After finishing all the chores at home, I decided to make some sausages. I went to my local friendly butcher and he boned and minced two hands of pork. I asked him to take the rind off first, but he said the meat was very fresh, and the rind was soft, so it was not necessary.
Well, he was right! I made 10 kilos of Boerewors and it was fantastic. Soft and, light and just the right amount of fat.
I also got a side of belly to make bacon. This had some fat on the inside which i had not seen before. It was a very soft fat which almost peeled off - looked alot like caul. I'm not sure of the name of this fat, but I chopped it up and put it in with my sausage mix.
My friendly butcher also gave me a dozen strands of collagen hog casings FOR FREE. He said he had no use for them as he only uses natural casings (I got a hank of those too).
The hank I got from him was of the salted variety. The ones I got from Franco before were in a brine solution - while these were almost dry - and covered in rock salt. You had to soak them for 5-10 minutes for before use to re-hydrate them.
With the two hands of pork I also got a couple of trotters - anyone got a recipe for trotters? I believe there it is a bit of an art in cleaning and preparing them. Any pointers would be appreciated, otherwise they're going in the bin.