by goskate_girl » Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:29 pm
Hi Phil,
I am somewhat experienced in sausage making, as it is what I do for a living, though I have only been in this job for three quarters of a year! I do have a degree in Culinary Arts and have done some Garde Mange (Cold Kitchen) classes that we primarily focus on sausage making.
Since I work in a sausage factory, all of the meat is pre ground to 3/8 inch (I'm not sure the measurement you take in UK?). I believe we use all chicken thighs with the skin and fat, without adding additional fat to the mixture. I am not 100% sure about that though.
So all of the meat I get is pre ground, then I mix in water, salt (If using), and and binding agents. I mix until the bind built up enough to make the meat "stick," usually about 5 to 10 minutes. In some cases I have mixed for us to 30 minutes in the production size mixer, but I think that was because I added sugars and fiber to the mixture before building the bind. I then add the soy sauce, brown sugar, and the rice seasoning, which is essentially rice wine with salt.
I did look up the PH of soy sauce with is equal to that of acid rain! And the rice wine is adding to that as well, so I am sure the acidity is killing the sausage at this point. I do always keep accurate note on everything I do, and I am making all 4 of the above mentioned changes separately. I have 4 separate test batches going right now that we will be able to compare the results of and see which agent helped most.
I hope what I have written is clear, as I am better at cooking than explaining! Thank God I am a chef and not a teacher!
Sara