Newbie here

[Gill]

Hi

I'm a complete newbie to sausage making but I intend to give it a bash in the very near future. The big obstacle at present is that my kitchen is being refitted by my DIY enthusiast partner, so unfortunately it might be a few months yet before I can even think about making sausages. Anyway, I don't think that's a problem anyone on this forum will be able to help me overcome .

We've got a very good local butcher and I buy most of my meats from him. However, I won't buy his sausages because the skins split whilst cooking. To overcome this, he suggests piercing the skins before starting to cook them . What causes sausages to split whilst cooking, and how can this be avoided?

Gill

[Paul Kribs]

Welcome Gill

Usually the main cause of skins splitting is moisture content being a little too high. Also, if the heat is too high whilst cooking this will cause the skins to rupture. I would not 'prick' the skins but would cook the sausages in a medium oven in a lightly greased baking tray for about 30 minutes and re-assess the sausages from there.

Whilst waiting for your partner to finish the kitchen you could do no worse than browse this forum so that when you start to make your own sausages, you will have a very good idea of how it all comes together. Then you can go and show your butcher some proper sausages that you don't have to 'prick'.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[aris]

Yes - cooking slowly in the oven works - but the more water that is added to a sausage, the more profit for the butcher

[sausagemaker]

Hi Gill

Welcome to the forum, both Paul & Aris are correct in the fact that to much water can causes the casing to split but it could also be attributed to other causes.
Ask you butcher if he is using collagen casing or natural, if it is the former then it is almost certain to be a water problem but could also be due to his manufacturing method.
If the latter dare I suggest he may be stuffing to tightly.

Regards
Sausagemaker

[Gill]

Many thanks for the welcome and the advice . If I buy sausages from that butcher again, I'll cook them in a medium oven, as suggested.

My butcher claims to use only natural products and was moaning the other week about how expensive the casing was, so I presume he's using collagen. Perhaps it might help if I was to hang the sausages a little longer, but quite frankly I resent paying good money for water. I think I'll look for a new butcher to supply my sausages until I get set up to make my own. The rest of his meat is actually very high quality, but he seems to be taking advantage of the fact that most of the public can't distinguish between a sausage and a cucumber.

Gill

[aris]

Typically, sausages with added water also have rusk - which is essentialy breacrumbs. The rusk absorbs the water and changes the texture too.

Ask him if he has any sausages make without rusk. Typically, traditional British sausages have rusk - and continental ones don't .

[welsh wizard]

Hi Gill and welcome

I agree with all that has been said and the thread from Aris saying to ask your butcher if he "makes sausages without rusk" is an interesting one. A very good friend of mine who has a wheat allergy did this and his local butcher who had always denied he used anything but pure filling was put into a bit of a quandry - you guessed it, he did but didnt tell anyone (naughty boy). Thank god the Butcher felt honour bound to tell my mate who on eating sausages with breadcrumb would not have been very well.

I now make him some sausages using pure rice bran which you can get at any good food shops and it binds well.

OOI does anyone know if butchers, with the new rules and regs coming in, have to declare bereadcrumb / rusk content along with meat / fat content?

Cheers WW

[aris]

Last time i did a recipe which required rusk (which I did not have), I used ground oatmeal instead. That would probably help people with wheat intolerance too.