Questions about salt and seasoning sausage...

[vagreys]

When I was introduced to sausagemaking, I was taught to season and stuff within 30 minutes, because the meat sets and becomes difficult to stuff, after that. A lot of recipes, though, call for cubing the meat or doing a primary grind, working the seasoning into the meat and letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight. I was taught to ignore that instruction and just go ahead and do the final grind and stuff.

Does the meat stiffen if it is seasoned and allowed to sit overnight before grinding? What are the benefits, in a fresh sausage, of allowing the chunks of meat to sit with seasoning overnight before grinding? Is it any different than seasoning and stuffing immediately, and then letting the links refrigerate overnight?

Just some questions. The sausages I've made have been satisfactory, at least to me. Just wondering about different techniques I see in recipes.

[tristar]

Hi Tom,

I normally season the meat and work it to produce the primary bind, and then stuff all in one session. The only real benefit I can see from leaving the seasoned meat overnight is for the salt in the seasoning to have an opportunity to start denaturing the proteins in the meat and thereby reducing the mechanical work required to produce the primary bind. Either way seems to work! With regard to flavour, I tend to leave my finished sausages overnight under refrigeration for the flavours to develop, this may not be necessary if seasoning the meat chunks and leaving them overnight before stuffing.

Regards,
Richard

[sausagemaker]

HI Tom

I agree with Richard above, yes chill the cubed meat as this helps to grind it more cleanly, & after the sausage is made then stand these over night for the the sausage to bloom.

Best Regards
Sausagemaker

[Big Guy]

I've done it both ways, and I prefer to stuff right after the initial mix. The meat mixture flows better through the stuffer . If you let it sit overnight it sets up and requires much more force to put through the stuffer. once stuffed I hold in the fridge overnight to let the spices blend and the links set. I then package and freeze.