Meat Grinder

Deciding to purchase Aaron a meat grinder for Christmas was such a good choice. We are now able to purchase quality meats and grind them ourselves. No more mystery ground meats for the Lock household. We have been very busy with some family things lately so we have not been using it as often as we'd like to but we will definitely not be purchasing any ground meat anymore. As for sausage stuffing, we have yet to try it out.... but soon. This summer I think we will be making some sausages and smoking them in the eggs.

We recently tried our hand at making smoked pork belly (bacon). It turned out amazingly! We got together with Aaron's brother and his wife and we made 3 pieces. We used a recipe from the Charcuterie book as a base but then took some liberties and added some sweet to one piece and some savory to another. All 3 were very good and there wasn't any significant difference between them... it was great right off the smoker or fried up in a frying pan as traditional bacon. We just need to find the time to do it again, and soon!