Awful taste,strange texture...

[Coastal Defence]

Hi all,
Made my very first batch of sausages the other day using a home grinder/sausage maker. Unfortunately the taste of the sausages was awful,and the texture was very powdery.
I used a kilo of pork shoulder (no added fat) and about 200g of fine breadcrumbs,water, with salt,pepper,onion powder,garlic and a little mustard for flavouring.These were stuffed into hog casings (which didnt taste very pleasant upon cooking!)
Yes,I know I should have started with a 'basic' sausage,but I couldnt resist!
Are hog casings an aquired taste? As they tasted revolting tbh. And what made my sausages powdery? The meat was minced once and mixed well with the water/flavourings etc. *Shrug*

[crustyo44]

CD,
Pork casings need to be soaked for several hours and flushed several times with clean water. Soaking the casing overnight is even better, add a few slices of lemon as well, than flush just before you stuff the casings.
This works for me.
I have never used breadcrumbs or rusk so no advise there from me.
Other members certainly will help you.
Good luck.
Jan.

[Coastal Defence]

Cheers Jan,I soaked the casings for 8 hrs,then rinsed them several times,but they tasted mildly 'fishy' when cooked.Might try collagen casings when I do my next batch.

[Oddwookiee]

If you bought commercially prepared casings and they tasted bad, take them back. Hog casings should be almost neutral in flavor. If they tasted anything at all fishy-like, then there's something very, very wrong there. Unless they're a dry salt pack, you shouldn't have to soak them for more then an hour or so. On a wetpack, overnight soaking and multiple flushings will make sure, but is overkill in my opinion. I opened a wet-pack bagged hank just today, soaked it for maybe 40 minutes while making sausage and used them all up, with a second hank soaking while I stuffed the first. I never flush the inside of the casing, just scoop up 16" or so of water into the casing to open it up as I load it onto the horn.

Sounds like you need more fat for sure, and more mixing. If you're mixing by hand, work it until it sticks to your fingers and feels tacky. Too much water can also be a problem, try using just enough to lubricate it for mixing, and make sure you mix the water in thoroughly.

[NCPaul]

The casing do sound "off"; mine come dry packed in salt and only have a faint odor. How much water did you use? Welcome to the forum, sorry it was a bad sausage that brought you here.

[the chorizo kid]

my commercial hog casings soak in cold water for 1/2 hour and then get a quick internal rinse ie put an inch of casing onto the funnel and put the funnel under the faucet for a minute. i have never had an off taste. somthing is wrong with your casings.

[Coastal Defence]

Cheers guys,Ive bought some collagen casings to experiment with.
Any ideas about the powdery texture?It was like coarse pate.
The taste of the actual pork inside the casing wasnt too bad btw,just a bit too garlicky maybe!

[Oddwookiee]

"Powdery" is utterly bizarre, I've never experience anything like that. Do you have pictures, close-ups with something to scale it preferably?

[Coastal Defence]

Sorry Wookie,the evidence is in the trash!
I'll try another batch soon and see how they fare.I'll take some photos too just incase I get the same problem.

[michoutim]

200 g of breadcrums seems excessive to me.

For my merguez "extended recipe" I put 120 ml of breadcrumbs and 250 ml of beetroot water (for the fierce colour, as well as putting in my home made harissa).

[wheels]

Hi Coastal Defence

As Michoutim says, 200gm of breadcrumbs in 1kg of meat is 'not at the quality end of sausage-making".

Maybe start again with a basic recipe and instructions. You'll find instructions from an expert here:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=3986

HTH

Phil