Vegetarian Sausages

[nicam]

As a borderline vegetarian, perhaps I shouldn't be here!

However, I have always wanted to know how to make vegetarian sausages. I have seen them sold at the supermarket but I want to make my own as I am always suspicious of commercial ingredients...!!

Are there any other type of casings besides animal ones?

Thanks!

Nicam

[sausagemaker]

Hi Nicam

Welcome to the forum, You never know we may convert you.
Re your question about casings you can get plastic or cellulose casing.
what tend to happen with veggie sausage is they are stuffed into cellulose blanched & then peeled so that you have a skinless sausage.

Hope this helps

Regards
Sausagemaker

[nicam]

Welcome to the forum, You never know we may convert you.
Re your question about casings you can get plastic or cellulose casing.
what tend to happen with veggie sausage is they are stuffed into cellulose blanched & then peeled so that you have a skinless sausage.

Many thanks for the welcome!

I am not entirely a vegetarian as I am trying to have a balanced diet. However, I would really prefer to make vegetarian sausages, if at all possible!

Does anyone have a recipe? I need to be on a diet low in saturated fats.

Many thanks once again!

Nicam

[sausagemaker]

Hi Nicam

Please see link below.
http://www.webvalue.net/recipes/sausage.htm

regards
Sausagemaker

[nicam]

WOW thank you!

[aris]

If you're not ENTIRELY vegetarian, use collagen casings. They are made from beef byproducts, but if you're not ENTIRELY vegetarian, then it shouldn't matter

[sausagemaker]

Hi Aris

If you're not ENTIRELY vegetarian, use collagen casings. They are made from beef byproducts, but if you're not ENTIRELY vegetarian, then it shouldn't matter

Collegen casings are not really made from byproducts, they are made from the layer of collegen between the hide & the fat.

Hope this helps
Regards
sausagemaker

[nicam]

Collegen casings are not really made from byproducts, they are made from the layer of collegen between the hide & the fat.

I've never been a pure vegetarian. even when I did not eat meat, I still consumed dairy products. Right now, I do eat meat but not a lot of it. I am still not comfortable handling raw meat as I still have difficult blocking out the thought that I am supporting an industry that is inhumane. Morally, I am not against eating meat, just against the way animals are treated. I have a friend who visited abbatoirs and became a vegetarian overnight.

OK, I hope I am not out of line saying that but I think everyone already knows the situation. In any case, as I said, I do eat some meat. I don't, however, go near any kind of offal, at least for myself. I buy it occasionally for my dog who loves it.

The idea of collagen casings is something I am pleased to learn about.

One thing I do like to use meat for is hamburgers. I use a mixture of minced meat and mashed vegetables but it always falls apart!

If anyone knows how to keep a meat patty totally intact when cooking... I WANNA HEAR ABOUT IT!! (I used egg to bind the ingredients but it is not working for me!)

[TobyB]

buy your meat from a know source (not necessarily organic). Not all meat is reared cruelly. I buy all mine from a local farm and know exactly how the animals are treated and how/where they are killed. They are still dead mind but at least i know that up until the point where they are killed they have been looked after in as humane a way as possible. Not only does it ease the conscience but also tastes better

With regard to your burgers: usually two causes of disintegration, the mix you are making is too wet and/or you are not cooking them long enough on the first side before turning. You may also be making your mix too coarse which will cause problems (especially if you have biggish chunks of onion) and also not firming your patties enough into shape (ie loads of air pockets in them) which makes them fall apart. I'd suggest using a ring mould (look like a giant and rather thin napkin ring) on a board and pressing down into the mould as firmly as you can. Also you shouldn't need egg to bind a beefburger. If properly minced the ingredients will bind without it (I presume something to do with the fat and protein reacting together)

Alternatively have you tried making patties and then oven cooking them as this would prevent disintegration (and you can use less fat/oil). I always oven bake bubble and squeak made into individual patties using a ring mould and don't need egg to bind or suffer from disintegration problems.

[Paul Kribs]

I use one of those plastic burger presses from Lakelands, think it only cost about �7. If you buy one don't forget to order extra wax disks.
Where I used to get ragged edges from hand forming, and this was where they used to start to break up on cooking. I now get a burger that is compressed right up to the edge, and no fear of breakage.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[nicam]

Toby

Thanks for your great tips. I will try your suggestions.

I know what you mean by the ring, we (Australia) call them egg rings, so that you have a perfect shaped fried egg! Australians like to add a fried egg to their burgers, especially if they are having a barbeque.

One thing I used instead of the metal egg ring ... is an onion ring. I buy really large onions and when I slice them, I always keep aside a couple of the large outer rings and freeze them. I use those frozen rings for frying eggs, just to save on having to wash up those metal rings! So I think I might try using the frozen onion rings for the burger patty as well.

I use one of those plastic burger presses from Lakelands, think it only cost about �7. If you buy one don't forget to order extra wax disks.
Where I used to get ragged edges from hand forming, and this was where they used to start to break up on cooking. I now get a burger that is compressed right up to the edge, and no fear of breakage.

Paul, I actually have that gadget you mention.... but despite using it, my burger patties STILL fell apart. I think perhaps I turned it over too soon. Quite honestly, I am NOT very experienced at cooking meat dishes and right now am learning a lot from watching cooking shows. I look more for cooking tips rather than recipes because I get too overwhelmed by the numerous ingredients that are required, unless it is a dish where I can cook in bulk and freeze. Of course, it mostly has to be a nutritious meal. I am a strong believer that food can taste good AND be nutritious too. I see no point in eating empty calories and risking my health.

[welsh wizard]

Hi Nicam

Your honesty is refreshing.

I understand your feelings towards meat but as a number of people have said if you can source your meat from a local farm that you are happy with in regards of production, it should ease the pangs of guilt.

I also have a close friend who will not eat, as he puts it, "supermarket meat" for the very same reason. He tends to purchase organic meat from a local farm and an awful lot of game when it is in season. Shooting may not be your prefered method of despatch but I can guarantee you the end product will have lived a good and healthy life free form crates and compounds.

Cheers WW

[TobyB]

Hi Nicam,

Had a thought following your last post, if you buy very large onions it's very very hard to dice them small enough to go into burgers. Try mincing your onion next time (either witha mincer or put it through a garlic press) it sounds to me as though part of your problem is likely to be having chunks of onion which are too big. For a burger you want your onion to be about 3mm dice max as otherwise it stops the binding.

Nice tip re the onion rings! Sadly I don't have the freezer space but will remember that one. Would probably be quite nice for a veggie burger cooked in the oven if you left the onion ring around the outside?

[nicam]

Nice tip re the onion rings! Sadly I don't have the freezer space but will remember that one. Would probably be quite nice for a veggie burger cooked in the oven if you left the onion ring around the outside?

The freezer is my best friend! I live in a warm part in Australia (it is winter now and the climate is cooler, but most of the year, it is warm or very hot) so I freeze a lot of things to keep them fresh. I even freeze chopped raw onions, garlic, ginger ... all ready to toss in the wok. It just means that I never run out of these essential "fresh" ingredients. I buy seasonable vegetables in bulk and wash and blanche them, and freeze them. I add them to soup. I used to buy supermarket frozen vegetables until I discovered (only fairly recently) that many of our frozen vegs are imported from countries that still use presticides that are banned in Australia.

I am going to try making meat burgers with the onion ring, and cook them in the oven.

[TobyB]

Good luck,

if you want to keep them juicy use a very hot oven so they aren't in for too long. With veggie burgers this doesn't seem to matter so much.