What do you guys do with a fat cap?

N

NY Pork Junkie

Knows what a fatty is.
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Location
Albany, NY
I acknowledge this is a really dumb, rookie/newbie question. But every time I smoke a pork shoulder, I always carve off the fat cap and freeze it. I render it, and use it for cooking in lieu of oil, and it's wonderful for pretty much everything. Even so, there is only so much you can use. My freezer has a backlog of pork trimmings and my wife is getting annoyed. What do you folks do with surplus pork fat?
 
I trim the heavy areas down to about 3/8" and any small meat tags, but don't save the fat. When I make sausage however I use butts and find the fat ratio about perfect. Here is a sausage test pattie to test the seasoning so you can see what I mean.

smRcgE6.jpg
 
thirdeye said:
I trim the heavy areas down to about 3/8" and any small meat tags, but don't save the fat. When I make sausage however I use butts and find the fat ratio about perfect. Here is a sausage test pattie to test the seasoning so you can see what I mean.
Click to expand...


That looks pretty amazing! My intuition is that I need to buy a meat grinder...:grin:
 
I leave it on. Mix a little in w the pulled pork at the end of the cook and whatever is excessive I throw away. Always got plenty of bark the rest of the way around, so no issues there.
 
NY Pork Junkie said:
That looks pretty amazing! My intuition is that I need to buy a meat grinder...:grin:
Click to expand...

In all actuality, with your own grinder you can buy the 20# boneless chuck rolls and grind your own burger, grind your own pork butt as pork burgers are wonderful, make special chili grind for beef and pork (a little coarser than regular burger), and of course grind meat for sausage. Even if you don't invest in a stuffer right away (you will at some point), bulk sausage is pretty tasty. My breakfast and Italian recipes I usually package in bulk anyway.

You can also create special beef blends of burger by grinding round, sirloin, and brisket in addition to chuck.
 
For something different, once the butt is
done, peel it off in one piece and return to smoker until crispy.
 
Last edited:
All good suggestions, I use it to make sausage with. Works great with venison!
 
Norm said:
All good suggestions, I use it to make sausage with. Works great with venison!
Click to expand...

Yes. When I make jambalaya with a butt, I save the fat cap and dice it for andouille I make with wild pig. Gives a nice large dice fat we can't get off pure wild pig.
 
I leave it untrimmed and smoke it with the shoulder. I find most pulled pork to be on the dry side.
 
Lately the butts I've been buying don't have an excessive amount on them.


I simply score in 1/2" criss/cross pattern and put it facing the heat source in whatever smoker I'm using.

It's really easy to remove any unwanted remainder once the butt is done cooking.
 
I cut off as much fat as possible because it's a waste of good bark and rub when it gets thrown away after the cook. I'll sacrifice it potentially drying out a bit for all the bark/flavor I get.
 
93_confirmed said:
I cut off as much fat as possible because it's a waste of good bark and rub when it gets thrown away after the cook. I'll sacrifice it potentially drying out a bit for all the bark/flavor I get.
Click to expand...

Heck....I'm getting almost too much bark on my butts as it is.


Especially on this one.






A little more how I like it on this one.








 
Must be a guilty pleasure or something. I love eating the fat cap part once the bark sets on a pork butt! Once it gets that nice crispy texture with the rub I think its "pit masters privilege"
 
I'm not a "bark hound" so the cap stays on. I do scrape it off in a whole piece when I'm ready to chop it, but there's a little not-so-well-known layer of meat in there. The cap is actually made up mostly of three layers...with that meat layer sandwiched in there.

Bark...I cringe when I read someone say crunchy or crispy bark. I have never eaten crunchy barbecue, and I never plan on it.

The only time I want crunchy in my barbecue is when I mix in some chopped up skin bits (ala - Skylight Inn)
 
blazinfire said:
Must be a guilty pleasure or something. I love eating the fat cap part once the bark sets on a pork butt! Once it gets that nice crispy texture with the rub I think its "pit masters privilege"
Click to expand...


We’re a small minority on this. I know for damn sure people eat pork belly for the fat and not the meat.
 
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