to see - the sliced result. Tasty, juicy, smoky and delicious. Mmmmmmmm!

How could a pork lover not love a bacon-wrapped smoke ring surrounding a loin and sausages like this? So resign your mind to gobble some divine FrankenSwine from my chow line.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fabulous blog - I have gotten a bunch of great ideas - keep up the great work