Sausage Making

[woodburner]

The USDA currently limits the total fat content of fresh sausage to 50 percent, which is pretty freakin high in most people's world including mine.

Ground beef is graded to lean/fat content, ie: 80/20 for ground chuck.

What is puzzling, to me at least, is that there is no current limit to the fat content in store bought ground pork. I don't expect nor do I want, the federalies to watch over me, don't get me wrong, but what would be so radically wrong with listing the fat content on ground pork packages?

Or better yet, how can I test for the fat content, in my home?

woodburner

[coquus]

I have just been making some salami from Aidell's book, he says 80/20 for that. For fresh sausage, I believe, he recommends a slightly higher fat content, 70/30? And a pork butt is also a pork shoulder, and the acutal gluteus maximus belongs to the ham.

[daves]

I've done both straight pork butt as well as adding more fat -- depending on the sausage type and if I was smoking them or not. I've experimented with a few batches to figure out how fatty we like our sausage, so I agree with the poster above to make a batch with each to determine how you like your sausage.

[GordonCooks]

Get Ruhlman's new "Charcuterie" book - I'm halfway through and I'm becoming a sausage scientist.

[POLKEDOT]

When attached, picnic shoulder and pork butt are the front shoulder. The break is at the shoulder joint, putting the picnic lower on the pig, closest to the foot. The butt is attached to the loin. On a cow the "butt" would be called "chuck".

My experience in making sausage is the same as Juanito's. 65-35 lean to fat ratio, maybe even closer to 60-40. I would not expect 80-20 to have much flavor.

Side note, most people I made venison sausage for preferred almost 50% venison to 50% pork fat.

[coquus]

I have a quick question about my first batch of salami. I don't suppose you have had the experience of the lactobacillus mold (white stuff) turning green. It should be almost done, some of them felt right, but I noticed today that in addition to the white stuff some of them had some mosy greenish mold growth. Have you had the experience of bad mold taking over or is this just another stage in the cycle of the good mold? Aidell's book says to wash off the green mold and re seed it with white mold, but I don't think he meant at this stage after it was already well seeded. I am hoping for a quick answer in case something is wrong, and there is something I can do about it.

[Ore]

In my opinion you can just brush off this green mold if you are at the ready to eat stage.

Then again, if the green mold is taking over and you see it in FULL EFFECT then there may be something wrong. I wouldn't worry about it too much if there is a small hint of green.

Let someone know before you try your salami...just to be safe (j/k!)

How about a photo?

[jmolinari]

What happened to the replies I and Ruhlman posted to Coquus' question?

[davebr]

Put in curing chamber set at about 52 deg. F and 75%

humidity.

after about 4 or 5 weeks the meat should have lost

about 35% of its weight (weight from after cure).

←

I am at the point that my coppe need to hang(I used the Rhulman book recipe,,,kinda). I dont have a curing chamber. How bad is it for me to put it in the walk-in? Is a curing chamber something Im gonna have to drop a few dimes on?

[davebr]

  I came back to the US (Los Angeles area) yesterday and I am in the process of searching for quality Pork and the works for a small salumi biznes!

Some pics are on the blog.

Ore

←

Did you ever start your salumi biz in LA?

[Tri2Cook]

Digging this one up to ask a question from the department of cheapness. In a fit of excitement, when I got a meat grinder for Christmas last year, I ordered an overabundance of sausage making supplies. Now, almost 11 months later, I have two remaining unopened, constantly refrigerated packages of hog casings. Since they don't smell like sunshine and roses when brand-new, how do I know if they're still okay to use? I ordered a few more supplies over the weekend including some more casings (I'm giving the tubed version a try this time despite the higher cost) but, in the interest of waste not, want not, I'll use up the other casings first if they're still safe.

[Martin Fisher]

Salt-packed casings remain safe to use indefinitely but quality tapers off with age. If they're good quality casings, they should retain their quality for at least 4-5 years.

[Tri2Cook]

Sounds good to me. Thanks!

[Tri2Cook]

Got some 105 mm x 61 cm fibrous casings today. I think I'm going to try making bologna and mortadella. Also got about 160' of shirred cellulose casing. Gonna give skinless hotdogs a try.

[Martin Fisher]

Sounds like you're going to be busy. 

[Tri2Cook]

Not sure if I should ask this here or in a sous vide thread but I'm gonna go with here. If I want to cook a bologna sous vide, does it have to be bagged in addition to the fibrous casing (the casings I bought are listed as "for water cooking")? I've seen things cooked directly in the bath without bagging but I always assumed it probably wasn't the best idea. I'm thinking sous vide would be the easiest way to keep from going too high with the temp but bagging it would have to be a delicate procedure to keep from crushing it while still uncooked. Maybe just use a big ziplock and the dunk-it-in-water-to-remove-air method?

[Martin Fisher]

I definitely recommend bagging it.

 

However, there are high-barrier casings that are safe to just toss in the bath without bagging.......

 

http://www.sausagemaker.com/highbarriercasings.aspx

[Tri2Cook]

I'm using these. They're listed as "for water cooking and head cheese". I'm fine with bagging though, just thought I'd ask in case it was unnecessary.

[Martin Fisher]

I don't have experience with those particular casings, but some fibrous casings that can be cooked in water will still leach some.

[Willie]

This is a great thread! I recently made about 10 pounds of bear sausage for a client. Basically it's an Italian style sausage with fennel, coriander, fresh garlic, granulated onion, pepper, salt, dad's daily red wine, and fresh parsley. This was a young bear who had been gorging on huckleberries for the last month prior to harvesting. I'm amazed how much talent is out there in the charcuterie arts on this site.

[Tri2Cook]

Just for fun, made these this morning. Jerk pork sausages. Made a jerk seasoning paste, mixed it with the pork and stuffed it into hog casings. The non-linked section is for a friend. He requested a small coil... not sure why that preference but it was easy to accommodate. I also kept about a lb. that I didn't stuff. I'm going to make burger patties with it and toss them on the grill.





 

[radtek]

Sausage maker here...

 

Looks like your friend has made out like a bandit with that "small-coil"! 

[Tri2Cook]

Sausage maker here...

 

Looks like your friend has made out like a bandit with that "small-coil"! 

Yeah, I was a bit generous with it but we swap out stuff all the time. I've had my turns at the receiving end. I fried up a small patty of the reserved sausage meat just to check it out and it's pretty tasty. Should be even better after a night in the fridge letting the flavors get cozy with each other.

 

[Okanagancook]

I have a question.  I will be making Rick Bayless chorizo sausage and our friends want to put the sausage in casings.  I have made this recipe before but did not put in casings because I was going to use it only in his recipes which call for it out of the casings.  The recipe says to grind all the ingredients together and put in the fridge over night for the flavours to meld together then stuff the next day.

I want to make the sausage and stuff it right away because our friends will be here to help make everything.  What is the difference between the recipe resting the meat unstuffed versus stuffing the meat and then putting the sausages in the fridge overnight for the flavours to meld.  Can't see that stuffing them would prevent the flavours from melding.

[Tri2Cook]

I always stuff right after mixing. Well, right after frying up a small piece to make sure I'm happy with the seasoning anyway. Any flavor melding that's going to happen will happen perfectly fine inside the casings.