Sausages--Cook-Off 17

[muichoi]

Does anyone use phosphate? unless the meat is very freshly killed some emulsions are pretty hard to achieve without.

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Phosphate is used in many commercial sausages, because it makes it possible to 'hold' an awful lot of water. Buy water (its cheap) and sell it as sausage. Phosphate is very important to the profitability of some sausages.

Its a different game if you are only adding 1% red wine rather than 10/15% of water.

The "classic British banger" is a pretty ghastly thing. Lots of 'rusk' (think breadcrumbs), water (and phosphates), fat and a little bit of meat. The high water content accounts for the (mainly historical) tendancy to explode on frying - hence the name 'banger'.

http://www.sausagelinks.co.uk/facts_FAQs.asp?id=283#9

I'd rather know what goes into mine, and I neither need nor want phosphates, thank you.

I'm under no pressure to increase the water content of my sausages.

But I'm honestly not absolutely certain that the 'bind' is indeed an emulsion - after all, the fat is pretty much solid around water's freezing point. You certainly don't want the water-based stuff to be actually frozen solid too. The amount of mixing effort is in no way comparable to, for example, beating mayonnaise.

Certainly the mechanical cold-mixing action develops a protein stickiness (myosin), and that (rather than the fat) could well be what holds the liquid in the sausage all the way to the mouth, achieving succulence without a high (and artificially bound) water content.

Hence I prefer to talk about "the bind" rather than the emulsion. Kudos to Ruhlman and Polcyn for introducing me to that term.

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Dougal,it's not true that that's the only use of phosphate-Heston Blumenthal writes interestingly about it in his BBC book.

Consider this-almost every sausage available from the very best UK sources is technically faulty-it exudes a huge amount of fat and liquid that should stay in the skin and the result is mealy. A little phosphate added to the liquid you would add anyway prevents this, and in my experience the emulsion obtained from British pork only works about three times out of ten, no matter how careful I am.

Lest it appear otherwise, I deplore the British sausage tradition.

Edited October 1, 2008 by muichoi (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Here's another crack at the list, with the helpful additions in re dry curing. Please check that section in particular for errors or bad translations:

Equipment Prep

1. Assemble all equipment: grinder, stuffer, pricker, scale, smoker, etc.
   
2. Check that all parts are clean
   
3. Put grinding, mixing, and stuffing parts in freezer
   
4. Clear freezer space for chilling of ingredients
   
5. Make sure you have lots of ice, clean towels, trays, spatulas, and bowls on hand
   
6. Confirm the maximum amount of meat your mixer can handle and parcel accordingly
   

Mise en Place

1. Assemble all ingredients: meat, fat, liquids, additional ingredients, casings, etc.
   
2. Put any liquids you'll be adding to the bind in the fridge or freezer (NOT starter culture if dry curing)
   
3. Weigh (and thaw, if necessary) meat, fat, and any other ingredients
   
4. Slice meat into long thin strips to facilitate grinding
   
5. Dice fat (if necessary)
   
6. Combine spice mixture
   
7. Distribute mixture over meat
   
8. (Optional) Refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to meld (NOT starter culture if dry curing)
   
9. Lay meat out on tray and freeze until well below 30F: very cold, even crunchy, but not frozen solid
   
10. Rinse casings inside and out and start soaking in tepid water
    

Grinding

1. Assemble all ingredients
   
2. Confirm ingredients are all under 30F prior to grinding
   
3. Set up grinding station with bowl set in ice and proper grinder plate
   
4. Feed meat strips, fat, and any other ingredients through grinder into bowl
   
5. If regrinding: check meat temperature: if not under 30F, spread on a sheet and put in the freezer until it is; check grinder temperature: if not still cold, disassemble and chill in ice water bath until it is; reassemble; regrind
   
6. Refrigerate meat
   

Mixing

1. Check meat temperature is <30F (see above for procedure if not)
   
2. Divide into the portions you've determined your stand mixer can take; leave unmixed in fridge/freezer while mixing
   
3. Set up mixing station with mixer bowl surrounded by ice
   
4. Mix each batch on low speed 30 seconds
   
5. Check meat temperature is <30F (see above for procedure if not)
   
6. Add extremely cold liquids and mix to combine (if necessary and NOT with starter culture)
   
7. beat at medium 20-30 seconds until tacky
   
8. Refrigerate entire batch while frying up small test article
   
9. Check and adjust seasoning (if necessary)
   
10. If dry curing, mix starter with distilled water at room temp & let bloom for a few minutes, then thoroughly combine into mixture
    

Stuffing

1. Set up stuffing station with a wet tray to receive the links
   
2. Thread casings onto sausage nozzle
   
3. Stuff casings
   
4. Twist/tie into links
   
5. Poke each casing several times with a clean pricker
   

Dry Curing

1. Bloom mold (hour in distilled water) & spray onto sausages (if using)
   
2. Ferment stuffed sausages in a warm (70-80F) room at 80-90% humidity for 12-48 hours per starter instructions
   
3. Check sausage pH; it should be under 5.0 after fermentation
   
4. Weigh and label at least one sausage with date and weight
   
5. Hang for aging (7-18C/45-65F; 60-80% humidity)
   
6. Check regularly for bad mold growth or case hardening (wipe sausages with brine solution and decrease humidity for the former; increase humidity for the latter)
   
7. No later than 5 days for sheep, 10 for hog, 15 for beef middles, 90 for beef bungs), check weight (loss of 30-35%) and firmness as needed until done
   

Smoking

1. Hang to dry/develop a pellicle for a couple hours
   
2. Set up smoking rig and get it going if it needs a pre-heat
   
3. (If cold-smoking) Set up method for keeping smoker cool (ice in bowl, etc.)
   
4. Insert meat thermometer in one of the sausages at the center of your rig
   
5. Smoke until sausages reach desired smoke level or internal temperature (e.g., for pork, 150F)
   

[Chris Amirault]

More on this myosin question, this from Paul Bertolli in a NY Times article:

Coolness is key, he says: “If meat is at 30 to 32 degrees when it’s mixed, it favors the extraction of protein,” which is needed to bind the ingredients. (For more explanation, see the chapter on sausage making in Bertolli’s book “Cooking by Hand.”) Common problems with grinding meat at home are that the blades aren’t sharp enough and the meat is too warm. “Then you get what we call a smear,” he says. “It’s greasy, crumbly, doesn’t bind.”

I'll check CbH when I get home, but if anyone can find this information in there before evening, that'd be swell.

[Chris Amirault]

During this stage spray with mold if you're using it. I used M-EK-4 from butcher packer, which i've bloomed for about an hour in distilled water. For fermentation i hang the sausages as if they were in a curing chamber, so all sides get equally warmed/sprayed with mold.

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Jason, I'm about to order a package of this. It says 30g for 10l. How much meat is 10 liters? And about what powder:water ratios do you use?

[muichoi]

More on this myosin question, this from Paul Bertolli in a NY Times article:

Coolness is key, he says: “If meat is at 30 to 32 degrees when it’s mixed, it favors the extraction of protein,” which is needed to bind the ingredients. (For more explanation, see the chapter on sausage making in Bertolli’s book “Cooking by Hand.”) Common problems with grinding meat at home are that the blades aren’t sharp enough and the meat is too warm. “Then you get what we call a smear,” he says. “It’s greasy, crumbly, doesn’t bind.”

I'll check CbH when I get home, but if anyone can find this information in there before evening, that'd be swell.

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According to Blumenthal Actin and Myosin combine when rigor mortis sets in, and he states that the way to separate them is to add polyphosphate. He implies that this is essential but doesn't quite come out with it.

In the UK posh sausages are as described by Bertolli-'greasy, crumbly, doesn't bind'. People are used to it and even like it.

Edited October 1, 2008 by muichoi (log)

[Peter the eater]

How much meat is 10 liters?

That's like 2 1/2 gallons. That's a lot of links.

[Chris Amirault]

Figger a pound a liter? Or more?

[Peter the eater]

According to Blumenthal Actin and Myosin combine when rigor mortis sets in, and he states that the way to separate them is to add polyphosphate.

It's probably common knowledge, but the actin-myosin interaction is the basis of all muscular movement and it requires ATP, where P is for phosphate.

Rigor mortis is a lot like a simple muscle contraction -- but for the muscle to relax the animal has to be alive. . . or decomposing. . . or being manipulated by a crazed Charcutière.

[Peter the eater]

Figger a pound a liter? Or more?

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I filled a bowl with a spout to the brim with water. When I slipped in tonight's frozen flank steak, I collected the displaced water in a measuring cup:

0.295 kg = 0.375 L

1.00 L = 0.787 kg = 1.74 lbs

Looks like 1 3/4 pounds a liter, for frozen beef flank.

[jmolinari]

During this stage spray with mold if you're using it. I used M-EK-4 from butcher packer, which i've bloomed for about an hour in distilled water. For fermentation i hang the sausages as if they were in a curing chamber, so all sides get equally warmed/sprayed with mold.

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Jason, I'm about to order a package of this. It says 30g for 10l. How much meat is 10 liters? And about what powder:water ratios do you use?

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Hey chris...the 30g for 10l is the the amount of water you dissolve the M-EK-4 in, it is then sprayed onto the salame that has been cased.

This is the procedure i used last time:

"They've been sprayed with a solution made from 1.5g of M-EK-4 mold culture which was bloomed in 27g of water for 3 hours and then added to 400g of additional water. The salami were sprayed when they were put into the box then 1.5 hours afterwards, and then 15 hours later the next morning."

That amount of solution made plenty of mold liquid to spray 8 or 10 pretty large beef middle cased salami

[Chris Hennes]

I would think that 10 liters of solution would spray a lot of damn sausages! How small a quantity can you reasonably mix the stuff in? Is this one of those where you have to way overkill the small quantities to make sure nothing goes wrong (as is suggested for the other Bactoferms)?

[HKDave]

More on this myosin question, this from Paul Bertolli in a NY Times article:

Coolness is key, he says: “If meat is at 30 to 32 degrees when it’s mixed, it favors the extraction of protein,” which is needed to bind the ingredients. (For more explanation, see the chapter on sausage making in Bertolli’s book “Cooking by Hand.”) Common problems with grinding meat at home are that the blades aren’t sharp enough and the meat is too warm. “Then you get what we call a smear,” he says. “It’s greasy, crumbly, doesn’t bind.”

I'll check CbH when I get home, but if anyone can find this information in there before evening, that'd be swell.

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Got a copy of Bertolli right here. From page 169:

"Mixing is also critical to achieving a good bind - the seamless joining of meat and fat due to protein extraction - that determines any sausage's final texture. Mixing works synergistically with salt and temperature to create bind. Cold temperatures (32 to 35F) enhance protein extraction and prevent fat smear that causes fat loss later in cooking and a dry crumbly texture."

...

"The goal is to rub meat particles together to extract protein."

...

"After 4 to 5 minutes of [spatula by hand] mixing you will notice the meat will stiffen considerably and become sticky. You will also observe that the meat leaves a whitish film where it contacts the bowl. At this point, stop mixing. Excessive mixing causes excessive protein extraction and a rubbery texture."

I have yet to mix a batch of non-emulsified sausage for as long as 4-5 minutes, and I haven't had a batch split on me yet. I'm carefully ignoring that batch I made at work once using pork buckeye instead of shoulder... that didn't bind at all, and was totally inedible. Lesson learned: the cut of meat also affects the bind.

I think that seasoning - specifically salting - the meat early also makes a difference. At work (where I have access to a big walk-in), I season the cubed meat a day, or at least several hours, ahead, and then grind the meat and seasonings together, and barely mix at all before stuffing. It works. Good bind, no splitting. I think what might be happening there is the salt+time is denaturing some of the proteins, and this compensates for the reduced mixing.

There's an element of taste and style that we should consider here. I've had fresh sausages from Italy and Argentina that were barely mixed; the texture was certainly crumbly after cooking, but this wasn't objectionable because it was very coarsely ground and this gives a totally different mouth feel than the mealy feel of a split (or perhaps more correctly, 'unbound') fine-texture sausage. I intentionally make some sausage this 'low-bind' way.

Earlier this year I did a taste-off at work between my fennel/chili sausage, which is coarse-grind + low-bind, and a similar product from the best Italian butcher in town. The butcher's clearly had a better bind than mine, although it still wasn't perfect. The flavours were almost identical. Some of the cooks liked the texture of his better, some liked mine better, and in the end the Exec Chef asked me to leave mine as is - he felt that the texture was more 'authentic' and less commercial.

So a low bind might actually be desirable in a coarse-texture rustic-style sausage. However, it certainly isn't going to be desirable in a medium- or fine-grind sausage, unless you're making a Brit banger style or a low-end US 'breakfast sausage'.

[Chris Amirault]

Great post, HKDave. Thanks (even though it's strike three). So: the bind is a mixture bound by proteins, and not an emulsion at all.

I have yet to mix a batch of non-emulsified sausage for as long as 4-5 minutes, and I haven't had a batch split on me yet. ... I think that seasoning - specifically salting - the meat early also makes a difference. ... I think what might be happening there is the salt+time is denaturing some of the proteins, and this compensates for the reduced mixing.

I agree with this strategy. I've been letting the strips sit overnight in the spice and salt before grinding and mixing, and I never go 4 minutes before getting that telltale sticky white lining. Now we know why that works.

There's an element of taste and style that we should consider here. I've had fresh sausages from Italy and Argentina that were barely mixed; the texture was certainly crumbly after cooking, but this wasn't objectionable because it was very coarsely ground and this gives a totally different mouth feel than the mealy feel of a split (or perhaps more correctly, 'unbound') fine-texture sausage.

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These are extremely useful distinctions. I never mix breakfast sausage meat at all except to distribute the spices and salt because I don't want that tight bind. Instead, I press them out as patties so that they fall into meaty chunks. The sausage isn't broken at all; it's just not bound.

[HKDave]

If the bind is indeed just a gluey mixture and not an emulsion, can someone explain the science behind broken sausages? Why is a cold temperature so crucial to that glue, and why does warmth in preparation cause it to break? All the information I can find on myosin and meat chemistry in general refers to temperatures way above the crucial 30-50F range.

Thoughts?

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Here's my hypothesis. Meat fat isn't 100% saturated. If the temperature of the mix - specifically, the fat in the mix - is allowed to rise, liquid fat starts to appear and will lubricate the myosin proteins, preventing them from sticking to each other.

So when Bertolli says "Cold temperatures (32 to 35F) enhance protein extraction and prevent fat smear that causes fat loss later in cooking and a dry crumbly texture", I'm agreeing with the "prevent fat smear" part but I'm not so sure about the "enhance protein extraction" part. My gut feel is that you probably could get sticky proteins faster by mixing at a slightly higher temperature, but that it's more important to keep the fat cold and solid so it doesn't get in the way of the proteins doing their bonding thing.

Taking this to an extreme, imagine trying to make sausage using 100% liquid fat - oil - instead of fatback. I don't think you could get a bind at any temperature that you could possibly mix it at (anyone who wants to test this hypothesis, that's a way to do it...). At the other extreme, this is why fatback is so good in sausagemaking; it's the most saturated fat on the pig, so remains more solid at higher temperatures and is less likely to interfere with the bind.

Does this sound reasonable? I don't have the chemistry education to back this up; I barely got through high school (at the time, I completely misunderstood what the 'high' referred to) and that was a long time ago, so if there are people out there that actually know what they're talking about, please chime in...

[Chris Amirault]

[spicoli] Sounds good to me, man! [/spicoli]

[jmolinari]

I would think that 10 liters of solution would spray a lot of damn sausages! How small a quantity can you reasonably mix the stuff in? Is this one of those where you have to way overkill the small quantities to make sure nothing goes wrong (as is suggested for the other Bactoferms)?

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Chris, i mix about 1.5g of the M-EK-4 in about 30g of water, let it sit for a couple of hours, then dilute that into about 400g of water, which is more than enough to spray quite a few salami.

[menuinprogress]

We recently made a batch of beef sausages in the style of Lockhart, TX using pretty much the ingredients suggested earlier in this thread by HKDave.

The meat was 85% beef chuck and 15% pork shoulder:

Here are the stuffed sausages ready for the smoker:

They were smoked with oak for about an hour at approx. 235°C.

Here is the result:

We aren't going to be putting Kreuz and Smitty's out of business any time soon, but it was very successful first attempt. My only real complaint was that they could be a bit smokier and the fat wasn't completely rendered - I think they would have benefited from a longer cooking time. We pulled them at 165°, but I think the sausage with the probe in it was hotter than the rest.

[Chris Hennes]

My only real complaint was that they could be a bit smokier and the fat wasn't completely rendered - I think they would have benefited from a longer cooking time. We pulled them at 165°, but I think the sausage with the probe in it was hotter than the rest.

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That is an interesting statement: could you explain in more detail what you are going for here? I take the opposite approach, making sure during both smoking and cooking that the sausages only reach 150 F, to prevent any fat from being rendered at all.

[menuinprogress]

That is an interesting statement: could you explain in more detail what you are going for here? I take the opposite approach, making sure during both smoking and cooking that the sausages only reach 150 F, to prevent any fat from being rendered at all.

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In general, I agree with you (that's exactly how we smoke andouille, for example).

This particular style is more of a hot cook, though. At the places I've had it, it is served hot out of the smoker. When you bite into the sausage, it is nice and juicy from the rendered fat.

[docdix]

hi i need some advice or suggestions especially from either Michael or Brian.

been dying to try out the air-dried sausages form the book but my problem is i have no access to two vital ingredients namely Bactoferm and DQ#2. No one does air-dried sausages here and they mostly have commercial types available from the supermarkets or big deli's and imported from Italy... expensive!

My questions are:

1. can i replace dq#2 with dq#1 or even potassium nitrate (properly computed for weight of course) both of which I have access to?

2. what would be a good substitute for Bactoferm? We have active yogurt or yogurt drinks available will the bugs there do the same trick?

3. Will collagen casings work for salami?

advanced thanks for your answers.

[jmolinari]

hi i need some advice or suggestions especially from either Michael or Brian.

been dying to try out the air-dried sausages form the book but my problem is i have no access to two vital ingredients namely Bactoferm and DQ#2. No one does air-dried sausages here and they  mostly have commercial types available from the supermarkets or big deli's and imported from Italy... expensive!

My questions are:

1. can i replace dq#2 with dq#1 or even potassium nitrate (properly computed for weight of course) both of which I have access to?

2. what would be a good substitute for Bactoferm? We have active yogurt or yogurt drinks available will the bugs there do the same trick?

3. Will collagen casings work for salami?

advanced thanks for your answers.

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1) no. They are not interchangeable. #2 contains nitrates that over time break down to nitrites to keep the sausage safe over the period it cures/dries. #1 only contains nitrites.

2) Sorry, can't help.

3) yes. They work fine.

[HKDave]

That is an interesting statement: could you explain in more detail what you are going for here? I take the opposite approach, making sure during both smoking and cooking that the sausages only reach 150 F, to prevent any fat from being rendered at all.

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In general, I agree with you (that's exactly how we smoke andouille, for example).

This particular style is more of a hot cook, though. At the places I've had it, it is served hot out of the smoker. When you bite into the sausage, it is nice and juicy from the rendered fat.

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When you say the fat wasn't rendered, is this because a) you can see lots of chunks of fat that haven't rendered or b) it's not as juicy as it should be? From your photo, and the fact that you cooked it to 165F, I'm thinking you meant that it's just not as juicy as Kreuz.

The likely reason is that your mix is too lean. Commercial trim chuck and pork shoulder are under 20% fat these days, so unless you added fatback, you had less than 1/2 as much fat as Kreuz. Next time maybe try 85% chuck and 15% fatback, and maybe grind the fatback finer than the beef for more even dispersion and faster rendering.

That'll bring you up to about 25% total fat, which is still minimal; if I was making these I'd start at 30-35% fat. Most commercial grilling sausages (like Johnsonville brats) are 50%+ fat and I suspect Kreuz and Smitty's are close to that.

Looks good enough to eat as is, though...

Your post says "They were smoked with oak for about an hour at approx. 235°C." I hope that's 235F! That's still pretty hot; you'll get more smoke flavour by going lower and slower. Maybe try smoking at 180F (at this lower temperature I'd strongly recommend using some curing salt #1 as mentioned in my earlier post), and I'd be comfortable pulling them after they'd been at 150F internal for a while.

[menuinprogress]

Your post says "They were smoked with oak for about an hour at approx. 235°C." I hope that's 235F! That's still pretty hot; you'll get more smoke flavour by going lower and slower. Maybe try smoking at 180F (at this lower temperature I'd strongly recommend using some curing salt #1 as mentioned in my earlier post), and I'd be comfortable pulling them after they'd been at 150F internal for a while.

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Oops - yeah, I meant fahrenheit... We went with the higher temperature since we figured they cook them in the same pits with their brisket.

The sausages were plenty juicy, but there were still bits of fat that had not rendered, and the texture seemed somewhat "under-done". We only smoked part of the batch we made, and plan to try a longer and lower cook on the rest.

Thanks for your help!

[Chris Hennes]

I started in on a batch of dry-cured salame today, my first attempt. I have previously made many fresh sausages, and I have made Guanciale, but this is a different beast altogether. In particular, I tried to be very conscious of possible cross-contamination spots. As I did this, I realized that nearly every step in my sausage-making process is a Critical Control Point: the possibilities for contamination are legion. For example:

1. Pull knife off magnetic rack. Realize rack has not been cleaned (ever), and sits in front of cutting board. Probably has microscopical amounts of beef juices from the beef I prepped earlier in day.
   
2. Clean knife thoroughly and disinfect. Dry. Realize towel has been draped over my shoulder, and who knows where that has been.
   
3. Clean knife again, dry with new towel. Set on counter. Realize I disinfected the other counter.
   
4. Disinfect new counter, re-clean and dry knife.
   

OK, so this is a bit extreme, but you get the picture. Just how careful do I really need to be? I think in addition to a sausage-making checklist, I now need a pre-sausage-making checklist.

[jmolinari]

When i make my salami i'm careful, but not as careful as you detail. I wipe counters down with some cleaning solution, clean the grinder, clean the stuffer, and really that's about it....