FMT,
I noticed in your Texas Hot Links post, your excellent recipe in grams. You list fat back as one ingredient. At my local grocer I've seen packages of fat back in sealed plastic. They appear to have a thin hide on them and then the fat back is about 1/2" thick. Appears you need to slice the hide off of them. Is that what you are using. Do you get pork fat trimmings for your sausage from your butcher? Your sausage work always looks so good and "clean".

There is a butcher in our area that vac seals and freezes approximately 1 pound packs of fat back. His come ready to use, so he must take the skin off for another purpose. They make alot of their own products, and I'm guessing they use the skin for something. What is left is about what you said. A 1/4 to 1/2 inch slabs of pure white fat.

For the pork, I almost always just buy a butt and cut out the gnarly parts to get the best meat.

Thanks for the compliment on the sausage making. I'm getting better and better with each run. Sometimes it doesn't go as well as others, but it usually turns out pretty good. The funny thing is, I actually don't eat all that much sausage. I like the process  and recipe development aspect, but usually have a few slices to check flavor then freeze the rest.

I cook the frozen batches when we have birthday parties or get togethers,  but rarely eat more than a couple bites myself.

Veal is a high end meatball in my opinion...but what a taste! 

The Meatball is such a versatile cook. Appetizer, sandwich, snack, meal...so many options...For me, the challenge lately has been getting the bread ratio correct.  It never seemed to be, but now it is, and it is the same with meatloaf.  So you try and plod along till you hit that high note...

Used the meatballs tonight for traditional spaghetti and meatballs. Hit the spot.



Cross section of the meatballs. Like I mentioned earlier it's a really loose mixture, which I like much better than the super dense ones. Many times in restaurants they will have good flavor, but look almost like a solid surface when you cut them in half.

Super!

Looks really tasty.

That's not spaghetti and meatballs
That's meatballs and spaghetti!
Nice!

I have had great success with meatballs from Malcom Reed's site.

How to BBQ Right:

Beautiful color on those meatballs. When I do them on the smoker, they definitely take on a better color. Not quite like yours because the veal is lighter to start with. I fry mine sometimes, but the oven or grill is less mess.