Even better than cushion meat (lack of fat in it, and that huge chunk of cartilage that needs to be removed before grinding) We use boneless pork picnic trim, we do not cube it, we simply cut it in strips that fit through the neck of the grinder.
We do 60 pounds at a crack and from unboxing it to ground and placed in a meat lug is about 30 minutes
Our retail bacon that we slice and sell by the pound is belly, I really like the Canadian pork bellies because they are pre trimmed and fit perfectly in my meat lugs for curing, they are all darn near to 12.5 pounds each, with thickness being even too.I tried the picnic trim but it was just too much fat and gristle for me. For regular sausage links the cushion is too lean so we add belly. But for bulk pizza sausage I love how the cushion doesn’t shrink and tastes like pure meat and doesn’t get greasy. We buy the Berkshire heritage pork from sysco, it ain’t cheap but it doesn’t come with the cartilage. I think it’s 3.28 lb, the picnic trim us like 1.30 or something. Have you made bacon using cuts other than belly? I need to look into that.
Our retail bacon that we slice and sell by the pound is belly, I really like the Canadian pork bellies because they are pre trimmed and fit perfectly in my meat lugs for curing, they are all darn near to 12.5 pounds each, with thickness being even too.
Our “Pizza Bacon” is made from picnic trim, because after curing & smoking it, we run it through the grinder and bake it off.
Curing Formula;
For each pound of meat for bacon, I use .75 TBS of salt & sugar, and 1.4 grams of cure #1 you can scale this any way you’d like, I suggest getting a digital scale that measure down to 1/10th of a gram though, proper cure usage is very important.
Easy Method; Morton’s Tender Quick at 1 TBS per pound, and use .5 TBS of sugar per pound to lessen the harshness of the salt
Yes, because it is fully cooked and drained before use, after its time in the smoker, it gets let to relax for a few days in the cooler , then ground through a meat grinder, then baked. drained, cooled and packaged in 2-pound packages and frozen until use. It is always the uppermost topping on a pizza too.Does pizza bacon get crispy?
We added that to our menu last time we printed a new menu and it has been a solid seller. We use spinach for the “lettuce”. We also do a Bacon Pesto Club pizza with chicken, bacon, spinach and basil pesto sauce. Also sells well.We are working on a BLT pizza right now because the bacon/tomato combo just works well together
I wish people in my area would eat spinach and fresh basil on a pizza, but it just wont happen. I had to drop spinach and basil because I was tossing out more than I was using.We added that to our menu last time we printed a new menu and it has been a solid seller. We use spinach for the “lettuce”. We also do a Bacon Pesto Club pizza with chicken, bacon, spinach and basil pesto sauce. Also sells well.