Problems with stuffing!

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Problems with stuffing!

Postby tristar » Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:27 am

Hi Everybody,

I am having some problems with stuffing my casings, my sausages are edible and the texture is good enough, but apart from the first 8-10 inches of casing the sausages do not look right! The initial part of the casing has good colour and shows minced meat and fats as seperate colours but after that the colour changes to a pale pink and it appears that some emulsification or fat smearing is taking place in the mincer body.

I am using beef brisket 30% fat with no filler, a fairly standard mix of spices, but with the addition of whole mustard seeds and some mustard powder.

I am mincing with a medium plate, and trying to stuff into sheep casings using the small stuffing horn.

My initial sausages didn't have this problem but I was using a much lower percentage of fat 10% and the meat was not at such a low temperature.

In my initial sausages using meat straight from the fridge, I was able to mince and stuff with no problems but the sausages were mealy, on the second batch I added beef kidney fat but this smeared everywhere inside the machine and on stuffing emulsified, sausages were better texture and tasted fine. My third attempt was with meat and fat chilled close to freezing point, minced with no problems but again would not stuff without emulsifiying.

It seems as if the spiced minced meat is too stiff to force through the stuffing tube and is just churning in the machine. Could it be that my mixture is too stiff? Would it help to add water and let the mixture come up to refrigerator temperature before stuffing? I am somewhat concerned about adding water as I cannot recollect seeing this anywhere where there are no fillers added.

Regards,
Richard
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Postby aris » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:27 am

To me it sounds like you might want to get a dedicated stuffer.
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Postby welsh wizard » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:30 pm

Hi Tristar

I make sausages with and without pin head rusk. In both cases I use water but the amounts vary. Before I added water to the mix which did not have the pin head rusk I found that when stuffing into a sheeps casing it sometimes ripped the casing because the mix was too brittle and did not flow properly.

I have found that by wetting the mix slightly to form a less dry consistency it improves the passage and eases the mixing of the meat in the bowl before stuffing. If you put a little too much water in the mix you will find that in the morning the water is sitting in the dish along with the sausages but this does no harm and is a lot less stressfull.

Cheers WW
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Postby tristar » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:22 am

Hi Aris and Welsh Wizard,

Thank you both for you input. Aris I would love to get a dedicated stuffer, but such a thing is not available here so before I make a decision to order one from abroad I feel the need to do quite a lot of research and try to see as many opinions of the different types before I make a decision. I hate to buy things which I haven't been able to lay my hands on I guess!

WW I will certainly be adding water to my next batch, which will probably be today, unfortunately it will likely be with a different recipe as I have just run out of yellow mustard seeds........can't buy those here either! I was planning to make a more herby sausage anyway so maybe the timing is ok!!

Thanks again,

Richard
"Don't be shy, just give it a try!"
Food for The Body and The Soul
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Success !

Postby tristar » Fri Feb 24, 2006 3:14 am

Hi Folks,

Well I made some chicken sausage yesterday, and added about 4 tablespoons of water to the mix, went like a dream!

I have been doing a little more research and it may be that my problems are caused by the meat I am using, the meats differ depending where I buy them, from the traditional market the meat is pre-rigor, straight from slaughter and is very soft and moist, from the supermarket it is generally post-rigor, much denser in character and seems to lose some moisture during storage and the freezing process. Also there is no pumping or treatment of meats here with chemicals so the meat from the supermarket tends to be drier anyway.

It is nice to be making progress, and thanks again for the help of all here in the forum!

Richard
"Don't be shy, just give it a try!"
Food for The Body and The Soul
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Postby welsh wizard » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:03 pm

Rock and Roll Tristar, glad all has turned out well. You will find that some meat has more water retention than others, for example if I prep pheasant sausages and prep them the day or the day after they have been shot then the meat retains a lot of moisture - hang them for a week and the reverse is opposite and water needs to be added. Anyway keep on keeping on - Chheers WW
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Postby aris » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:57 pm

My brother-in-law (who is a vet) says pork has the highest natural water retention of all meats.
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