Update: case closed, all signs point to boar taint. 
Hello fine folks
I've made a few batches of sausages so far, and have been feeling confident in the process. I decided to experiment with flavors and ingredients in my latest batch. When the sausages were finished, I went in for a test, and something was off. I'm including a detailed writeup of the process in the hopes that a keen observer can spot where I went wrong! 
I used two bone-in cryovac pork butts. I bought them 6 months ago and immediately put them the deep freezer. I moved them to the fridge last week and let them thaw for 4 days before processing them. Upon opening the cryovacs, one of the butts had a stronger sulfur smell than the other. I've cooked dozens and dozens of cryovac'd pork butts and am familiar with the sulfur smell they sometimes have, so I rinsed as usual, didn't think much of it, and continued processing. No discoloration or anything on either of the butts.
For seasonings, I used kosher salt, pink salt, black pepper. I also roasted a few onions and a few heads of garlic. I sent the roasted onions and garlic through the grinder first to make a "mash", then sent the pork through, then mixed the seasonings and pork until tacky. Fried up a test patty, tasted great, stuffed into casings and let rest in the fridge overnight. The casings had been frozen, leftover from a package that I used previously. I thawed them in a bowl of water an hour before I used them.
This morning I smoked for 2 hours cold smoke (pellet smoke tube) then 2 hours warm smoke (160*F pellet smoker), pulled them, poached until cooked through. I used Kirkland brand pellets, the same as I always use, never had any issues with them. I've also done the smoke tube followed by pellet smoker in the past with great results.
When I bit into a sausage, something was off about the taste. I can't totally put my finger on it, it's hard to even describe the flavor. It didn't taste sour or rancid.. perhaps a little.. musty? I had my wife taste and she said the same thing. My kids tried it and they actually liked it! The sausages aren't terrible, but they're bad enough that I'm going to toss the batch and write this one off as a loss, sadly.
Any thoughts on what went wrong here? I suspect it's something to do with the onions. Maybe the roasted onion mash didn't play nicely with the smoke?
Hello fine folks
I've made a few batches of sausages so far, and have been feeling confident in the process. I decided to experiment with flavors and ingredients in my latest batch. When the sausages were finished, I went in for a test, and something was off. I'm including a detailed writeup of the process in the hopes that a keen observer can spot where I went wrong! I used two bone-in cryovac pork butts. I bought them 6 months ago and immediately put them the deep freezer. I moved them to the fridge last week and let them thaw for 4 days before processing them. Upon opening the cryovacs, one of the butts had a stronger sulfur smell than the other. I've cooked dozens and dozens of cryovac'd pork butts and am familiar with the sulfur smell they sometimes have, so I rinsed as usual, didn't think much of it, and continued processing. No discoloration or anything on either of the butts.
For seasonings, I used kosher salt, pink salt, black pepper. I also roasted a few onions and a few heads of garlic. I sent the roasted onions and garlic through the grinder first to make a "mash", then sent the pork through, then mixed the seasonings and pork until tacky. Fried up a test patty, tasted great, stuffed into casings and let rest in the fridge overnight. The casings had been frozen, leftover from a package that I used previously. I thawed them in a bowl of water an hour before I used them.
This morning I smoked for 2 hours cold smoke (pellet smoke tube) then 2 hours warm smoke (160*F pellet smoker), pulled them, poached until cooked through. I used Kirkland brand pellets, the same as I always use, never had any issues with them. I've also done the smoke tube followed by pellet smoker in the past with great results.
When I bit into a sausage, something was off about the taste. I can't totally put my finger on it, it's hard to even describe the flavor. It didn't taste sour or rancid.. perhaps a little.. musty? I had my wife taste and she said the same thing. My kids tried it and they actually liked it! The sausages aren't terrible, but they're bad enough that I'm going to toss the batch and write this one off as a loss, sadly.
Any thoughts on what went wrong here? I suspect it's something to do with the onions. Maybe the roasted onion mash didn't play nicely with the smoke?
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