Basic Beef Sausage

[Wal Footrot]

I tried this recipe from the forum

780gm Pork Shoulder (about 75/25 meat to fat)
80gm Rusk
120gm water
20gm seasoning mix

Seasoning mix:

Salt 60gm
Pepper White 10gm
Pepper Black 8gm
Nutmeg 2gm
Mace 1gm
Ginger 2gm

This gives about 1.45% salt.

But substituted beef mince for pork

I only made a 1kg batch and crumbed them rather than use casings. I'm in experimental mode and would rather play around until I get it right. They don't taste too bad except I should have used more pepper.

Any variations or thoughts on this recipe?

What happens if you use too much water? I used about 300 ml becuase the 150 ml seemed to be too dry but this may have been a mistake.

I replaced rusk with breadcrumbs - about 100 gms

I used a food processor to emulsify half the batch and left the other half as is. The emulsified batch seems firmer somehow. I feel that the texture is not firm enough in either batch but they held together well in the skillet.

[wheels]

Hi Wal

"one man's meat..."
My family found this too peppery and I have since reduced the pepper to 7g White 5g Black! I also now add 3g mixed dried herbs. As to the rusk, the ratio is about what I usually use at 1.5x water to rusk.
What was the fat content of the beef? I would expect beef mince to need additional fat - maybe pork back fat?
In working out the mix I was aiming for a fairly 'bland' sausage that lets the meat be the star - a sort of every-day sausage.
With beef maybe you would want to add more oomph?
I use sheeps casings and was aiming for 1.5% salt which I think it is.
Please let me know how you get on adjusting it.
Hope this helps

Phil