Urgent help needed, please!

[Cedaronics]

Rushed in without thinking about this...

But this is where I'm at:

I have 2.2kgs of minced pork shoulder, and a couple of bags of shop-bought mix/seasoning, each one 300g.

A recipe I have been offered by the shop is 77.5% meat, 10% water and 12.5% mix.

Trouble is, I don't know how to proportion this up! The only constants I have are the weight of the meat (fat is in there) and the known availability of the two bags of mix. Water is unlimited form the tap .

Can anyone offer me a quick fix so that I can get this ball rolling again, please?

[badjak]

According to the percentages you have you should use
2.2 kg mince (if you want to use up all your mince)
284 gram water
355 gr mix

If you want to work it so you only have to use one pack of mix (300 gram), it will be
1860 gram mince
240 gr water
300 gr mix (1 pack)

Good luck!

[Cedaronics]

You just saved my life!

Doing this with the kids (7+8), so don't want to disappoint.

Will get back later with results and another question or so about how you arrived at those figures.

Must fly!

[DanMcG]

If you need to get close to 1860g of mince that badjak mentioned, use a measuring cup of some sort to divide the 2.2 kg of mince into 5 equal piles (volume wise) then use 4 and 1/4 piles for the 1860 .

Each pile will be equal size so they will also be the equal weight , or 440g, multiplied by 4.25 will be 1870g.

HTH

[Cedaronics]

Hi again.

Well, it went ok, I think. The first strong of sausage was a bit thin to begin with, but I got the hang of controlling the output, and we got some pretty decent, thick sausages! Blimmin' hard work, though!

For the future, how do you compute percentages like this? Is there a nice and easy to use piece of software that can help?

btw, I used all the meat, and got about 40 sausages (some smaller than others!).

Tim

[badjak]

Glad it went OK

There are a couple of ways to go about it. The easiest is probably to bring everything back to 1 kg of mince.

With the figures you gave us:
For every kg (1000 gr) of mince you use
100 gr water (10 % of 1000)
125 gr spice mix (12.5 % of 1000)

So for 2.2 kg, you just multiply everything by 2.2


You can also work it out as follows:
77.5 % mince equals 2.2 kg or 2200 gram

1 % therefor is 2200 g divided by 77.5 = 28.4 gr
10% = 10 times 28.4 = 284 gr
12.5% = 12.5 * 28.4 = 355 gr (rounded off)

Metric is just so easy to work with!!!!

[Cedaronics]

Ah yes, ok, I see. I knew there was going to be some maths involved (my Dad was right then, all those years ago).

I'll take this forward and hopefully come out ok next time too. (The texture seemed good).

Now, we haven't tested any sausage yet - I've put eight of them in the fridge for the next few days (I read somewhere here about leaving them for a bit to 'bloom', so that's in order. Others I have frozen. I'm not short of freezers.

I still have LOTS to learn about rusks and mixes/seasonings, obviously, but this first foray hopefully has been fruitful. It was hard work. I was feeding the machine while little 'uns were holding the resulting 'sausage' and laid it down on a tray I had set out.

I found twisting the sausages a bit tricky, and did nothing like something neat you might find in a package, but then, as I told the kids, these are home made so are bound to be a bit 'rustic'.

Of course, proof will be in the pudding eating, and with a commercial mix, I'm not entirely sure of the result's authenticity, but you have to start somewhere. I do rather fancy leek and bacon/pork, hmmmmm.

Thanks for the help with the ratios/percentages.

T

[vagreys]

They don't need to bloom for more than overnight. Fresh sausage should be used or frozen within about 3 days, to be safe. Sausagemaking takes a little practice. The great thing about it is that you get to eat your results!

[SimonSez]

I hate to be pedantic, but the 1st calculation given results in distinctly different weights that the 2nd:
if you multiply 100 gr water (10 % of 1000) by 2.2 you need 220 grams water, this is quite different to the 284 grams water calculated in the 2nd method, and likewise 125 gr spice mix (12.5 % of 1000) x 2.2 is 275 grams of spice mix.

the 1st method gives percentages in relation to the meat, the 2nd calculation gives percentages in relation to the final product weight.

Can someone clarify when the 10% water and 12.5% spice are specified, is this usual as a percentage of cubed meat or final sausage weight??

Thanks, Simon.

[wheels]

I hate to be pedantic, but the 1st calculation given results in distinctly different weights that the 2nd:
if you multiply 100 gr water (10 % of 1000) by 2.2 you need 220 grams water, this is quite different to the 284 grams water calculated in the 2nd method, and likewise 125 gr spice mix (12.5 % of 1000) x 2.2 is 275 grams of spice mix.

the 1st method gives percentages in relation to the meat, the 2nd calculation gives percentages in relation to the final product weight.

Can someone clarify when the 10% water and 12.5% spice are specified, is this usual as a percentage of cubed meat or final sausage weight??

Thanks, Simon.

In this case, the percentages are based on the total sausage. You asked for:

I have 2.2kgs of minced pork shoulder, and a couple of bags of shop-bought mix/seasoning, each one 300g.

A recipe I have been offered by the shop is 77.5% meat, 10% water and 12.5% mix.

The advice given in the first reply is correct:

According to the percentages you have you should use
2.2 kg mince (if you want to use up all your mince)
284 gram water
355 gr mix

The subsequent post that advises 100g water and 125g spice mix for 1000gm meat is incorrect.

Recipes are often given in either % of the total sausage (like this one), or with the ingredients as a % of the meat (which is easier to scale up and down). It can lead to confusion!

HTH

Phil

[badjak]

Sorry guys, Simon is right. I messed up in my explanation.
I will send the correct explanation just now.
The first figures I gave (in the post without explanation) are correct.

[badjak]

OK, now for the correct calculations:
77.5 % meat
10 % water
12.5 % spice mix

means that for every 77.5 gram meat you use 10 gr water and 12.5 gram spice mix

so for every 1000 gr (1 kg) of meat you multiply all amounts by 1000/77.5 (=12.9)
12.9 times 10 = 129 gr water
12.9 times 12.5 = 161 gr spice mixture

To get to 2200 gr meat you can either multiply the figures per kg by 2.2
(2200 gr meat, 284 gr water, 345 gr spice mix)

or you can work it direct and multiply by 2200/77,5 (= 28.4)
77.5 times 28.4 = 2200 gr meat
10 times 28.4 = 284 gr water
12.5 times 28.4 = 345 gr spice mix

Again my apologies!