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Sausages--Cook-Off 17


Chris Amirault

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I've been following this thread but haven't been able to contribute. The next order to meat supplier in Toronto I'm going to request some casings. I want in on this sausage thing.

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Dayne's making Toulouse sausages today from Wolfert's 'Cooking of Southwest France' and the recipe calls for 4 ounces very lean salt pork without rind, washed to remove surface salt, dried carefully and cubed by hand.

12 ounces pork tenderloin, trimmed of all fat

4 ounces pancetta, at room temperature

My question is about the lean salt pork, we have pork back fat- can this be used in place of the salt pork? Can someone explain to me what salt pork is?

Thanks!

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if you mix and knead so hard, how do yo ustop the fat from smearing?

For a cooked sausage, (ie a banger etc) I wouldn't worry about fat smearing. However if you wanted to make a cured and smoked/fermented salami where the meat and fat granules have to be the same size, you would need to use a bowl cutter. The other thing is if you really wanted to prevent fat smearing would be to use very hard fat and keeping the mixture very cold helps too although the colder it is, the more mixing is required to extrude the myosin.

Hope this is of help

Cheers,

Doc-G

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My question is about the lean salt pork, we have pork back fat- can this be used in place of the salt pork? Can someone explain to me what salt pork is?

Salt pork is cured pork fat, so it can't really be substituted for fat back or belly. Trust me, I know. :huh:

Chris Amirault

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Sir Luscious got gator belts and patty melts

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By the way, my Waring Pro grinder is missing the blade (I bought a floor model that was super cheap as it was missing the box/manual).  Anyone know where I can get a replacement?  The KA blade doesn't fit it.

Julie, try http://www.culinaryparts.com. They carry Waring parts as well as many other brands, and always seem to have whatever I need. Whenever I order from them, I check around for any other spare parts my other kitchen appliances may need and get them all at once to save on shipping. I've found parts there that I couldn't find anywhere else.

Barb

Edited by bjcohan (log)

Barb Cohan-Saavedra

Co-owner of Paloma Mexican Haute Cuisine, lawyer, jewelry designer, glass beadmaker, dessert-maker (I'm a lawyer who bakes, not a pastry chef), bookkeeper, payroll clerk and caffeine-addict

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I received a shipment from my meat supplier yesterday and they were nice enough to send a bunch of synthetic casings for me. I picked up a small electric grinder on Sunday.

Now what do I do? :biggrin:

Do I need to prep the casings at all? or do ya just stuff 'em?

And... does anybody have a good recipe for chicken and apple sausages? I'm going to put a couple of pounds of boneless chicken thighs in the cooler to thaw a bit before I leave work today... any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Hi Pam,

You might want to consider adding some chicken skin to the mix. You will find that you will not only get a better flavour but the mixture will bind much better too. I would if possible add 25% of the weight of the meat with chicken skin.

Personally I would add (btw I have not tried this recipe and have just made it up now, this is just an idea):

Per kg meat weight (includes skin):

Salt 16g/kg

Black Pepper 2g/kg

Ground Cinnamon (to complement the apple) 1g/kg

Chilli Powder 1g/kg

Onion Powder 2g/kg

Optional ingredients:

MSG 1g/kg

The other thing you could consider adding is some breadcrumbs to 'loosen' the mixture somewhat. I leave the amount you add up to you as I have forgotten the usage that we would use (sorry!).

Apple (peeled and cored) chopped or grated and added as you see fit. (1 apple per 1.5kg meat?).

Coarse mince chicken and skin through the large plate (10mm). Then add all dry ingredients and mix well by hand for 10minutes ensuring that temperature of mixture does not rise above 5 degrees centigrade. If temp rises above 5 degrees, refridgerate until temp reaches 2-3 degrees centigrade.

Mince again through small plate (3 or 5mm plate) and mix in grated or chopped apple and mix well again for 10 minutes. The mixture should be VERY sticky. This means that the reaction between the salt and myosin has occurred and the protein has extracted. Refridgerate again until mixture reaches 2-3 degrees centigrade whilst you get your sausage filler ready.

Fill into casings and link, then refridgerate until ready for cooking.

With regards to your casings, I assume they look slightly yellow in colour but are completely dry and look like a long 'ruffled up' tube of skin. We refridgerate ours in the boxes they come in but you MUST ensure that they stay dry!!

I dont want to tell you how to suck eggs here but just in case you have not done this before, here is a very brief and possibly convoluted method for filling your sausages.

If these are the casings you are using (I assume they are made of collagen) you dont need to do anything to them before you start filling. You put the tube onto the end of your filler and start the filler to get the air out of the end of the filler then tie a knot in the end of your skin and start filling being careful not to overfill or underfill. You will eventually know from experience what this means! If the skin breaks, tear it off, tie the end and start again. You will end up with one reeaallly long sausage. You then have to link it. If you have not done this before, the easiest way is to grab the end and pinch with your left hand (I assume you are right handed) where you want the first sausage to end, then you pinch with your right hand where you want the second sausage to end (hint: it should be the same length as the first one funnily enough!!). Then you twist or 'roll' the link towards you a couple of times. You have now made the second link. You now get the long end and measure off again with your left hand and then again with your right and again twist or roll except this time, the other direction (ie away from you). Continue until you have a whole heap of sausages.

Enjoy!

If you do use this recipe or a modified version, please let us know (with pictures) how they worked out.

Cheers,

Doc-G

Edited by Doc-G (log)
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I've decided that if I'm going to stay a fourth year in Japan, I need to get me a grinder and make some sausage. Now do I get me an electric grinder or a hand-cranked one? I vaguely remember an acquaintance telling me to stay away from hand-cranked, because by the time I get the meat ground, it'll be warm. (Also, I have tendinitis in both my elbows, and carpal tunnel in my left wrist.)

What do you sausage-making gods and goddesses suggest? I can't stand just looking at all the sausages being made in this cook-off. I need to participate!

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I dont want to tell you how to suck eggs here but just in case you have not done this before, here is a very brief and possibly convoluted method for filling your sausages.

I've never sucked an egg either :blink:

:biggrin:

thanks so much for the guidance! I now have a basic idea of how to go about this.

I did forget to take the chicken out last night :hmmm: - but I have a bunch of things to bake today, so it's thawing now - and I'll debone it as soon as it gets workable (does that make sense?).

for flavourings... I was thinking more of a sage and or allspice thing with the apples... but we'll see what I come up with when I actually get going. I'll report back when it's done.

Thanks again!

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I have pictures - but I forgot my notebook with what I did at work. So I'll leave the big post for tomorrow.

I have a couple of questions though - my casing was in fact the slightly yellow synthetic stuff ... is this supposed to be edible? are you supposed to boil/steam it? :blush: This really is new to me.

I will tell you that I cooked a couple tonight - in a frying pan. Once the plastic casing was pulled off the meat it was delicious! More tomorrow...

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Hi Pam,

I'm not exactly sure what sort of casings you have but if they are collagen casings made possibly by Devro then they are totally edible. Collagen is the stuff your skin is predominantly made of and this stuff is basically grown in tube shapes. It is popular because it does not break and produces VERY consistent results.

It is possible that it is skin designed more for smallgoods which are inedible and are not supposed to be eaten. However without knowing exactly which skins you have, I cant tell for certain.

Sounds as though it well well however. I loo forward to seeing the pictures.

Cheers,

Doc-G

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Doc-G - first of all, thanks for the help. While I had some problems stuffing the casings, in the end they tasted so good it didn't matter! Your guidance was a great help - though I did deviate somewhat from your instructions.

The recipe:

200 g chicken skin and fat

1 kg chicken meat (2 breasts and 6 or 7 thighs)

18 g kosher salt

2.5 g black pepper

1 g allspice (I added some more after a taste test - but didn't measure)

2 g onion powder

4 sage leaves (and added another 4 after taste test)

230 g Granny Smith Apple, peeled and diced (2 apples)

The meat - It never fully thawed - and I kept popping it into the freezer as I was working so it remained cold throughout the whole process:

gallery_25849_641_7257.jpg

One pass through a course grinder - ready for spices and mixing:

gallery_25849_641_14399.jpg

So I mixed it for a while... then back through the course grinder. I decided that since I was going to grind it a third time, that I would just keep it course (I don't know why I decided to grind it 3 times, nor do I know why I kept the course plate in - but I did). Rested in the freezer while I was prepping the apples and then I added them and mixed:

gallery_25849_641_38949.jpg

Here's the casings my meat guys sent me... I still don't know exactly what they are. I thought that they told me that they were the same casings (synthetic) that they use to make their hot dogs and sausages... but they remained plasticy after I cooked them and their products do not have a plastic coating. I have a few left in the fridge - I thought I'd try boiling a couple to see what would happen to the casings... we'll see.

gallery_25849_641_28162.jpg

The problem I had was that the casing was too small for the feed tube on my grinder ... by the end I had a system down - but the first few (or more) were really wretched - involving a lot of string to fix! They went through one more course grinding as they were filled.

Here they are:

gallery_25849_641_9084.jpg

By the time I was done it was after 8 PM, so I took them home and fried up a few for dinner:

gallery_25849_641_16332.jpg

They looked much better in person! Can you see the plastic? I took a picture of a beautiful peeled one, but it was so blurry you couldn't really see anything.

I wish I knew more about the casings I used - but all in all it was a great experience... they tasted amazing! Seasoning was wonderful and the apple, though I didn't get a great apple flavour, contributed to the overall flavour and added a hint of sweetness.

Thanks again!

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Hi Pam

Great job. You are right, they do look a little 'plasticy'. Now that I've seen them , I really do wonder if they are more designed for cured or smoked sausages ..

Next time you order some casings, ask for either natural sheep or hog skins or if you want synthetic ones, ask for collagen casings. The ones we use are made by Devro-Teepak in Germany. I'm sure you can get these or something similar where you are.

Anyway, well done. I think they look great.

Cheers,

Doc-G

Edited by Doc-G (log)
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Thanks Doc-G. My issue with the casings is that they must be kosher. this limits the options. But I'll ask they guys if I get a chance. They sent me these as a gift - so I'm trying not to bother them with too many questions!

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OK here are my first efforts. An Italian sweet sausage from Ruhlman and Polcyn's "Charcuterie" and an English Pork sausage form a 17th century recipe (pork, sage, nutmeg, mace, pepper and cloves).

Overall I was very happy with these, the only issue I had was that I would prefer a slighly coarser texture, so next time I will grind half of the mixture fine and the rest coarse or maybe even chopped.

An excellent experience, just as much fun as making a terrine really.

The larger are the sweet Italian the smaller sausages the 17th century version.

gallery_1643_978_126284.jpg

gallery_1643_978_731731.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Those look remarkable, Kristin! What recipe did you use? And "the smoker" is what, exactly? I'm dying to know all of these things.

I have a sneaking suspicion that you and I seek andouille for the gumbo-related reasons. :wink:

Chris Amirault

eG Ethics Signatory

Sir Luscious got gator belts and patty melts

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Those look remarkable, Kristin! What recipe did you use? And "the smoker" is what, exactly? I'm dying to know all of these things.

I have a sneaking suspicion that you and I seek andouille for the gumbo-related reasons. :wink:

The recipe was straight out of Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book, page 44.

I hot smoked them grill/smoker (3rd one down).

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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  • 5 months later...

Hello fellow chorizo lovers!

I am new to this discussion and am looking for a savior, or at least a little reassurance! :biggrin: That said, my apologies if this is a repeated question...

I'm a culinary student and like so many have a love of Spanish-style cured chorizo, lomo, etc. and have tried several attempts at making them, to various levels of success.My most recent attempt at chorizo dulce, out of a charcuterie book, is curing for 72 hours at 70F and 70% humidity, then I'll smoke at 110F for 12 hours, and finally raise the temp. to 115F for 1 hour.

My questions: Is this crazy, correct, safe? Following Penelope Casas's traditional chorizo recipe, I am not using saltpeter or other preservatives. Does anyone out there have an opinion on this?

I promise pictures of the finished product in the near future...Thanks to anyone with an opinion!

Jeff

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Safe is for you to decide. What are you doing to keep the temp/humid constant? What are your protein sources? Pork and Beef have different characterisitcs too watch out for when speaking of food safety.

Enjoy the meats and have fun with it. I have eaten many random things and I am still here so you should be okay. Just as a note, we used to taste the raw meat paste prior to making salami in Italy - RAW!

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Safe is for you to decide.  What are you doing to keep the temp/humid constant?  What are your protein sources?  Pork and Beef have different characterisitcs too watch out for when speaking of food safety.

Enjoy the meats and have fun with it.  I have eaten many random things and I am still here so you should be okay.  Just as a note, we used to taste the raw meat paste prior to making salami in Italy - RAW!

Thanks for the advice, Ore....

I am using a proofing box for the 70F, 70% humidity, 72 HR phase, and will switch to an electronic smoking cabinet for the final phases. The meat is straight lean pork and pork fat with hog intestine as the casing. Are the characteristics you are referring to simply temperature zone-issues?

Another question: To saltpeter or not to saltpeter? :wacko:

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