I've seen some recommendations on the removal of a gland from pork shoulder before smoking.
Once I assisted at a BBQ event at an Italian market/restaurant and my chef/owner friend removed them all.
Is this necessary? Do y'all do this? How to's?
Thank you.
Yup, it is the prescapular lymph gland. Can appear green or pink, and often bitter. Sometimes removed by the butcher when they remove the bone. If not, carve out with a narrow trim knife. The USDA does not allow any lymph glands to be added to pork trimmings or other ground products.
i feel lost about this - i didn't know this was a thing. is it likely that my butts have had this removed already? would i know it if i saw it or do i go poking around for it?
In most instances, if you buy a "butt" it will usually be cut above the location of the superficial cervical lymph node (aka prescapular node), so you won't find it. If not already trimmed out at slaughter, it may be found in the "picnic" or if you get an entire shoulder. It usually looks like a discrete nodule of pinkish/grey tissue with a consistency not unlike that of fat. If present it should be easy enough to find while trimming fat. On the other hand, if you miss it, it will do no harm to your cook and you will certainly find it while pulling the pork. Just discard it at that time. It won't hurt the surrounding tissue at all. Regardless of the FDA rules, lots of smaller lymph nodes get ground up into burger &/or sausage rather routinely and do no appreciable damage to either the taste or health safety of the end result.
Actually, I like to remove the lymph gland myself- a smooth clean pink gland is often the sign of a healthy animal. The USDA worries the lymph system (and larger glands) store TB and salmonella and various parasites. Which they do, if the animal is sick. Healthy glands, cooking above 150F for a couple of hours, and should be quite safe.
Grill/Smoke/Roast = SnS Grills Kettle + SnS Deluxe Insert & Drip n' Griddle
Grill/Smoke/Roast = Hasty-Bake Gourmet Dual Finish with HB rotisserie and Grill Grates
Smoke = Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5"
Pizza = Blackstone Propane Pizza Oven (Stacy's, but she let's me use it sometimes)
Indoor Cooking = LG Studio 30" gas range
Camp Cooking = Coleman 2 burner white gas stove
Thermometer = FireBoard FBX2 with 2 ambient and 6 meat probes
Thermapen Mk IV = Light blue
Thermapen Mk IV = Black
PID Controller = Fireboard Drive + Auber 20 CFM Fan (FB gen 1 fan)
PID Controller = Fireboard Drive + Fireboard 20 CFM Fan (FB gen 2 fan)
Knives
Wusthof Classic Ikon set: 9" carving knive, 2X 8" Chef's Knife, 7" Santoku and three utility knives
Kamikoto Kuro set: 7" Santoku, 6.5" Nakiri, 5" Utility
Amazing Ribs Brazilian Steak knife set
Favorite wine = whatever is currently in the wine rack
Favorite beer = Sam Adams Boston Lager or Shiner Bock
Favorite whisky = Lagavulin Distiller's Edition 16 year old single malt
Best Cookbooks - Meathead's "The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling", Chris Lilly's "Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book", Aaron Franklin's "Franklin BBQ"
Cookbooks to check out - Raichlen's "Brisket Chronicles" and anything by Adam Perry Lang.
Current fanboy cookbook - "Chasing Smoke: Cooking Over Fire Around the Levant"
Want to the butcher. Older guy. Really nice. Took his time with me. Felt like I was "behind the curtain." He didn't know name of gland but said removal was particularly important with sausage making. I've made sausage a few times with some farmer friends of mine and they always cringed when we heard the gland go through the grinder.
Removal of gland was not effortless. The gentleman had difficulty finding and in fact found only glands in one of the shoulders.
There were two thoughts I had.
1. Removal is currently out of my 'butchering paygrade.'
2. Removal is NOT-NOT invasive which is to say it is invasive. As you can see I had him tie the shoulder. (still can't do the butcher knot)
I'm not overly concerned since I'm doing pulled pork anyway and the added exposure allowed for more rub to be applied.
I was lazy and rubbed with commercial rub - Butt Rub. A little salty and not balanced so I sprinkled with brown sugar too.
We'll see what happens. I'm totally doing what I do which is to say over thinking the Q.
One last thing a good friend of mine chef/Owner of a few places was the one who taught me about the gland. He has a great Italian specialty store and restaurant. They make their own sausage, pancetta etc so he's familiar with porcine production. He warned me that non removal of the gland results in a foul urine smell.
In my obsessive pork shoulder research I read about "boar taint." A lovely topic I assure you.
Some of these misconceptions regarding boar taint and its management are put right by Dr Darryl D’Souza of GM Research & Innovation at Australian Pork Limited in the publication, Pig Tales from th
Sorry, but I'm gonna throw the "BS flag" on that one. The way to get a strong boar/urine smell or taste (boar taint) is to cook meat from a sexually mature boar hog. It does not come from the lymph node and removing the lymph node won't make it go away. That's why male hogs headed for slaughter are all castrated at a very young age. Most hogs these days get to slaughter weight before sexual maturity but still, it's just not a risk anyone wants to take. Plus, check the market prices and see what the price of boar hogs is. They are almost free (because the world only needs so much pepperoni ) Don't be scaring everyone here into thinking they need to tear apart every piece of pork looking for a "gland" or their bbq pork will taste like boar pi$$! It just don't work that way!
This entire thread makes me throw up in my mouth a little. The idea of "glands" needing to be removed from something I'm about to eat just don't sit well with me. I've seen and smelled a LOT of things that most human beings should not in my line of work but for some reason this just does me in.
Comment