Binding issues

[brennuvarger]

I've been making sausage in a butcher shop for a few months now. I'm pretty new to the craft and have been enjoying the process a lot. I just created my first recipe, a smoked pork and apple sausage. Flavorwise it's pretty okay, no complaints there. However, the main issue has been that of texture and binding. The apples I use are chopped up roughly to the size of a pinky nail. I grind half the pork and fat on medium and the other half on fine (The batch is 30% fat). After smoking the sausage I sample the fresh batch and small parts of it begin to crumble, luckily most of it holds. My manager claims the issue has to do with binding but offers not other suggestion on how to fix it. I'm pretty sure that if I just grind the whole batch on medium I should have this problem. I've also thought of using milk powder as I've had success with that in another smoked sausage we make. I was also thinking of adding more fat.... Any suggestions?

[DiggingDogFarm]

Is there a lot of acid in the recipe?



~Martin

[ComradeQ]

Have you considered using some dried apple instead? Maybe you can slightly reconstitute it to make it pliable but not wet like fresh apple? I think the fresh apple is releasing too much acidic liquid like DiggingDogFarm suggested and that may be breaking down the binding proteins. I would try it with the dried apple and see from there if it helps. BTW, that sounds delicious, any chance of sharing your recipe and I can try tweaking it and see if I can get it working?

[DanMcG]

I usually dry my apples in the dehydrator first, then add them to the mix. How well are you mixing it before you stuff? most of the time a crumbly sausage is do to not enough mixing.

[brennuvarger]

for a 10# batch I'm using 10 Apples (6 pink ladies, 4 fujis). We had discussed using dehydrated apples, but there seem to be some dissent. I'll suggest it again.

I'm thinking of reducing it to 8 apples per 10#. I'm mixing it pretty good, until the meat sticks to my fingers and the bowl. It wasn't crumbling too much, but it never hurts to mix it a little more. Usually I prepare my recipes the night before so that the marinade and meat can bind better.

The recipe is as follows:
10# pork (30% fat)
10 apples
1/2 C brown sugar
2T corriander
2t pink salt
.135# salt
1t cinnoman
1/2 t cloves
1C dice onions

[BriCan]

The recipe is as follows:
10# pork (30% fat)
10 apples
1/2 C brown sugar
2T corriander
2t pink salt
.135# salt
1t cinnoman
1/2 t cloves
1C dice onions

At a 'quick' glance your water content seems hight (to me) for the amount of pork. I do a pork and apple sausage for a client and the batch is 30 lbs with 1 jar of 'unsweeten' apple sauce (796ml)

[brennuvarger]

Curious, whats the benefit of using apple sauce over actual apples?

[quietwatersfarm]

I'm not referring to the relative amounts of each 'apple' part of either of your recipes (I guess that's down to how damn appley you want 'em! ) but I would suggest that Brican's sauce benefits from being more of a puree which will undoubtedly help with the bind and with the flavour penetration into the paste when mixing.

I've always found that chopped apple, rather than pureed, doesn't bind so well and can lead to a crumblier sausage with 'bits of apple falling out when cut. An apple paste, sauce or puree will overcome this for sure.