Preserving meat continues...

I know, I know...this is just not the right time of year to be doing all of this. My internal calendar is way off, I know. But there are things that have to be done, and if I happen to fall behind or get off schedule, it doesn't change the fact that it needs to be done.

We packaged the venison from last Fall and put it into the freezer. I usually do this and wait for the sales on pork butt in the Fall, then we start making sausages and make a nice Christmas basket for friends and family. Last year pork never went on sale, things got busy, yada yada....and now here we are less than a week before Easter and I am just now preserving meats that I usually have done 5 months ago!

Today we made another batch of bologna but this time I did something different. Instead of forming it into rolls, I used my loaf pans. After all, bologna should be shaped like bread, right??

I also made a couple of pounds of peppered bologna, including an outter coating of fresh ground black pepper.

It will be finished tomorrow, I can't wait to see how it tastes!

The corned beef is still curing. I think today is day 5...or maybe 6. It is just not done yet. Maybe in another day or 2. Once the four briskets are done, we'll smoke 2 of them and turn them into pastrami.

Speaking of smoking, this is some of the wild hog Italian sausage we made in the Fall. Bob had his smoker running over the weekend and we smoked a few pounds of this. It is SO yummy, and look at that beautiful pink smoke ring.