Depressed; just cannot get it right!

[Shamusosean]

Dear Friends,

I am now at my wits end and on the verge of giving up this lark. I have made ten batches of sausages now and not one has turned out right! I have a machine and the stuffing, linking etc. are fine but even when I follow the recipies exactly, sometimes using bought spice mix sometimes using my own ingredients, but they just do not taste right. I do not add extra fat to the prime pork I use, simply breadcrumbs and fresh herbs like basil or chives. I also keep the salt down. Just tried to make pork and onion and they taste crap...

In addition, the skins do not cut properly after cooking, leaving a mess on the plate. I bought skins and keep them in water in the fridge prior to making the sausages. If I use the bought in spice mixes then the skins cook and cut okay, but when I make the sausage with my own ingredients they are like rubber.

Getting well pissed off as many people are waiting for me to produce good bangers and it's just not working out. Help!

[jpj]

do you keep the skins (what sort are they?) in water all the time?
does the 'prime' pork have any visual fat in it?
do you mix it all thoroughly?
how little salt do you use?
how are you cooking them?
and for how long?
can you post a complete recipe & method of your own devising?

sorry no direct answers, but some of the above may be jointly responsible.

[Shamusosean]

Hello, thanks for your message. I'm using sheep skins. When I bought them with my kit, the supplier told me to freeze them in batches and and keep each batch in water in the fridge once they are being used. I am using pork neck or shoulder bought from a reputable butcher here in Finland. It does have a little fat on it that I mince along with the meat. Using about 10g of salt per kg of meat. Cooking them in the pan with a little olive oil. It seems these premixed spices also contain stabilisers, etc. Perhaps because that's what I'm used to eating, the ones I'm making just do not taste the way I would like them to. To add to my woes the sausage meat comes out of the end of the skins when I cook them - just hate that...Any tips? Have been following the recipies in Paul Peacock's Sausage Book. Basically I mince the pork, add my own breadcrumbs, some fresh herbs, salt and pepper and that's it. The onion sausage may have been a disaster because I added brown ale instead of water.

[Lance Yeoh]

Hi,
I use sheep casing as well and as far as I know, you're not supposed to freeze them. As for cutting them, I suggest using a sharper knife so you'll get nice clean cuts when the sausages are cooked.
I think you're using too lean a meat, I use boston butt (picnic shoulder) as well and I add about 25-20% fatback to it when mincing.
You'll need to add some water as well.
How is the tempreture of the forcemeat? is it near freezing? If you do it too warm, the protein and fat in the mixture won't bind.

[welsh wizard]

Hi

Sorry to hear about your troubles it sometimes can be a bit frustrating!

Taste is of course very subjective and when I started it took me a while to re educate the taste buds, however you should be able to produce a banger that is really good to eat.

Try this simple recipe:

1kg of pork shoulder minced

Add

10g of salt (I see you are doing this)
2g of black pepper
10% rusk / breadcrumb
10% water (brown ale may give it a bitter taste)
1 - tablespoon of mixed herbs
1 teaspoon of onion powder, or a finely chopped onion that has been fried in a little butter until brown and left to go cold.

Mix together and put into your skins. Dont overfill the skins, this could lead to the mix coming out of the end and ensure when you are making the sausages twist each one a min of three twists.

Re tough skins: How long are you leaving your skins in to soak? They need a minimum of 2 hours and I soak mine overnight. However I have not used frozen skins, I just keep mine in the fridge packed in salt until I need them - months sometimes!

Keep on keeping on - it really is worth it I can assure you.........

Cheers WW

[Shamusosean]

Thanks, I'll give that recipe a try. Keep it simple. Maybe I'm running before I can walk, trying Charlie Parker when I should master Twinkle Twinkle first.

Regarding the skins, mine sit in water in a sealed container in the fridge after I have taken them from the freezer. Because when I unfreeze a batch I do not use them all. Is this good practice? How long should they last if they are in water in the fridge? Does this count as soaking them before you use them?

[Lance Yeoh]

I would not let casings sit in water in the fridge for more than 3 days. I find that they tend to 'cling' to the stuffing horn more the longer they sit in the fridge. After too many days in the fridge they tend to go too soft and will break easily.

[welsh wizard]

I go with Lance on this, 3 days is plenty.

Most casings arrive packed in salt and can be kept like this for months in the fridge once opened.

I just untangle what I need, place in water & leave in the fridge overnight

Cheers WW

[georgebaker]

Hi
how about giving up sausages for a while and try burgers?

That way you can get the taste the way you want it, they are also easier to do in small quantities so speeding up the development process.


George

[Oddley]

All the manufacturers that I know of recommend, you don't freeze their sausage skins. They should come packed in salt or a salty brine. Leave them in the bottom of the fridge, topping up with salt on occasion.

When needed, they should be soaked in plenty of cold portable water, if you can overnight, or for a least two hours, don't forget to run some water through them, to clean the salt from the inside.

The importance of rigorous mixing should not be underestimated. There are soluble proteins in pork, when mixed with salt and kneaded, these proteins will bind with fat and water, giving a more succulent texture. These proteins also bind better at cold temperatures, keep your meat and water as cold as you can at all times. I would recommend that after adding your water and spices, but before adding your breadcrumbs, you kneed the forcemeat like bread dough for about five minutes or until the meat becomes slightly sticky. Then add the breadcrumbs kneed them in and allow them to rehydrate for 5-10 minutes.

The above could also be the problem with tough casings. If the forcemeat is mixed right, it sticks to the inside of the casing giving it that snap when biting. You should not have the meat coming out of the ends, as the mixing will bind the water stopping it expanding so much, as you will not have so much free water to turn to steam.

[johnfb]

This is how I do it and it has always worked out ok for me:



Dice up the pork shoulder and pork belly (the fat is essential) I ususlly do 1 pork shoulder and 2kg of belly!

Add flavourings or spice mix

Mince in the mincer through a small plate

Leave to rest until chilled in the fridge

Add your rusk and water (after an hour or so in the fridge)

Re-mince, I do the second one through a larger holed plate for ease

Leave to rest until chilled again, in the fridge.

Mix the meat by hand (the best kitchen tools ever made) until all the mixture is sticky and gloupy (not sure if that is a real word) this takes me about 10 mins and I do it in batches. You could use a wooden spoon or something like that but clean hands are best.

While you were mincing the meat you should have had your casings soaking in water the time lapsed from dicing and mincing and cooling will be ample for the casings to be pliable for use. Always run cold water through them to flush out any salt from storage.

Load the skins onto your stuffer and stuff...do not put too much in as this will cause bursting and the leakage you write about.
An extra pair of hands on the stuffing end will leave you free to control the amount of casing you allow off the stuffing tube.

I always leave a good bit of casing on the front and end (about 2/3 inches) to allow me to push any over filled areas of casing to each part and therefore avoid overstuffing.


This always works for me. Taste is great and no bursting or leaking!


Keep going it will get better for you

[johnc]

do not add extra fat to the prime pork I use, simply breadcrumbs and fresh herbs like basil or chives. I also keep the salt down. Just tried to make pork and onion and they taste crap...

Unfortunately, a certain amount of fat and salt are necessary evils to turn "mince" into a good sausage.

To add a bit more detail to johnfb's summary, which has worked well for me too:

All the advice on here gives 80%lean:20% fat as the recommended ratio for sausage making.
To the eyeball, I have found a ratio of 3 parts lean shoulder : 1 part belly pork to work well. Make that 4:1 if either is very fatty. The belly also seams to lend a soft, succulent texture and has a lot of gelatin.

Salt is necessary to get a good bind when mixing (as per Oddley's post above) 1.5% or about 1 level tbs /2lb (1Kg) is about the minimum.

The key to not having the sausage ooze out of the ends is in the mixing, and again after stuffing to leave enough time for the skins to bloom.

I add iced water at 10% of weight of meat , together with the 1.5% salt and seasoning mix (about 0.3%) before mixing . Mix until the meat has absorbed the water and goes from crumby to stringy. Put back in the freezer for about 1/2 hour. Then add rusk and mix well. Leave again in freezer, or bottom of the fridge while preparing casings.

NB regarding taste, if at this point you have fried up a test sample, it should taste bland as it takes a while for the herbs and spices to develop flavour. You can leave the mix covered in the fridge overnight to be sure. Don't go overboard adding more than the recipe calls for or you will regret it later

To avoid having excess water left in the casings after rinsing, I find "chasing" the water down the casing with a few drops of light olive oil helps ease the delicate sheep casings on to the horn.If any remains it will solidify when cold. Pat or squeeze the outside of the casing dry once on the horn.

As johnfb says, do not overstuff the casings. I restrain the feed just enough to fill out straight off the horn, without stretching the casing or "ballooning". If there is any slack in the casing it is taken up when you pinch out the links.

Once stuffed, link the sausages (pinch out and maintain a finger width between links) and hang overnight in the fridge to bloom. This allows the skins to relax and the twisted ends harden into place so the skins dont try to shrivel back sending forcemeat out into the pan. As the skins dry out they will cut or bite with more of a snap than a rubbery twang.

I hope this helps, I've learned a lot from this site over the past year. I too was in your state of dispair when I first came here. Today I just made a second batch of the Gloucester recipe as that scored a big hit with friends...Thanks again to all

[Wal Footrot]

I've managed to get the fat content down to 15% but I wouldn't go any lower than this. Someone mentioned remincing, with the added rusk/meal/etc using a larger diameter mincing blade and this is what I do to ensure a good mix. This is my procedure:

Buy meat/fat from butcher already minced - saves a hell of a lot of time - my butcher knows exactly what I want. From there I:

add iced water to the meal/rusk and seasonings and mix well to make a slurry - you can use a blender for this but I don't.

add the slurry to the mince and mix by hand until sticky then put into the freezer until very cold.

add this meat to the mincer using a large diameter cutting blade. This makes the mince even finer, surprisingly enough, and really mixes up all the ingredients to give a great texture. (The butcher I visited actually does three minces using the same diameter blade to achieve a very fine mix. He adds the ingredients to the meat after mince #1).

After further cooling, I then stuff the snags using the mincer as a stuffer. This will now change as I'm picking up my 5kg Reber today!!!!

When I first started I had problems that were solved by consulting the gurus on this board so you've come to the right place.

Good luck

[Shamusosean]

Many, many thanks to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to help me with your replies. The devil is indeed in the detail. I think getting the meat and fat minced up by the butcher is a good start, as well as keeping everything chilled during preparation. On the flavouring, I will try and keep things simple. Will let you know how I get on!

[johnfb]

Ohh and just one more addition.

Reading back on the comments made I would like to add that while I mince the meat etc..I add my rusk directly to the water in a container of some kind,and leave it for about a half hour to turn into what I can only describe as wallpaper paste.
I have tried other ways, but for me, to do it this way and then add this paste- like mess to the forcemeat, works very well...it ensures that the rusk has absorbed the water and for me leads to less "banging" when frying.
I find this way makes the mixing of the meat (by hand) just prior to stuffing much easier.