Fried Fruit: AFS's own blueberry sausage gets a blue ribbon
Evidence opposites attract: blueberry sausage patties. Texas Tech's meat science department makes the winning combo. Batches that weigh up to 500 pounds are churned out in a frosty room at the Gordon W. Davis Meat Science Laboratory on the western edge of Tech's campus.
The spicy-but-sweet pork sausage won first place last month at the National Meat Association's cook-off in Las Vegas.
"To me, it almost tastes like a maple sausage. It's very good," said Bradley Price, the manager of Tech's meat lab.
Students and scientists at high-profile agriculture universities across the country are trying to push the boundaries of meat science, and Tech appears to be at the front of the pack - in the cook-off, its patties bested new meat products from Texas A&M, Florida State and California State University-Fresno.
Think blueberry sausage sounds weird? One team at the cook-off made peanut butter bacon, said Shanna Ward, a Tech meat science major and one of four students who represented Tech at the cook-off. Other promising meat products are in the works at Tech, including pineapple smoked ham and meat desserts, said Ward, a junior from Coffeyville, Kan., who grew up on a cattle farm.
"The whole idea (of dessert meats) seems pretty gross," Ward said, "but you never know."
Price said, "A lot of it's trial and error. If we fail, we just say OK and we'll move on. People here are not afraid to think outside the box."
The process for making blueberry sausage is three-part: add blueberry puree to pork sausage during the grinding process, then form into patties and cook.
Already, roughly 50 meat products made at the university's meat lab are sold at a campus store near the intersection of Main and Indiana streets, Price said. The selection at Tech's Cowamongus! Creamery and Meat Company includes jalapeno sausage, prime rib and bratwurst. Proceeds from meat sales go back to the meat science department, Price said.
Blueberry sausage was added to the store's shelves about six months ago, but Tech graduate Jennifer Leheska, who has a doctorate in meat science and is a nutrition consultant for the beef industry, developed the recipe years ago as she searched for healthy school lunch options for kids, she said.
"We know that children tend to waste their fruits and vegetables more than anything," Leheska said.
Adding antioxidant-rich blueberries just made sense, Leheska said. When she graduated, meat science students and professors continued to tweak her recipe.
Like meat science major Ward, Leheska grew up on a farm. Her parents raised hogs. But the technical world of meat science wasn't something she thought much of as a girl.
"Although it was an obvious component to our industry, it was all new to me as an undergrad," said Leheska, whose interest in the field grew from a stint on Ohio State's meat judging team.
Tech's meat judging team, which grades cuts of pork, beef and lamb, won first place earlier this month at the Houston Livestock Show's Meat Judging Contest for the fifth year in a row. The contest is the third win of this year for the 15-member team and its eighth consecutive overall win.
"I found my passion in meat science. It's something that I can grasp onto and it's so interesting," said Ward, 21.
The best thing: there's no foreseeable job lull in this field, students said.
"You always need to eat," joked meat science major Cassandra Chancey, who also represented Tech at the Las Vegas cook-off.
By Marlena Hartz | Avalanche-Journal |Thursday, March 19, 2009
Editor's Note: For more information and photography, please click http://lubbockonline.com/stories/031909/fea_411631187.shtml
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