Riley's Traditional Sausages

[wheels]

I thought that when I looked at the ingredients - you'd normally expect 'artificial' herbs and spices in such a cheap sausage.

Phil

[BriCan]

real sausage out of thin air.

Owweerrr, this might just put me out ov business

[Seahorse1980den]

I found these sausage really tasty and good value for
£1, the meat content may seem low due to the
New legislations coming into force that you can
Only state the % of pure meat without fat, then you are allowed
To add 16% of the connective fat to the meat content. Most sausage
Makers are not yet declaring this yet.
But people will still buy them for £1 and expect them to be high quality.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

[vagreys]

Well, folks. It has taken 3 years, and having the girls move 1000 miles away, but my girls are home for Thanksgiving and excited at the prospect of making something like this sausage with me. Made rusk, today. Making the sausages tonight. I'll post our recipe, which won't have rind or pea flour. My last case of back fat was skinless Looking forward to seeing how close we've come to what the girls remember.

[BriCan]

My last case of back fat was skinless

And that's a bad thing??

[vagreys]

Not necessarily, but this sausage calls for rind, and I was expecting to have some rind from the back fat (for making gelatin and sausages like Bertolli's Italian sausages from his book, etc.). I don't have that right now, but starting in January/February, I'll be switching over to local, heritage pork for most of what I make, and I'll have trotters and rind (and tails and ears and hopefully heads and organ meats).

[NCPaul]

I've been getting back fat without rind but I've been getting skin on bellies. Since I cold smoke the bellies, I take the skin off before curing and save it. Bertolli's Italian sausage is great with the rind. Would it work in hot dogs as well?

[vagreys]

Rind emulsion is (and has been) used in some commercial hot dogs and other products (see Ockerman), and it has been used in various commercial products in the UK for a long time (see Gerard). Treated the way Bertolli treats his, a little rind should add a nice tooth to a fine-ground sausage.

[vagreys]

So, the girls thought it had a bit too much mace, and a bit too much marjoram for the sage, but they said the texture was spot on. I made my own rusk using the Economy Rusk recipe, and it made nice crumbs in the food processor. I had no rind available, nor back fat for this batch, so I substituted more shoulder. Not as fatty as might otherwise be the case. Here is my first attempt at this sausage. Next time I will reduce the marjoram, mace, and possibly the nutmeg. The girls were very excited and enjoyed the making and eating of the batch. They said the texture and flavor got closer and closer to their memory over the next two days.

1205 g pork shoulder
109 g back fat
540 g Water
29.6 g Kosher Salt
358 g rusk
2.9 g white pepper
6.0 g black pepper
4.1 g nutmeg
2.4 g mace
2.9 g ginger
4.8 g marjoram
6.4 g sage

I used a 1/2" plate for primary grind, added rusk, seasoning and water, and finished with a 1/4" plate. The smallest casing I had was 29/32 mm hog, so I used that.

[wheels]

FWIW, the herbs (and to a certain extent the spice, other than pepper) look higher than I'd expect in this type of sausage.

That said, I'd go with your daughters' analysis.

Phil