Grinding Pork, Making Breakfast Sausage

Well....

Ground Pork

I'm experimenting again.

I haven't used my meat grinder in quite some time

but a great deal on some "pork roast" 

 made me pull it out again.

This meat was labeled  "for Carnitas", (a Mexican dish).

Heavily marbled, it seemed the right type of meat for breakfast sausage.

I ground it up, sort of,

the fat keep clogging the grinder,

added herbs and seasonings, then fried it.

It was ok, not great, dry tasting,

I guess I need to experiment some more.

Round Two!

I decided to grind some more to use as taco meat.

I trimmed away some of the fat this time and that helped getting it through the grinder.

I sautéed  the meat with some onion,

garlic and jalapeno peppers,

then added chili powder, cumin, diced

 tomatoes and tomato sauce.

I cooked until the liquid had reduced a bit,

then served in taco shells with grated cheese on top.

That turned out really good.

So the first batch, with the fat, turned out dry,

and the second batch with the reduced fat turned out great.

Maybe I cooked the first batch too long?

Maybe the acidity of the tomatoes in the second batch helped to tenderize it?

 Anyone have any opinions/suggestions?

Till next time,

Bonjour