Pig fat!

[CPXB]

I'm looking to make some sausage and I'm looking for a place in the South Bay area where I can pick up some back fat in small lots. I'm in Santa Cruz but none of the places around here seem to carry it, they can order it but they want to stick me with upwards of thirty pounds of the stuff and I don't need that much.

So, I turn here for an answer! :)

[WileysHungryAgain]

Try using some pork belly (avail at asian mkts) instead of back fat. It has a nice ratio of fat to lean, and the lean is usually well marbled. Just cut back on the lean from your shoulder, or get a bit extra pork belly so you ratios remain intact.

[Ruth Lafler]

Have you tried a Mexican market?

[CPXB]

I can get pork scraps that I could render into the fat I need, but I'd be comfortable skipping that step, really. ;)

[SteveG]

Why would you render the fat to put it into a sausage? Sausage is fundamentally an assemblage of scraps, and it seems to me when I make it at home, if I just use one nice clean cut of meat, the resulting sausage lacks the complexity of flavor that makes a good sausage so satisfying. Just buy fatty scraps of pork (should be cheap cheap cheap, or thrown in for free if you're buying other meat at that butcher), throw them in the freezer for a bit, and grind em up with your other meat.

[Robert Lauriston]

I'm with you on rendering sounding wrong, but substituting any old fat scraps for back fat could mess up the texture.