Pork fat can be frozen and refrozen. I use pork fat when making sausages, only because most pork cuts are quite lean to begin with. You can grind up the meat or leave it whole in large chunks and freeze it. I do that for small pork roasts or ground to be mixed with ground beef for things like meatballs and meatloaf. Yesterday, coincidentally I bought a whole boneless pork loin for just $1.77 a pound. It was about 10 pounds. I made up a big batch of Canadian bacon brine, and inject the brine into the pork in several places. The intent is to increase its total weight by 20%. Once injected, I have to cut the whole loin down to fit some tall Food Saver canisters. The cut lenghts get placed in these tall round canisters and they get filled with the same brine (salt, water, maple syrup, sugar, liquid smoke and a little nitrates). The containers have vacuum fittings on top (these are Food Saver canisters), and the containers get pumped down under vacuum for about 20-30 minutes, then placed in teh fridge over night. I use a special vacuum pump, NOT the Food Saver one! Today, I pumped down on them again and then removed the loins and drained them. They get baked very slowly a about 180 degrees for 2 hours, then 200 for 2 hours, then 230 for 2-3 hours. The temp is raised slowly every hour after that, until the meats internal temp reaches 160 degrees, and no higher. They get cooled, refrigerated and then sliced. Store bought Canadian bacon in stores usually runs about $3 or more for pound, as I have seen it at $8 per pound. For my cost thats a lot cheaper! The sliced bacon is frozen in FS bags, and lasts me a year or more. You basically can freeze pork and then thaw, grind and make into fresh sauages, but it should not be refozen again. I have done that here, but add a bit more spices to counteract the second freezing. Also, when they are made, I use less salt added, so it will refreeze firmer.

Susan, Our biggest adventure is just getting out of the driveway. For the last four nights, including last night, our overnight lows have dropped to 16, 14, 16 and 16 degrees. So, all afternoon long the snow and ice melt and form huge puddles in the driveway and then at night they refreeze into what is essentially a 300-foot long skating rink. It takes that refrozen ice/snowmelt half a day to start melting again and then it forms huge puddles that refreeze again. Once you start driving down our driveway, you can't use the brakes or you'll slide and it is nerve-wracking. We have it good compared to many though, and I am not complaining, just saying that snow falling is pretty and after it falls it then is an unwelcome guest that just won't leave! Last night while we were eating dinner, our firefighters got paged out to a housefire...the 2nd one here in the last 5 or 6 days, the third one in the last month and the 4th one since November 1st. That's a lot of housefires for a county as thinly populated as ours, and I feel for the families who have had their homes damaged or destroyed. Their situation reminds me that a little ice on the ground is just an inconvenience, and not a tragedy, in the overall scheme of things. I'm going to make suet this afternoon. I hope y'all have fun on your shopping experience and be careful on the ice.....you don't want to hurt your back! Next year if I start hoping for a white Christmas, I want y'all to slap me upside the head and remind me "been there, done that, and it was a mess". OK? Dawn

Michelle, The recipe from Bruce Aidell's is called "Italian Sweet Fennel Sausage". The wine you choose does make a difference. I used a Bogle Zinfandel and it made for a very tasty fragrant sausage, especially with the fennel. 3 lbs. pork butt 3/4 lb pork fat back 1/2 cup dry red wine 4 garlic cloves minced 2 T fennel seeds 1 T freshly ground black pepper 4 tsp kosher salt 1 tsp dried oregano 1/8 tsp ground allspice Casings (optional) Bruce's directions: Grind pork and fat, then mix in all ingredients with your hands. Shape or stuff into casings. 3 days in fridge or 2 months in freezer. My notes: I did a double batch. First I make large cubes of the pork butt and then toss with all the ingredients. I then refrigerate everything including my kitchenaid grinder attachment until very cold. Then I grind (spices and all) using the smaller dye. I then use the paddle attachment to mix it for a minute or two. Then I weigh into 3/4 lb. freezer packs ( best for my family ). Once in a while, we'll also stuff them. Freeze and use. Today I made two 13x9 pans of lasagne using 2 packs of my sausage. We'll freeze those for weeknight dinners. I love to make sausage! I still have a few bags of "Iowa Farm" breakfast and a couple of "Tuscan" in which he uses some smoked bacon. I'll check out your thread from Harvest. I need to make some spicy hot Italian. Not too hot as my family doesn't like it "too" hot, but for me, I love it. I have a friend who always brought "salsiccia" from her parents secret recipe. To die for sausage. What I wouldn't give for that recipe.

Do-it-yourself Smoked Bacon Tutorial This is a very neat recipe on how to make your own bacon. Essentially using your barbecue as a cold smoker. Applewood-Smoked Bacon 1 lb. kosher salt (3 cups, if using Diamond Crystal; 13/4 cups, if using Morton's) 1 cup packed light brown sugar 1 skinless fresh pork belly (6 to 8 lb.), cut crosswise into 3 or 4 equal pieces 3 Tbs. coarsely ground black pepper (optional) For smoking the bacon: About 8 cups applewood sawdust Tip: You can order different varieties of hardwood sawdust (prices and woods vary) online at barbecuewood.com. Brine the pork belly: Pour 1 gallon of cold water into a 12-quart nonreactive container, such as a plastic storage tub or stainless-steel pot or bowl. Add the salt and sugar and stir until dissolved. Put the pork pieces in the brine, weighting them down with a plate if necessary to keep them completely submerged. Cover the container and refrigerate for 24 hours. Remove the pork from the brine, stir the brine a few times, and then return the pork to the brine. Refrigerate for another 24 hours. Drain the pork and discard the brine. Rinse the pork in cold water and pat dry. If using the black pepper, evenly sprinkle it all over the pork. Cold-smoke the pork belly: If using a charcoal grill, open all the vents. Remove the grill grate and put a 4x8-inch disposable foil loaf pan on the charcoal grate. Put 5 cups of the sawdust in the loaf pan. If using a gas grill, disconnect the propane and put the pan on a back corner of the grill grate. (You won't be lighting the burners; you're essentially using the grill as a smoker.) Light 5 charcoal briquettes in a chimney starter. When the briquettes are glowing and completely covered with gray ash, transfer them with tongs to the sawdust, spacing them evenly in the pan. If using a charcoal grill, replace the grill grate. When the sawdust begins to smolder, arrange the pork pieces fat side up on the grill grate to the side of the loaf pan. Space the pieces at least 1 inch apart to allow the smoke to circulate around them. Cover the grill and insert a metal instant-read thermometer into a vent hole in the lid or lay it on the grate to monitor the grill temperature; it should be between 80F and 120F. If the temperature rises above 120F, remove 1 or more briquettes or partially uncover the grill until the temperature falls. Stir the sawdust with tongs every 1-1/2 hours to ignite any that's unburned, and add more sawdust, 1 cup at a time, to the loaf pan as the sawdust turns to ash. You want a good amount of smoke rising out of the vents. After 3 hours, rotate the position of the pork to ensure even smoking. As long as you monitor the sawdust and the day is not too humid or wet, you probably won't need to add more briquettes. If your sawdust does stop burning, however, light more briquettes in the chimney on a flameproof surface and reignite the sawdust. The total smoking time will be 5 to 6 hours. Depending on the breed of pork and the duration of smoking, the bacon may become a brownish-yellow color. It will still be raw, however. The bacon will look dry on the meaty side, and the fat may be glistening with moisture. Pat the moisture off with paper towels and cool the bacon completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until firm before slicing. Store the bacon: You can store the bacon either in slices or large pieces (slabs). To store sliced bacon, shingle the slices in small, individually wrapped batches. Tightly wrapped in plastic, bacon will keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the bacon in slabs, let it defrost in the refrigerator for a couple of hours until it's soft enough to slice with a sharp knife. (It's easier to slice thinly when partially frozen.) Slice off what you need and then refreeze the rest, tightly wrapped. Either way, thaw completely before cooking. Cook the bacon: If cooking no more than 8 slices of bacon, fry them in a 12-inch skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium heat, turning frequently, until browned and as crisp as you like. If cooking more than 8 slices, arrange the bacon in a single layer on a wire rack set over a large rimmed baking sheet and bake in a 350F oven, turning once with tongs, until done to your liking.