Last year I killed a hog that I butchered and turned into a little bit of sausage - nowhere near the amount I was hoping for though.

I think my main problem was the amount of meat which was discarded. I have scoured the internet but I am unable to find out what exactly this purple-ish membrane is between the meat. I thought it was some type of tendon or sinew, and I'm not sure if it is supposed to be discarded or not.

Here's a picture of what it is:



Just to the left of the knife, you can see the purple-colored membrane.

So this year, if I kill something and go to process it into sausage, is this left on the meat or cut off, before going into the grinder (with some beef fat)?

Thanks for the help.

It's commonly refered to as "silver skin" if you're grinding fine for burger or sausage no problem, leave it. Cubing for stew meat or cutting roast steaks from the hams, take off as much as possible.

hope this helps.

Agree, will leave a sick film in your throat...

That helps a ton guys. "Silverskin" brings up a lot more results than what I was trying to search for

Thanks, and I'll remove it on most of the cuts.

I remove the thick silverskin before grinding as well. The thinner stuff between muscle sections is fine to grind up.

Right - I always remove the outer stuff. That tastes awful...I'd say it's near inedible even. But the inner stuff between the muscles is what I'm referring to. Thanks Justin!

The inner stuff is just a connective fiber that is edible once ground. The silver is not (as you know).

if you have large amounts of silver skin, it is sometimes easier to use a paper towel to grab it and pull it away. the texture is sometimes hard to deal with, but the paper towel helps out...

We always remove it.

The thick silver skin sure makes great coyote, bobcat and fox trapping bait.

I discard as much silver skin as possible and I don't worry about the connective tissue so much. My sausage is never gristley.