Josh (Yosh) - 10/30/22 §
Questions and answers §
- Do I need to double grind?
- No, unless you are making an pureed sausage (hotdog, banger)
- Salt before you grind?
- Let salt + all seasonings sit overnight
- Do I need to cure?
- Only if you are smoking since the sausage will sit at lower temperatures for longer
- What kind of salt, Mortons or Diamond?
- Doesn’t really matter if measuring by weight
- Main difference between these two is the crystal size which can play with the salt content when measuring by volume
- Diamond is the industry standard (supposedly)
Equipment §
- “Prick”
- Had three little pins on it, great for getting the air out of the stuffed casing
- Bus tub
- Low sided container makes it easy to mix large quantities of sausage
- Stuffer
- At least 5 pound capacity
- Much better than trying to auger using the grinder as it gives you a consistent pressure and flow rate
- Sausage hone
- stainless, probably comes with stuffer?
Ingredients §
- Pork shoulder is about 75% lean
- Target fat content should be about 30% lean (aka add fat to get to this amount)
- Sausage can go up to 50% lean and still be good
- Requires coarse + fine grind combined
- Jowels have the best fat but are hard to get
- back fat adds texture but doesn’t melt
- Salt content should be 1.8-2% by weight (of meat + fat)
- More spices require more hydration to bind
- garlic puree is acceptable
- 1kg of meat = 100g liquid
- a little more if smoking
- The animal can make a big difference here, dry aging dries out the meat
- If the meat is too wet it can be dried out with an overnight salting
- Allow meat + fat + spices (and salt) to sit overnight before grinding
- Don’t include your added moisture/liquid here
- Pepper is added at 0.1-0.4% (1.0-4.0 g per 1 kg of meat)
- Adding 1 - 2 g sugar per 1 kg of meat helps to preserve the color of the sausage.
- Use of a small quantity of sugar is said to brighten the color of sausages.
- Spices are normally added at around 0.1-0.2% (1-2 g/kg)
Adjuncts §
Cheese §
- Looking for a 60/40 or 50/50 meat / cheese ratio (by weight)
- Needs a binder link corn starch to be mixed in with it
- Because of the binder it won’t necessarily be tacky when mixed
- If looking to add to grind the only acceptable cheese is american cheese
- Don’t need binder/starch if using american cheese
- If not using kraft singles, mix after
- Mix 90% of the way before adding cheese
Grinding §
- Match your blade with your die
- The blade and the die will wear down together and you will get shavings in your meat if you switch them up
- This will cause faster dulling as well
Die size §
- 3/16” is what they use for “standard sausage”
- 1/4” for burger
- 3/8” for chorizo and lapchang
- 1/2” for part of the pate base
Mixing §
- Most important step
- Mix by hand, even for large quantities
- Get a busser tub to have a low sided large vessel
- When mixing you can assess moisture content, should be able to have a pound of mix hanging from your hand
- You are trying to “make glue” in this step aka should be really tacky
Casing §
- Standard Sausage casings are 22-24 mm hog casings
- Using flow-line casings makes a big difference
- For pepperoni/salami use “beef middles”
- Check out Oversea Casing Company
- Make sure to push out all the air when putting mixture into stuffer
- Extrude some mixture before tying the casing to ensure all the air is out
- When tying casing in the front make sure to leave extra casing as the knot will slip
- Use your non-crank hand to help regulate the flow of the sausage
- Too constricted and you will burst the casing
Linking §
- Easiest if done with a long table
- Don’t forget to prick if you have air in the casing
- Start from the stuffer and work towards the front
- You need to squish the sausages down from either side unit firm
- Alternate directions
- You can kind of “twirl” with both hands
Curing §
- Only need to cure if you are smoking as this has the sausage sit at a lower temperature
- Use about .2% #1 cure (pink salt) with about 1.8% regular salt
- Using curing salt will make things turn pink
Smoking §
- Recommends a temperature of about 150 degrees
Books §
- The Home Production of Quality Meat and Sausage
- Olympic Provisions has a good book
- Chinese Cooking Demystified (Youtube Channel)