Gourmet Gloucestershire sausages

[Nafe]

yeah sorry, tired when I wrote that! kno2 and 3 i meant.

Sorry!

nafe

[jenny_haddow]

Fabulous recipe Vernon. I made up a 5kg batch this weekend, they got great approval all round.

Cheers

Jen

[Oddley]

Hi Vernon,

I see that you were looking for the original poster of this recipe. I think it was countrybumpkin.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?T=1516

You have upped the spice mix, should make a nice herby sausage. Ill try it and report back. I tried the original and found it a really nice pork sausage very subtley spiced, thought it lacking in a bit of salt. So I upped the salt to 1.5% of the meat and it turned out quite well.

Pork 80% vl
Of meat
10 % Breadcrumbs
10 % Water
1.88 % Spice Mix

Spice Mix

79.7826 % salt
5.5449 % black pepper
4.4359 % nutmeg
5.5449 % sage
3.412 % thyme
1.2797 % marjoram

Usage weight 18.8 g/Kg or 1.88 %

[Oddley]

Hi Vernon,

Made your sausages and the original for comparison. I upped the salt level to 1.5% of meat weight, cause that's how I like it.

Gloucestershire Herb Sausages

Pork 75% vl

of meat

10 % breadcrumbs
10 % Stock/Water
2.9 % spice mix

Spice Mix

Ingredient
51.7241 % salt
10.3448 % white pepper
5.1724 % nutmeg
15.5172 % sage
8.6207 % thyme
8.6207 % marjoram

Suggested usage 29 g/kg or 2.9 %

I called the original Gloucester Pork sausages, and your recipe Gloucestershire Herb Sausages to differentiate them for my own benefit.

After giving my family the two types to try the result was two of my daughters liked yours best, the other daughter liked them both equally. My wife liked the original best. I on the other hand liked them both and depending on whim would choose one or the other to go with my eggs.

[stu]

Hi

An excellent sausage. I made up a 1kg batch and cooked a few on the BBQ on Saturday and they went down very well. The general feed back was �you can make some more of these�. Like Oddley I increased the salt content but to 1.25%.

Cheers Stu

[johnc]

I agree and complent the authour of this recipe. This turned out to be one of my best yet. I ran off a batch last night which consisted of 2 firsts for me.
First run with new grinder
First run using collagen casings

I used the original recipe as posted by Oddley (no nitrates) using 2lb of pork shoulder and 1lb of quite lean belly pork which the NT grinder wizzed through in seconds.

As the temperature in my kitchen is in mid 70's F, I put mix in the freezer for 15-30 mins between each operation

I had a bit of an interesting time with the seasoning though, as I use fresh herbs so it was really a case of chopping and keeping ratios between the herbs consistent with the recipe by volume, then adding fresh herbs to the ground spices at about twice the amount by weight and re-grinding all together.

I like to keep the salt content separate from the seasoning as its function is for binding as well as flavour.
I've found that 1.5% salt (or 1 tbs) per 2lb/1kg + 1tsp of seasoning mix works for me. In this case, for the 3lb meat plus 20% water/rusk, I used 2tsp of the seasoning mix (run through in a blender with the 10% water helps distribute the fresh herb flavour more evenly than being concentrated in flecks.)

I'd bought 28mm collagen casing a while back when passing by the Allied Kenco store. I wanted a size in between the 21mm sheep (very thin and fragile), and 35mm hog casings (good on grill, but too thick for frying) readily available in smaller quantities.
Now I have seen conflicting ideas about using collagen casings, one says to soak for 3 hours prior to use, while the manufacturers say to use unsoaked. I'd tested soaking a short piece and it seemed not to be very manageable whereas the unsoaked casing slides very nicely on to the medium stuffing horn, so being a lazy git I chose the latter.
I was impressed by how smooth and even the sausage poured out of my stuffer with minimal restraint to ensure a proper fill. The only drawback was that the dry casing doesnt compress on the horn so was only able to load about 3ft at a time.
I left the unlinked sausage lengths coiled in the bottom of the fridge overnight. snipped off and cooked a few for a very succulent breakfast this morning.
Flavour had developed nicely, texture perfect, the only snag (no pun intended) was a tendency to burst. I guess the collagen casings do need a "prick with fork"

[Nafe]

MMMMMM these sound yummy and as its the weekend I may try to get me some pork at the market!

One question though - When making these beastys is it better to use water or stock? Id imagine stock, but there lies my problem - is it a home made stock or can I just buy stock from a supermarket - eg, knor or oxo stuff?


Ta


Nafe

[johnc]

I'd stick with water first go, the spice mix is what gives the flavour, not overpowering but lingers a while. then try the stock if you're not happy, but this thread suggests you will be