www.sausagemaking.org

I've been away for a few days staying in Bath (lovely) it rained non stop LOL... anyway.. went to The Sausage Shop (www.sausage-shop.co.uk) to buy a few different varieties to try.

Incidently so far dissapointed with 2 out of the 4 we selected.

The 'Bellringer and Bath sausage' but that might be due to the way we cooked it, have since found out that you need to cook for a minimum of 30 mins - seems a long time.

Must admit I like the look of the sausages 'very fat' was itching to ask what size casings they used but the owner wasn't too pleased when I asked him about the type of casings didn't have to nerve to enquire further..

Website says he uses Oats instead of rusk - anyone tried that?

I've used ground oats instead of rusk. Works fine, though the texture is different. Worth a try though.

I found the texture 'very crumbly'.. I didn't like it. I would describe it like 'sage and onion' stuffing.

Maybe the Bath butcher uses a higher percentage of oats/meat than we would like

Dave

Yes that is exactly how it presented...
oh, well soon I'll be able to focuss on making my own eh..

Mother Hen

I generally use oatmeal in all my sausages (partlly because I can get organic very cheap). I think they make a slighly dryer (crumblier) sausage, but to help get round this I have found that using slighty more liquid than I do for rusk and ensuring the meat is mixed very very well (I have an old hobart or a kithchen aid for doing this). I never exceed 7% of total weight with oats and usually aim for around 5%. Where as with rusk I have used as much as 10%.

I been to the bath sausage shop on a number of occasions and would guess he uses 36/40 skins as they are very plump. Also I believe they do not use artificial emuslifiers which would again expalin the drier texture

Sausage making is all about personal taste that may mean a few batches that aren't as good but these can always go in a caserole or pie. But once you find what works for you then you stick with it and ENJOY

Cheers

Thankyou for that, wow isn't sausagemaking an interesting subject..

Hi,

I have always used rolled oats, up 10% of the meat weight, with no problems.

It seems to produce a nice solid sauasge.

DeeK

Hi

I use oatmeal it seems to do the same as rusk. I've had no probs. I tried rolled oats it didnt work as well.

And before dave tells me this is an old thread I've been having IT probs

Tim

Not me Boss

Dave