www.sausagemaking.org

I was a chef but now cook for me, I have tried making sausages without any great success, I used to have a cheap electric mincer that just smeared the meat no matter what I did, so I threw it in the bin and bought a manual mincer size #20
I have just been hunting and got two deer so my latest and best attempt was venison sausages. This was my best effort yet but still not right. I used
2.5kg lean venison (frozen)
1kg pork belly(this pork belly was not very fatty)(frozen)
1kg pork fat
250ml milk
Spices
Collagen skins

They turned out flavour wise good (still want to tweak my spices, but made two different flavours). But they were slightly dry pretty meaty, and the skins split when cooking.

I have just read Richards sausage making guide and think I can see a couple of issues.

1. meat had been frozen and ground while still to frozen, ground twice through a 8mm plate
2. I was very careful with keeping everything cool, had issues using mincer for filling, had to end up using a cheap plastic tiny mincer with a bigger sausage funnel, and meat may have got a bit warm then.
3. No rusk, i have seen sausage meal is this the same?
4. More liquid needed
5. I mixed by hand (ok I think) but only enough to absorb milk, mixing longer would have made a smoother texture?
6. Casing splitting, filled to tight? Next time will use hog casings.

I have purchased a small sausage filler for next batch.

Any advice appreciated

Tim

Welcome to the forum.
1. The meat should be almost frozen, it will feel dry to the touch. I personally like to salt the meat the night before as well.
2. The sausage stuffer is the way to go.
3. Probably. You can make sausage with or without. In the recipe you've given, I'd use 170 g.
4. That amount should be fine, was the sausage mix very stiff?

The meat had been in the freezer for a few weeks, I was not ready to make sausage earlier.
The sausage was pretty stiff, I could not get it through a 10mm funnel so had to use a larger funnel I a small plastic grinder, I had to use my hands to push it through which may have warmed the meat up.

Am I understanding mixing the meat correctly, if you mix the meat longer you get a smoother firmer sausage?

Would using filler or rusk given a smoother texture

Thanks for the help,

Tim

You mix sausage to extract a thing called myosin in the meat. Adding the salt the day before will do the same thing. The meat will visibly change and become more sticky when it's mixed enough. It will even smell slightly different.

It's then sausagemeat rather than mince with spices.

Phil

Ok so I think i needed more mixing,
I have a friend who said to use half cooked rice instead of rusk would this work or is rusk better.

Tim

Rice, rusk, breadcrumb - they all have their place. Rice would generally be used fully/over cooked. Maybe 3 times water to rice by volume brought to a boil slowly whilst stirring and then cooked for 25 mins or so.

The water ratio changes accordingly. Use 1.5 water to 1 rusk.1 to 1 water to breadcrumb. And no added water with rice (unless necessary).

None of these fillers will affect the development of myosin, so you can take your pick.

HTH

Phil

I've made Venison Sausages and Salami, and I don't care for it. When you try pork or a pork/beef sausage, I suspect you will be more pleased with the results.