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First of all may I introduce myself, my name is Charles, for some years now living in Southern Ireland.
I am a new member of this forum, I have experimented for a few years now with sausage making born out of the scarcity of good quality butchers sausage to suit my taste.
I have a few times tried to produce a tomato flavoured pork sausage, whilst I can get this not bad it is also not good, the consistency of my cooked sausage is too open as if it needs a binder, any thoughts would be appreciated, also have we any more members around, I am situated in the County of Roscommon.
Regards
Charlie.

Hi Charlie, welcome to the forum. You're in good company, one of our moderators is also from Erin's Green Isle.

Perhaps you could post the current recipe for your Tomato Sausage to help us to comment. However, the acidity of the tomatoes often causes texture problems as can be read here:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=5318

You may also be interested in this thread:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=4981

HTH

Phil

wheels wrote:Hi Charlie, welcome to the forum. You're in good company, one of our moderators is also from Erin's Green Isle.

Perhaps you could post the current recipe for your Tomato Sausage to help us to comment. However, the acidity of the tomatoes often causes texture problems as can be read here:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=5318

You may also be interested in this thread:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=4981

HTH

Hi Phil,
Thanks for prompt response.
The recipe I use was 71b pork, shoulder & belly
3/4 rusk
3 large cans plum tomatoes incl juice
1oz salt
1/2 oz white pepper

The flavour sempt ok perhaps a little more white pepper but the texture was crumbly when cooked.
I was wondering if a little commercial binder would do the job?
any experience with this?
Has anyone used a Tomato flavoured pre mix, if so what observations?
Regards
Charlie

Charlie - I edited your post just to make your reply stand out from the quote.

I think that these bits of previous advice may help:

Spuddy wrote:Just a little tip but I've found that a high acidity impedes emulsification so I would suggest mixing everything EXCEPT the various tomato ingredients first until well emulsified and sticky and then gently mixing in the tomato ingredients. Much easier that way.

sausagemaker wrote:In theory it will work, however when using things like Tomato or citrus fruits like lemon or lime your meat texture can go out of the window.
To stop this you will need to buffer the acid in these products, use Bicarbonate of soda to do this.

We tend to use 1% in seasoning to buffer for a tomato sausage, I think its about the same for citrus juices.

You may also want to consider replacing some of the tomato with tomato puree to intensify the taste - I calculate your tomato to be about 24% which seems high. If you do this you may need to add some more liquid. The tomato juice is about 13% of the meat weight (with the juice actually in the toms adding more).

You may also wish to double the salt which will give a salt level of 1.2% in the total sausage (it's 0.6% at present) The salt helps develop myosin which is the thing that changes the meat from mince to sausage-meat.

You may also want to pay particular attention to the mixing - you really need to mix, mix and mix the ingredients until they change consistency and become the sticky mass that is sausage-meat as against minced pork.

That said, I'm no expert on tomato sausage. Hopefully someone who makes them regularly will advise further shortly.

Phil

Hi Phil,
Thanks for that, I will incorporate these tips and anything else that is forth comming in to my next batch and report back on results.
Thanks once again
Charlie

wheels wrote:That said, I'm no expert on tomato sausage. Hopefully someone who makes them regularly will advise further shortly.

Phil

And then again I would not call myself an expert by a long shot, ..... but saying that a 30lb batch was made every week along with the other 48 different types of sausage.

This tomato sausage recipe comes from the Midlands and dates back to the early 1900

I have scaled the recipe down as I do not think you will be throwing a sausage party soon.

6lb pork shoulder
30g salt
5g white pepper
1g nutmeg
1g coriander
1g cloves
2 1/2g sage
234mL tomato paste

Making it once a week for over twenty odd years I do not know if that would be classed as regular or not.

Robert

[

Making it once a week for over twenty odd years I do not know if that would be classed as regular or not.

Robert[/quote]

Hi Robert
Thank you for taking the time to impart your comments on tomato sausage.
Between this and the other comments on the forum I at least have something to work on.
By the way, even if you dont qualify as regular I would say the snags are ironed out at this stage!!!
Thanks again
Charlie.
PS ( For any Australians on forum No pun intended with snags.)

[Hi Robert.
The recepi for the Tom sausage you gave me has no rusk mentioned, is that the case.
thanks again
Charlie

Charlie W wrote:[Hi Robert.
The recepi for the Tom sausage you gave me has no rusk mentioned, is that the case.
thanks again
Charlie

When I ran my shop it seemed to be a haven for people doing the weight watchers thing or allergies which put a driving force behind my sausage making. Over half of the sausages I make do not have any filler’s whatever and no additives as they are in my mind (and training) not required. I am old school and have been trained by some of the best.

The recipe for the tomato sausage that I put up does not require any rusk, that being said; if one would like to add rusk there is nothing to stop then, the only thing I will say is that if one dose add rusk to the recipe then you will have to increase the spice content.
HTH
Robert

[Hi Robert
Thank you for your continuing tuition, from your promp responce it seems
you are as keen to impart knowledge as I am to absorb It.
I see from your profile your back ground was in the trade.
Thanks once again
Charlie
PS just out of interest I am just brining a pigs head ready to make brawn, was this made in your establishment.

Charlie W wrote:Hi Robert
Thank you for your continuing tuition, from your promp responce it seems
you are as keen to impart knowledge as I am to absorb It.

The quick responce was that it was 10 am your time and 2 am my time, was on my way to bed.

There was a time when starting out that I was told by the people that I worked for that anything that I saw and learned was not to be shared with anyone ... trade secrets and all that. It still I see is still the same mentality of no sharing, that being said I was taken under an old salts wing and was introduced to a lot more mysteries of the trade that are there if one finds the right teacher. Mine was a German feller (probably in his nineties now) when asked for a recipe there was no hesitation in letting me have it, when asked about it his reply was that he could give the same recipe to 20 different sausage makers and no one would make it like or as good as he could ... his reason was that if you do not put a little of yourself (heart) into what you make then it will not work.

A philosophy that actually works, I have been told that when I start talking about food (the meat side) that everything comes to a stop and time for me stands still. You might have heard the old saying about selling sand to the Arabs, and ice-cream to Eskimos; I’ve been there and done it.

I will pass on what little knowledge that I have, if people chose to ignore it then it is there loss not mine.

Charlie W wrote:I see from your profile your back ground was in the trade .

Still am, when I die they will prop me up in a corner so I can still see what’s going on.

Charlie W wrote:Thanks once again
Charlie
PS just out of interest I am just brining a pigs head ready to make brawn, was this made in your establishment.

When I learned the trade back as a child in the North of England it was the norm to do these sought of things, now being out in Canada there are a lot of ex-pats who long for the things that they grew up with ... I try and fill the gap.

On the to do list:
Brawn
Faggots
Potted Meat
Saveloys

Well I had better get back to work before the boss finds me

Robert

BriCan wrote:

wheels wrote:That said, I'm no expert on tomato sausage. Hopefully someone who makes them regularly will advise further shortly.

Phil

And then again I would not call myself an expert by a long shot, ..... but saying that a 30lb batch was made every week along with the other 48 different types of sausage.

This tomato sausage recipe comes from the Midlands and dates back to the early 1900

I have scaled the recipe down as I do not think you will be throwing a sausage party soon.

6lb pork shoulder
30g salt
5g white pepper
1g nutmeg
1g coriander
1g cloves
2 1/2g sage
234mL tomato paste

Making it once a week for over twenty odd years I do not know if that would be classed as regular or not.

Robert

My mum and I have been trying to replicate a recipy my great uncle who was pork butcher in chesterfield used to make..Im looking forward to giving this a go!