eeejay4 wrote:... I have to make full meat sausages, so ... the sausages taste lovely, but i am losing all the fat that i am adding and they are bone dry. am i supposed to 'tie up' the ends of the sausage to stop the fat from running out? if so, how? or is the fat being lost through the casing? i really dont know what to do, and i really want to go cook sausages for my kids as they cant eat any commercial types.
Hi Emma - its not about sealing the fat in by closing the casing. Its more about making the mix hold onto its fat.
Try this:
- cut up the meat ready for mincing, season it (under rather than over!), mix that in as well as possible, then
- get the meat really cold (almost frozen) before you mince it, and then
- chill it again after mincing. (Mincing heats it up. So chill it.)
- Next you need to mix it thoroughly. (Like a Kenwood Chef with a K beater for a couple of minutes on medium speed). While you mix, slowly add a little seriously cold (flavoured) liquid - wine, stock, beer, fruit juice, jam... but just a little, maybe 75ml per kg of meat. This should produce a slightly sticky sausagemeat with a good "bind" - without adding any chemical binders.
- Then chill it again after mixing, while you fry off some tiny samples to taste-test for seasoning. (If you need to adjust, mix the extra seasoning in well, without allowing the meat to get warm.
- And when you stuff the sausages, don't simultaneously re-mince the meat as you stuff, you'd be heating it!
Rest the sausages for a few hours at least, uncovered in the fridge, to allow the flavours to meld and the skins to dry a little. (Linking and hanging the sausages would be ideal.)
Cook the sausages fairly gently, and of course - don't prick the skins!
Preventing the meat getting warm is good food hygene practice, and firm meat minces more cleanly - but more than that, keeping it cold is important to achieving a good bind, which is what retains the fat and makes for a suculent sausage.
The early salting also helps promote a good bind. (And putting the herbs and spices in early gives time for their flavours to marinade into the meat.)
I'm a little concerned about your comments about "the fat I'm adding".
You want to make "
full meat sausages" - so without adding *any* filler (rusk, breadcrumbs, flour, polenta, oats, crispbread, etc) you should be aiming for about 25% fat content. More than that and, without binders and emulsifiers in the mix, it'll run on cooking. The 25% proportion would commonly be achieved by mixing, half and half, pork shoulder and belly.
For salami, you'd want to keep distinct pieces of fat - so you'd use hard back fat and keep it distinct. BUT for a cooked sausage, you should be trying to get the fat incorporated. Anything left as a distinct lump of fat is very likely to render, and run out of the sausage, when it is cooked.
So its better to use fatty meat, rather than fat.
Try being seriously paranoid about temperature for one batch, use shoulder+belly, mix it well, and I look forward to you reporting back how wonderful they were!