Sausages--Cook-Off 17

[snowangel]

Jeff, please do read the Food Safety with Cured or Smoked Meats and Charcuterie topics for more on this subject. More details on your projects, too!

[mdbasile]

cold smoked chirizo....

[Hawthorne]

i had the KA stuffer until my KA broke, then i got a DLX assistent -- works wonderfully especially on large batches... except sometimes it chokes on gristle and fat. 

want a "free" sausage stuffer?  take a 2-liter bottle of soda, cut out the lower 2/3 of the bottle, put your sausage casings -- like a sock -- onto the mouth of the bottle.  put your sausage mix into the used-to-be-upper-third of the bottle.  push down with knife or spoon or whatever works for you.  crude, but works in a pinch, or when you don't want to spend $$$ on a stuffer, or when like me, you're too lazy to take out the parts of your machine and put them together.  especially for small batches this is what i usually end up doing -- either this or make skinless sausages instead.

←

I'm a johnny-come-lately to this discussion, but as I've been thinking of making skinless sausage, (KA, all that planning ahead to get casings, etc), I'd like to hear more on this.

I have made sausage (loose) a couple of times, but still working on the seasonings ... I'm trying for McGarry's (Canada), and/or bangers.

I have searched every way I can think of here for a recipe for bangers, but can't find one - surely that can't be right???

tia :-)

[Bombdog]

I'm a johnny-come-lately to this discussion, but as I've been thinking of making skinless sausage, (KA, all that planning ahead to get casings, etc), I'd like to hear more on this.

I have made sausage (loose) a couple of times, but still working on the seasonings ... I'm trying for McGarry's (Canada), and/or bangers.

I have searched every way I can think of here for a recipe for bangers, but can't find one - surely that can't be right???

tia :-)

←

I found one in Professional Charcuterie by Kinsella and Harvey.

I'm not sure I can quote the recipe, so I'll just list some ingredients and see if it will fly.

They call for beef at the standard ratio of 20 percent fat and then salt, sage, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, onion powder and dried parsley.

Hope that helps

[Hawthorne]

I'm a johnny-come-lately to this discussion, but as I've been thinking of making skinless sausage, (KA, all that planning ahead to get casings, etc), I'd like to hear more on this.

I have made sausage (loose) a couple of times, but still working on the seasonings ... I'm trying for McGarry's (Canada), and/or bangers.

I have searched every way I can think of here for a recipe for bangers, but can't find one - surely that can't be right???

tia :-)

←

I found one in Professional Charcuterie by Kinsella and Harvey.

I'm not sure I can quote the recipe, so I'll just list some ingredients and see if it will fly.

They call for beef at the standard ratio of 20 percent fat and then salt, sage, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, onion powder and dried parsley.

Hope that helps

←

Yes, thanks, it does - this is really the best forum ever; having posted that rather desperate query, I discovered that bangers are also Oxford sausages, and that I did have a recipe - which apart from calling for pork and veal is seasoned as you have said. It wouldn't have occured to me to make them with beef, truthfully.

So the pork should be just about thawed in the morning, and I'll have a go at them :-)

Would it be right to assume that trying to make skinless sausages at home would be pushing the envelope? I have what is probably a lifetime supply of hog casings, but not sure I can find sheep casings locally, and skinless has its attraction -

thanks!

[tristar]

I'm a johnny-come-lately to this discussion, but as I've been thinking of making skinless sausage, (KA, all that planning ahead to get casings, etc), I'd like to hear more on this.

I have made sausage (loose) a couple of times, but still working on the seasonings ... I'm trying for McGarry's (Canada), and/or bangers.

I have searched every way I can think of here for a recipe for bangers, but can't find one - surely that can't be right???

tia :-)

←

I found one in Professional Charcuterie by Kinsella and Harvey.

I'm not sure I can quote the recipe, so I'll just list some ingredients and see if it will fly.

They call for beef at the standard ratio of 20 percent fat and then salt, sage, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, onion powder and dried parsley.

Hope that helps

←

Yes, thanks, it does - this is really the best forum ever; having posted that rather desperate query, I discovered that bangers are also Oxford sausages, and that I did have a recipe - which apart from calling for pork and veal is seasoned as you have said. It wouldn't have occured to me to make them with beef, truthfully.

So the pork should be just about thawed in the morning, and I'll have a go at them :-)

Would it be right to assume that trying to make skinless sausages at home would be pushing the envelope? I have what is probably a lifetime supply of hog casings, but not sure I can find sheep casings locally, and skinless has its attraction -

thanks!

←

Traditionally British bangers are made with pork, Oxford sausages are a mixture of half pork and half veal, but the critical Ingredient in any British Banger is rusk or breadcrumbs. A typical Oxford Sausage recipe is as follows:

1/2 lb ground lean pork

1/2 lb lean ground veal or lamb

6 ounces suet

fresh breadcrumbs, made from 3 slices of white bread,including crust

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon mace

1/8 teaspoon dried thyme

1/8 teaspoon dried marjoram

2 teaspoons dried sage

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon finely grated lemons, rind of

1 large egg

prepared hog casings (can't get sausage casings, shape the sausage mixture into patties instead of link sausages)

Knead together the pork, veal, fat, and bread.

Stir the salt, pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, mace, thyme, marjoram, sage, onion powder and lemon peel into the egg, and then knead into the meat mixture.

At this point, fry a small sausage patty and taste it so that you can adjust the seasonings, because the recipe so far is fairly mild.

Firmly stuff the mixture into the prepared hog (sausage) casings.

Prick any air pockets with a pin.

Poach, broil, grill, or fry them before serving.

Serve the bangers, drowned in nice thick onion and mushroom gravy, with a heap of mashed potatoes.

The raw sausages can be refrigerated for 3 days, cooked sausages for 1 week.

They can also be frozen (raw, poached, or broiled) for 3 months.

A more traditional British recipe for Bangers:

British Breakfast Sausage courtesy of Len Poli

2 1/2 lb Pork shoulder, cut in cubes and chilled well

1 lb Fresh pork fat, cut in cubes and chilled well

2 tsp. Salt

1/2 cup Rusk or dry bread crumbs

1 tsp. Ground white pepper

3/4 tsp. Rubbed sage

1/2 tsp. Mace

1/4 tsp. Ground ginger

1/4 tsp. Nutmeg

3/4 cup Chicken broth

Grind pork and fat together using

the medium plate of your meat grinder.

Add all ingredients except stock, mixing well.

Grind again through a finer plate.

Add in the broth and mix well.

Stuff mixture into casings and tie

in 4-5 inch lengths.

Best Regards,

Richard

[Abra]

I don't actually get how to make skinless sausages. When we did the hot dog trials my husband was wishing for skinless dogs, but neither of us could figure out how it's done. Has anyone done it successfully at home?

[Chris Amirault]

Have you tried wrapping them in plastic wrap and boiling them in it? I've seen that suggested, though I've never tried it.

[Hawthorne]

I'm a johnny-come-lately to this discussion, but as I've been thinking of making skinless sausage, (KA, all that planning ahead to get casings, etc), I'd like to hear more on this.

I have made sausage (loose) a couple of times, but still working on the seasonings ... I'm trying for McGarry's (Canada), and/or bangers.

I have searched every way I can think of here for a recipe for bangers, but can't find one - surely that can't be right???

tia :-)

←

I found one in Professional Charcuterie by Kinsella and Harvey.

I'm not sure I can quote the recipe, so I'll just list some ingredients and see if it will fly.

They call for beef at the standard ratio of 20 percent fat and then salt, sage, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, onion powder and dried parsley.

Hope that helps

←

Yes, thanks, it does - this is really the best forum ever; having posted that rather desperate query, I discovered that bangers are also Oxford sausages, and that I did have a recipe - which apart from calling for pork and veal is seasoned as you have said. It wouldn't have occured to me to make them with beef, truthfully.

So the pork should be just about thawed in the morning, and I'll have a go at them :-)

Would it be right to assume that trying to make skinless sausages at home would be pushing the envelope? I have what is probably a lifetime supply of hog casings, but not sure I can find sheep casings locally, and skinless has its attraction -

thanks!

←

Traditionally British bangers are made with pork, Oxford sausages are a mixture of half pork and half veal, but the critical Ingredient in any British Banger is rusk or breadcrumbs.

[snip]

←

I made them today - I split the difference between two recipes, very like the two you have offered but not identical .. Mace seems to be pretty nearly a requisite, and it turned out I don't have any, so I went with a pinch more nutmeg and a hit of savory. Will have to get some mace.

The test fry came out very well, and I went ahead and stuffed them. As I have not stuffed any before, these aren't as pretty as they might be, but I'm sure another foray or two will mend that.

We will eat the first round tomorrow, by which time the seasoning should have matured a little, and I expect they will be better in the skins than the bit I test fried.

Thank you for the recipes - all input gratefully accepted. I have a hunch this will be an ongoing project!

Lynn

[tristar]

I'm a johnny-come-lately to this discussion, but as I've been thinking of making skinless sausage, (KA, all that planning ahead to get casings, etc), I'd like to hear more on this.

I have made sausage (loose) a couple of times, but still working on the seasonings ... I'm trying for McGarry's (Canada), and/or bangers.

I have searched every way I can think of here for a recipe for bangers, but can't find one - surely that can't be right???

tia :-)

←

I found one in Professional Charcuterie by Kinsella and Harvey.

I'm not sure I can quote the recipe, so I'll just list some ingredients and see if it will fly.

They call for beef at the standard ratio of 20 percent fat and then salt, sage, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, onion powder and dried parsley.

Hope that helps

←

Yes, thanks, it does - this is really the best forum ever; having posted that rather desperate query, I discovered that bangers are also Oxford sausages, and that I did have a recipe - which apart from calling for pork and veal is seasoned as you have said. It wouldn't have occured to me to make them with beef, truthfully.

So the pork should be just about thawed in the morning, and I'll have a go at them :-)

Would it be right to assume that trying to make skinless sausages at home would be pushing the envelope? I have what is probably a lifetime supply of hog casings, but not sure I can find sheep casings locally, and skinless has its attraction -

thanks!

←

Traditionally British bangers are made with pork, Oxford sausages are a mixture of half pork and half veal, but the critical Ingredient in any British Banger is rusk or breadcrumbs.

[snip]

←

I made them today - I split the difference between two recipes, very like the two you have offered but not identical .. Mace seems to be pretty nearly a requisite, and it turned out I don't have any, so I went with a pinch more nutmeg and a hit of savory. Will have to get some mace.

The test fry came out very well, and I went ahead and stuffed them. As I have not stuffed any before, these aren't as pretty as they might be, but I'm sure another foray or two will mend that.

We will eat the first round tomorrow, by which time the seasoning should have matured a little, and I expect they will be better in the skins than the bit I test fried.

Thank you for the recipes - all input gratefully accepted. I have a hunch this will be an ongoing project!

Lynn

←

Just watch out that it doesn't take over your life Lynn

Regards,

Richard

[tristar]

I don't actually get how to make skinless sausages.  When we did the hot dog trials my husband was wishing for skinless dogs, but neither of us could figure out how it's done.  Has anyone done it successfully at home?

←

Hi Abra,

One way of producing Skinless Hotdogs is to use collagen casing! I made some Chicago Style Hotdogs a few months ago and used collagen casings, as I placed the hotdogs into the simmering water to poach they were fine, but after the required cooking time the casings just fell apart as I removed them from the water, they had become very loose and fragile. Whilst I am sure that this is not the correct way, it certainly worked by mistake.

For a chicken mouselline type of sausage I have also used food grade plastic bags. In indonesia they produce a small plastic bag for making flavoured ice sticks, these stuffed with forcemeat and poached at a simmer worked fine, without any unpleasant taste or more importantly without bursting or falling apart!

Regards,

Richard

[Chris Amirault]

Sausage season has arrived, and I just finished a nice batch of hot Italian sausages. I realized that it might be worth documenting a quick tip for cooling the meat that I picked up somewhere around here (snowangel may be the culprit):

This is the bowl of ground meat prior to being beaten to form the emulsion, and in order to cool it down, it had to spend an hour or so in the freezer. I punched a hole into the middle of the meat to hasten the cooling, which got it down to a malleable 30F very quickly.

[Mallet]

I suppose you could put a bag of ice in the depression for even quicker cooling...

[Henry dV]

C`mon people, it`s sausages lets get thinking of what tastes good/different. Don`t get bogged down in the mundane, try something different, smoked duck, fish, pork trotters, HAGGIS even..............

Come on, it doesn`t even need to be in a skin, try skewering it as a kofta(curry) kebab...........

I`m a sausage virgin, no jokes please, as I`ve only been mincing, stop it!, for 2 years and I have had good and indifferent results.

Pork and rabbit

1/4 kilo of each meat, pork was 50% visible fat(belly)

100gm oatmeal soaked in game stock

50gm sauteed shallots

50gm sundried tomatoes

salt & pepper to taste.

Hog casings.

The pale sausages were without the toms and heavy on shallots, garlic, thyme and sage.

Come on people where are your poached sausages............

[Henry dV]

...............or your Kofta kebab sausages.........

1/4 kilo each of Woodpigeon and Belly pork(50% visible fat)

Small handfull of fresh breadcrumbs

Tbsp corriander seed(toasted and ground)

1/2 Tbsp cumin seed(toasted and ground)

2 Tbsp corriander(cilantro) chopped

1 Tbsp mint chopped

salt, pepper and chilli powder to taste.

...............come on you know you want to !!

Edited September 4, 2007 by Henry dV (log)

[Tonyy13]

Hey guys,

I wsa reading in here a few months ago that someone was using a tabletop proofer meant for bread to age their stuff in. Now, after going through 70 plus pages in the forum, can't find where those posts were! So, please, does anyone have one of these tabletop proofers? I am goign to try to get my boss to get one so I can teach more about this in my Garde Manger class. Thanks!

TA

[Chris Hennes]

Here is my first contribution to the cook-off:

Hungarian Paprika Sausages, step-by-step

From M. Ruhlman and B. Polcyn, Charcuterie

For this sausage I am using a Niman Ranch pork shoulder and pork back fat, and supermarket beef chuck. The two trays of meat are because one is just pork, and is being used for hot-smoked andouille sausages, which I made at the same time I was making these.

The Hungarian Paprika sausage is characterized by a very heavy dose of Hungarian Hot Paprika (shocking! ) as well as quite a bit of ground white pepper and dry milk powder for moistness. It will later be cold smoked a dry-cured for three days.

I use a KitchenAid stand mixer attachment to grind the meat into a bowl set in ice, using the coarse plate. The back fat is ground separately using the fine plate. I have been working really hard to keep things very cold since I made a batch of Italian sausage that broke. The texture of that was very off-putting.

Next the ingredients are put in the mixer bowl and mixed on medium speed for a couple minutes to combine, slowly adding ice water to keep things cold and lubricated. This amount of mix was a little more than comfortably fit into the bowl of this six quart mixer: I should have done it in two batches once I realized that. Too large a batch caused the meat to overheat a little bit, and the final texture suffered for it. After all that ice, and I still screw it up...

Next, before stuffing, I checked the seasoning by frying up a small piece. My first reaction was OMG PAPRIKA!! I have never tasted that intense a paprika flavor, and I'm not entirely certain I like it. Hopefully that will calm down a bit after smoking and aging. The salt content was spot on, so no adjustments were necessary.

Next I got ready to stuff the mix into natural hog casings using a vertical stuffer. I have the stuffer attachment to the stand mixer, but I hate it with a passion. This is much cleaner, faster and easier. The stuffer I have holds about five pounds of sausage. It doesn't have a quick-release, but I can live without that. Some day I want to bolt it down to a counter, but I probably shouldn't do that in my apartment .

The stuffing only takes about five minutes with this stuffer, and it would go much, much faster if it was bolted down. I overstuffed the links, since this mix was firmer than I am used to. This resulted in some casing ruptures when I twisted the links off.

Once the casing was stuffed the next step was to twist off links. I started making them 10" links as recommended by the book, but eventually lapsed without thinking into a shorter, more "normal" sausage length of around 7".

After allowing a pellicle (dry skin) to form overnight in the refrigerator I cold-smoked the sausages for four hours over hickory. You can see the cold-smoker setup on ImageGullet.

On the left is right after cold-smoking, and on the right is after a three-day cure. The cure was supposed to be at around 60 degrees F, but I don't have anywhere that temperature at this time of year, so it was quite a bit cooler than that. I don't know how much the flavor suffered for it. The sausages are pretty tasty, though they end up a little dry due to the improper mixing early on. I'm not terribly fond of the flavor here: I used a very high-quality paprika, but I'm just not thrilled with that flavor. In my opinion the hot-smoked Andouille sausages are considerably tastier, though again, I am not quite right on the recipe for these due to the low curing temperature. Has anyone else tried this type of sausage and care to comment? How would the low-temperature cure affect the final flavor?

[Chris Amirault]

Thanks to these great step-by-step photos, Chris, I rethought a lot of my own process. I outright stole a few ideas from you here, including using a sheet pan as you fill your sausage spiral. Given your commitment to maintaining temp, I also figured out a way to slide an ice bowl under my KA mixer's bowl, which worked very well. I also had a few thoughts as I read through your post.

In the left photo, that grind looks very familiar to me: it's what I got no matter what I did when I used that KA grinder. I think that the mechanics of the grinder are flawed in some fundamental way (power? worm design? blade?) that prevents even well-prepped product from getting a good grind and thus good definition. Compare it to this grind using a Northern Tool grinder (discussed here):

I use a KitchenAid stand mixer attachment to grind the meat into a bowl set in ice, using the coarse plate. The back fat is ground separately using the fine plate. I have been working really hard to keep things very cold since I made a batch of Italian sausage that broke. The texture of that was very off-putting.

There really is nothing quite as horrible as the texture of broken sausages. That experience also teaches you a lot about the importance of mouth feel to flavor: you could be eating some remarkable combination of ingredients and would still have to spit the crap out. In that photo up there of the NT grinder meat, note that the temp was at 30F -- that's after grinding 5 lbs of 28F meat through a 3/8" plate. That goes a long way to reducing my sausage anxiety, let me tell you.

This amount of mix was a little more than comfortably fit into the bowl of this six quart mixer: I should have done it in two batches once I realized that. Too large a batch caused the meat to overheat a little bit, and the final texture suffered for it. After all that ice, and I still screw it up... 

Having spent a lot of time in a bread lab at Johnson & Wales recently, I learned a lot about the ways that material heats up in a standing mixer. Smaller amounts allow you to spend less time beating, and that means less heat.

If I sound anal about temp nowadays, it's because I am. As you can see from the above, I've taken to sticking a thermometer into the meat at regular intervals, and unless it's in the 28-30F range that the CIA Garde Manger book demands, it goes back into the fridge. That has often meant taking a lot longer than I want to take with the damned things, but I've learned the hard way that investing more time than I planned is better than wasting the time I had planned.

The stuffing only takes about five minutes with this stuffer, and it would go much, much faster if it was bolted down.

We have the same stuffer, I think, and thus the same problem. I bolted mine down to a slab of particle board, which helps a little but, yeah, it would sure be nice to have some set-up with greater security. I've been wondering about drilling bolt holes into a very thick cutting board and figuring out a way to use that....

Once the casing was stuffed the next step was to twist off links. I started making them 10" links as recommended by the book, but eventually lapsed without thinking into a shorter, more "normal" sausage length of around 7".

How do you measure the length as you're twisting off? As you'll see from my andouille, even when I try I never get the lengths consistent. (The lengths of the kielbasa were a product of weak casings.)

In my opinion the hot-smoked Andouille sausages are considerably tastier, though again, I am not quite right on the recipe for these due to the low curing temperature. Has anyone else tried this type of sausage and care to comment? How would the low-temperature cure affect the final flavor?

←

I don't know about the relationship of temp and flavor here, but I agree that Ruhlman's version of this sausage isn't balanced.

Here are a couple of shots from yesterday's link-a-thon. The first was just a prep note. Since I was grinding meat and fat with different plates, I segregated them in one plastic container both during the overnight and then as I ground each.

I made 5 lb each of sweet Italian, hot Italian, kielbasa, and andouille using the CIA book. Here are the kielbasa and andouille hanging with a fan to dry:

Smoking today. Chris, did you hang them from strings in the smoker or lay them on racks?

[MarkinHouston]

Chris and Chris,

Have you considered using a large C-clamp to hold your vertical grinder in place? Assuming you set it up close to the edge of a counter or table, this should make the process easier.

[Chris Hennes]

In the left photo, that grind looks very familiar to me: it's what I got no matter what I did when I used that KA grinder. I think that the mechanics of the grinder are flawed in some fundamental way (power? worm design? blade?) that prevents even well-prepped product from getting a good grind and thus good definition. Compare it to this grind using a Northern Tool grinder (discussed here)

Absolutely: it's among the first things I will be replacing once I move this summer. I am hoping to have enough space to put in an entire "charcuterie station" where I can bolt things down and set up a more-or-less permanent work area.

How do you measure the length as you're twisting off? As you'll see from my andouille, even when I try I never get the lengths consistent. (The lengths of the kielbasa were a product of weak casings.)

I just eyeball it, and I'm pretty bad at it. That's what I meant by "lapse"---I didn't intentionally change the length, they just got shorter and shorter as I went along .

Smoking today. Chris, did you hang them from strings in the smoker or lay them on racks?

I have done both (actually, I didn't use strings, I just draped the sequence of links over dowels), but I came to the conclusion that the final result was basically the same either way, and putting them on the rack is simpler, so that's what I do now. But I have a crappy smoker at the moment... it is probably different if you've got a Bradley.

Edited to add:

Have you considered using a large C-clamp to hold your vertical grinder in place? Assuming you set it up close to the edge of a counter or table, this should make the process easier.

Yeah, my counter had a screwy shape that makes it difficult to clamp things to, though I do manage with the pasta maker, so maybe I should try harder.

I should note also that I had another one of the Hungarian Paprika Sausages yesterday for lunch and decided my initial impression was correct: they just aren't very good. I threw the rest of them away. In my opinion the recipe needs a lot more onion and garlic, and less paprika.

Edited May 4, 2008 by Chris Hennes (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Mark, I have the same problem that Chris H has in re the C-clamp. There's just no part of my kitchen to which I could clamp the stuffer at the moment.

I am hoping to have enough space to put in an entire "charcuterie station" where I can bolt things down and set up a more-or-less permanent work area.

I'll be very interested to see how you do that. I've got to move stuff up and down from the basement, so all my components need to be mobile.

Smoking today. Chris, did you hang them from strings in the smoker or lay them on racks?

I have done both (actually, I didn't use strings, I just draped the sequence of links over dowels), but I came to the conclusion that the final result was basically the same either way, and putting them on the rack is simpler, so that's what I do now. But I have a crappy smoker at the moment... it is probably different if you've got a Bradley.

For me the issue has been trading the grid marks from where the sausages sit on the racks for the hassle of hanging them by strings, which, inevitably, produces places where the sausages touch and don't get the heat and smoke they need. I just put those kielbasa and andouille on racks for today and will try to be diligent turning them.

I should note also that I had another one of the Hungarian Paprika Sausages yesterday for lunch and decided my initial impression was correct: they just aren't very good. I threw the rest of them away. In my opinion the recipe needs a lot more onion and garlic, and less paprika.

←

Yeah, I've had to make some significant adjustments to the recipes in Ruhlman -- it's one of the reasons I've been so interested to try the more obsessive formulae in the CIA Garde Manger books. So far so good, at least as samples are concerned.

[Chris Amirault]

A few more shots and two questions. Here's the kielbasa:

That's the best sausage I've ever made, full stop. I did a cold smoke for about three hours and then moved up to 175F or so until the sausage hit 155F. Pulled it off, iced down, and there you have it. There was one thing that I couldn't quite understand -- not a big problem but worth a question:

Do you see the crease in the middle sausage? I can't quite tell what it is. One thought is that it's a place where there was an air channel of some sort, but I'm not sure. Thoughts?

Second question. Here's the andouille:

Do you notice those air pockets? There's only a few here and there, and they tend to be localized. I was wondering if they're there bc the sausage got too hot and the fat seeped out, leaving the pockets. It doesn't make a ton of sense, however, bc they didn't give up any liquid fat when I cut them or in the smoker. So I was wondering if perhaps I was just so good at getting the emulsion that I beat it a bit too long and beat in some air.

Again, thoughts?

[dougal]

The stuffing only takes about five minutes with this stuffer, and it would go much, much faster if it was bolted down.

...

Have you considered using a large C-clamp to hold your vertical grinder in place? Assuming you set it up close to the edge of a counter or table, this should make the process easier.

Yeah, my counter had a screwy shape that makes it difficult to clamp things to, ...

←

I empathise!

Note when designing kitchen: Design so that there's some way of clamping things to a usable bit of worktop! There is no knowing what you might want to attach occasionally in the future.

Opening (or temporarily removing) a drawer can help give you somewhere to clamp to, but allowing somewhere to have a couple of inches of overhang - without any obstruction below - would really facillitate use of a clamp.

I can secure my sausage stuffer well enough, but the pasta machine's own clamp is impossible for me (and modifying a clamp to suit is testing my metalwork abilities.)

To secure the stuffer, I use a damp 8" square 1/4" thick washing-up sponge, under the stuffer, as a non-skid base layer (and countertop protector) and then use one F-shaped clamp, upside down, on one front corner of the stuffer. The thin 'top of the F' will just slide into the space between countertop underside and the top of the dishwasher! (The clamp has to be upside down because the dishwasher projects sufficiently to obstruct the F's vertical if 'right side up'...)

I also have a set of high friction (both sides) silicone coasters (intended for sailing yachts!) that also get used sometimes to stop things sliding around in my dry-land kitchen (and in the workshop too). I was once given a grip-mat thing intended to stop stuff like sunglasses sliding around in the car. Didn't work for my driving, but it could help in this sort of situation...

[dougal]

... There was one thing that I couldn't quite understand -- not a big problem but worth a question:

Do you see the crease in the middle sausage? I can't quite tell what it is. One thought is that it's a place where there was an air channel of some sort, but I'm not sure. Thoughts?

...

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I wonder... could it be that something briefly stuck inside the stuffing horn, near or at the discharge end, and caused the extruded forcemeat to have a longitudinal groove? It'd be concealed by the casing until the cooking process, which I'd think. And the cooking would also account for it being slightly 'crumpled' - though I'm not so sure about the crumpled areas on either side of the 'crease'.

I can't see it as being an air pocket in the stuffer cylinder, rather an air pocket formed from the nozzle...

[gmerrall]

I'm making up some sausages this weekend and I've had a request for for beef sausages. I've found one on RecipeGullet which looks OK.

Just wondering if someone has anything more interesting or a tried and true recipe?

Cheers,

Graeme