Is it customary to use pigs pluck to make sausages?

Question

Looking to start raising my own pigs and researching how I want to process a pig I am aware of the pig's pluck (larynx, trachea, lung, heart and liver) and I'm a huge fan of making sausage (I'll be grinding and stuffing).

I do realize I will need to add fat but is it common for the pig's pluck be used for making sausages? Upon my recipe research I didn't see anything mentioned and I was curious to know why people do not use those parts of the pig. I do believe the use that for hot dogs but I may be wrong.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 22 '19 at 21:50

2

Historically, absolutely pig organ meats were used for sausage making. (The old joke "everything but the squeal" comes to mind.) In fact, I suspect that the notoriety of pig organs, due to their association with food adulteration, is largely responsible for them going out of fashion so entirely.

Pigs liver has a strong, distinct taste. It's used in a number of sausage recipes, but largely those which are based around it (e.g. scrapple). Lungs are illegal to sell for human consumption in a number of jurisdictions, but hearts show up in a lot of "industrial" sausages I've seen.

answered Dec 22 '19 at 21:50

Sneftel

25,774
3
70
91

1

Is there a problem with consuming pig lungs? – Sobachatina Dec 22 '19 at 22:56
1

Not in the slightest. The prohibition is just a snapshot of the popular opinion of the time towards food adulteration. – Sneftel Dec 23 '19 at 18:47

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 23 '19 at 13:01

Generally, Americans are disgusted by organ meats, and it seems that the majority of English-language recipes one finds on the Internet are American. And even recipes which come from other English speaking countries aren't all that big on organ meat (although you might find the occasional black pudding recipe on British sites).

I would suggest that you try French, Eastern European or Italian (in that order) charcuterie books or online recipe sources. There you're much more likely to find recipes that use organ meat. You might have to search a while to find some which use exactly the pluck, as opposed to other organ meats, but once you have a good recipe, that's all you need.

Is it customary to use pigs pluck to make sausages?

2 Answers2