211 replies to this topic

[Chris Amirault]

Turned a 20# Coleman pork shoulder into three different types of sausage this weekend: a saucisson sec based on this recipe but using Clear Creek Distillery's Eau de Vie Pomme instead of calvados; some hunter's sausage with rosemary bacon; and some classic Italian sausage. The saucisson sec is curing in this curing chamber, and the other two are drying in the fridge before I pack them up.

Definitely making a more significant commitment to drying the fresh sausage this time around, and was fascistic about freezing the meat before the bind. However, with such a massive batch of meat to process, I was straining the limits of my KitchenAid. What do people use to mix their ground meat to get the bind set up?

[PetersCreek]

I hope I'm not resurrecting a thread too far gone but this is a great topic.

I've been making the summer sausage recipe Charcuterie for some time now but after making a few dry cured salamis and doing some more reading, I've been really interested in making it with a culture instead of Fermento. So, I tackled it this weekend. Unfortunately, I did not document the project with pictures.

I settled on the recipe in "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages" by Stanley and Adam Marianski, with a couple of minor changes. I used a ~50/50 mix of pork and beef rather than the 70/30 ratio called for (I felt like a beefier product this time) and I substituted Bactoferm LHP for the recommended F-LC, which I did not have on hand. The pork shoulder I bought was skin-on with a nice layer of fat, so I didn't feel the need to add additional fat to compensate for the increase in lean beef.

I broke the meat down on Friday night and prepared my cure and dry seasonings. Saturday morning, I prepped the oven with a heating pad set on high under a baking dish of water and I turned the light on for additional warmth. I then ground, mixed, and stuffed the mixture into 1½" fibrous casings, hog-ringed to 6" lengths, with little extra left over to make a mini sample sausage. All went into the oven for 24 hours of incubation at 95-100°F. Today, the sausages went in to the Bradley smoker for 4 hours over Jim Beam oak bisquettes at 115°F, followed by gradually increasing smokeless heat to finish.

Of course, the sample piece didn't survive the night. This is, hands down, my new summer sausage recipe of choice. No disrespect to R&P but Fermento just doesn't compare to the mouth-watering tang the little critters gave this sausage. It's not even close.

Chris — I can sympathize with you on taxing the KA capacity. This batch was a touch over 6 lbs and my 6qt KA complained a bit about starting up. I do believe my next equipment purchase will be a small mixer bin.