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1st try to making Brats

PostPosted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 10:28 pm
by tcards
I made a batch of brats recently. When we cooked them they came out dry. What can I do to make them juicier next time?

Re: 1st try to making Brats

PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 12:17 pm
by NCPaul
Welcome to the forum! :D We need to know more about what you did in order to help your brats.

Re: 1st try to making Brats

PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:53 pm
by tcards
Recipe
5lbs pork butt
8 oz cheese
2 tablespoons of salt
1 tablespoon of surgar
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon of white pepper
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon majoram
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
1/4 cup of beer.

Ground pork using medium die. Mixed it all together by hand. Then into stuffer to make the links.

Re: 1st try to making Brats

PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 4:56 pm
by tcards
Ground 5 lbs of pork butt. Hand mixed in all the spices. Added 1/4 cup of water. Cooled and stuffed into links.

Re: 1st try to making Brats

PostPosted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 11:54 am
by NCPaul
First I would weigh both the meat and salt. Two tablespoons of salt can vary a lot depending on the type of salt. I like fresh sausages at 1.3 % salt. I also like salting the cubed meat the night before making sausage as this gives the salt time to help extract the myosin from the meat; this will help bind moisture in the sausage. I find that trimmed pork butt is slightly low in fat and almost always add fat back or pork belly to increase the fat level. It is important to trim away the intramuscular fat in the pork butt to avoid fat smearing during the grinding. One last thing would be to replace the beer in the recipe (which is acidic) with pork or chicken stock instead.