okay, todays the day of questions for me!! haha, anyways we just met with our roma rep, and one of the things that we want to do is use as much local suppliers as we can, I’m hoping to have a local bakery make our hoagies, our local butcher make our hamburger and sausage…also hoping to use a local brewery for our on tap beer, I think thats it, oh maybe a few desserts from the bakery, anyways the question is the roma guy told us to beware of the fat contents in our sausage being inconsistent with using the local butcher. is that really a plausable reason to not use the local butcher shop?? I’m thinking he just wants us to use everything from them, or is this really a true concern? thanks, we’re trying to get a million things done right now!!! Laura
Generally, its always a concern using local vendors who do not sell nationally or as a prime source of revenue. A big company has standards to which the “employees” have to abide by. Your local butcher, or other vendor, does not necessarily have to have these developed standards as they are owner operated. i.e. the owner is there every day to oversee things or does things personally. Plus – What happens if one of your local vendors decides to do things a different way? Decides to sell the business? Changes one of “his” suppliers and figures its all the same to you in “his” opinion? Stops carrying the product? Goes out of business?
Personally I think the restaurant business is hard enough without throwing all these other variables into it. You spend so much time doing separate inventories for all these different vendors and then have to wonder if something changed when something isn’t right.
From my own experience, we have this local bakery that makes great French rolls – best I’ve ever tasted. I don’t use them because if they decided not to do wholesale anymore, changed their product, or their baker didn’t show up one morning my end product to our customers would be different.
You’re right to second guess your salesman, they always have other motives, but he does have a point.
I make my own, pork butts this week from sysco are 102 a # cant beat that and you can adjust the taste and fat content anyway you want and its easy to make.
I know everyone is not in the situation to make there own but my customers notice the difference and so does my wallet
I can get the sausage from the butcher for 1.88# I have no Idea how to make sausage, although it sounds like a great idea if you can do it. do you just used ground pork? and add spices?? I think I’m just going to stick with the butcher for this, they’ve been in business for a very long time and is a very popular place, I am rethinking the hoagies now though!! hmm…any suggestions on the hoagies, do you guys buy the frozen ones and bake them yourself or buy them from the distributer baked, I’m just wanting a really high quality roll.
Fat content as well as primary meat used can vary the flavor, texture and grease results. Sure, I would personally consider using a local vendor if I could get the price you’re quoting of $1.88/lb. Of course, that is pre-cooked price. One must look at final yield to make sure the price really is good. If you throw the meat on raw, then a lower fat content may be better . . … if using links, higher fat and collagen are desirable. Get some and try it out . . . see if it works for you and your customers. No harm no foul if instead you choose some extruded sausage pellets or even a Fontanini sausage.
Don’t be fooled, though, into thinking that just because it is a national supplier or from a food service guy that the product is guaranteed consistent. Probably more so than a local butcher, but we are talking about food supplies that inherently vary in their most natural state.
I buy 80 #'s of ground pork butts and throw them in my 60 qt hobart mixer, add spices, and mix the hell out of it for 20 minutes or so…and advertise it as “HOMEMADE” Italian sausage. People love it. Cost me 1.29 per # for the meat and the cost of spices. You can buy your sausage from a company and your sausage will taste like everyone else. Or, you can take a few minutes and make your own sausage and people will notice the difference.
Dr. Ho
do you cook your homemade mix after making or put it on the pies raw? also, mind sharing the spice mix?
pizzahead
Yes, I cook the sausage as I need it in the pizza oven and chop it afterwards so it sorta crumbles.
For a sixty # batch my recipe is as follows;
20 oz kosher salt
4 oz cayanne pepper
4 oz crushed red peper
5 oz paprika
3 oz whole fennel seed
8 oz chopped fresh garlic
1/2 gallon h2o
mix like hell