Uh oh - making sausage and can't find the gland in my pork butt!!

[theTastyCat]

Hey all - what a comedy of errors this has been!

This is my second ever sausage session - LOVED the first batch! The first time I cubed my meat 1 inch or smaller and my #8 LEM never began to break a sweat, so I cut this one into 2" pieces. But........ I never found the gland!! I inspected every piece, and couldn't find it. So - might there be a possibility that there just wasn't a gland in this butt? (Smithfield from Harris Teeter.) Or, should I start cubing more finely to try and find it? This is a special batch of sausage for my dad's birthday and I really don't want to ruin it!!

Many, many thanks, dear brethren!!

 

[snapper-G]

I never was told to look for a gland! Where's it at and what does it look like?

 

[Thingfish]

I googled "pork butt gland" and saw some very informative hits.

 

[Pitbull]

I've NEVER been able to find the stinking gland and I've been doing butts for years.

 

[HOG FAN]

There's a gland?!?

 

[Bob in St. Louis]

I want to see somebodies butt gland.
Not sure what to do with it when I see it, but I'm up to see a gland.

 

[Untraceable]

The vein/gland would be the least offensive thing in the average store bought hot dog.

 

[jakel]

I assume this is a concern when grinding but not for pulled pork or is this normally removed when processed before sale ? :noidea:

 

[WildeMan]

I could be wrong, but I thought the gland was only found in whole shoulders, not a butt.

EDIT - ok, so I was wrong, did some looking and apparently they are usually located in the butt, not the picnic, but normally they get removed during processing. If you cook a butt like normal you can just discard it like a chunk of fat while pulling, but I can see why you wouldn't want to grind it up. If you didn't find it, I would just guess it was already cut out.

 

[cholloway]

I found this pic of the pork butt gland at cookshack.com
Never knew of it before.
I have removed the tarsal gland from a venison hind quarter, but never in a BB.

 

[ButtBurner]

a tarsal gland is not the same as this LOL
If it was you would know it

I have read about this before but have never dealt with it in all my years of sausage making and pork butt smoking

 

[Beentown]

a tarsal gland is not the same as this LOL
If it was you would know it

I have read about this before but have never dealt with it in all my years of sausage making and pork butt smoking

Me either.

 

[Bob in St. Louis]

So what's the deal with it?

 

[Pitbull]

So what's the deal with it?

It's supposed to affect the taste of the meat. How, I don't know as I've never found it. And, I have looked..

 

[Bob in St. Louis]

In a bad way, I assume?

 

[Sausage Warrior]

I never considered this a glad. I hand grind so chop by hand very well before grinding and remove veins and nerves as I go. I usually do five
Pounds or less. Too much like work. This is supposed to be fun.

 

[Ribeye Republic]

Paging Mr. Bouska to the white courtesy phone. Mr David Bouska to the white courtesy phone, please.

I'm willing to bet those were his hands in the Cookshack photo.

 

[Crazy Tex]

Interesting... op2:

 

[Wornslick]

Interesting... op2:

Same here, never heard of such a thing. Is a gland the same as a vein?

 

[Bob in St. Louis]

From Wiki:

A gland is an organ in an animal's body that synthesizes a substance such as hormones for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland).

Sounds yummy, doesn't it.