After Stuffing Sausages

[deb]

I believe it's a good idea to keep the sausages overnight in the fridge before eating or freezing them, I assume to help the flavours blend and dry the sausages a little. On the couple of occasions I've made sausages I put them in the fridge on a plate, by the morning some of the water had leached out and the sausages were sat in it making the bottoms soggy. Is this a common thing? If so how do you keep yours dry (or don't you bother)? If this is just a problem I have any ideas why?
I'm about to launch into some more sausagemaking and would like to sort this out. I have a small fridge which I use for sausagemaking and curing (not to mention keeping the beer cold) so I could easily rig things up so the sausages could be hung from small hooks, would this be a good idea?

Thanks for any help.

[aris]

Butchers hang them from hooks. If you've got the space for that - then go for it.

[Paul Kribs]

Deb

I freeze most of my sausages and have tried leaving the sausages in the fridge to 'bloom' overnight before packing and freezing, and also have frozen them without leaving them to 'bloom'. I must say that I have not noticed any discernable taste / texture differences bewteen them. I suppose that with the ones which are frozen straight away, I assume they meld the flavours whilst thawing out.

I do prefer the latter method solely because we only have the one fridge, and the odours from the sausages do tend to live in the fridge for quite a while.

When I made the black puddings I tied both ends together with butchers twine prior to simmering, the string is helpful when retrieving the puddings from the pot, and I used it to tie the puddings to the underside of one of the wire fridge shelves overnight. Maybe you could use a similar method for the linked sausages and leave a drip plate underneath.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[robin]

Deb,

Like you I've an old fridge in my garage for sausages etc. I put some absorbent kitchen roll on a tray and put the sausages on that and let them dry and mature over night. The kitchen roll seems to absorb any excess water that comes out.

Robin

[Cankleman]

Hi Deb

I too have had the problems that you have tring to dry the fresh sausage. I find that if I roll the new sausage in kitchen roll for about 12 hours in the fridge, the excess water will soak.

Happy sausage making

[welsh wizard]

Hi Deb

I now tend to do the same as Paul and freeze them straight away, it gives then a slightly longer shelf life when they are then defrosted and placed in the fridge. Re seepage, yep I have had that as well but to my mind it did little or no harm to the end product.

Cheers WW

[Paul Kribs]

This seepage problem, are you linking the sausages or seperating them before you 'bloom' them? I used to link mine and got no discernable liquid on the plate. I wouldn't have thought you'd get much liquid coming through the casings, and if they are linked the only places they would leak would be both end sausages. When stuffing I left a 2-3" legth of loose casing and tied these into the link.

Now I freeze them pretty much straight away I don't bother to link, just seperate them and pack them into counterwrap then put a sticker on them. There is a picture of the packed sausages ready for freezing, on my website to illustrate this.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[sausagemaker]

Hi All

If you have a seepage problem then this is due to the water not being sufficiently bound, this could be due to insufficient mixing of the ingredients, too little rusk / breadcrumb or too much water.
If you suspect the rusk / bread crumb try soaking this with the water before mixing into the sausage, if a lot of water comes out when squeezed then you need more rusk. If on the other hand the mixture is dry but you are still experiencing the problem the the meat you are buying is too wet.

Hope this helps
Regards
Sausagemaker

[welsh wizard]

Hi Paul

I must admit as soon as I have finished the process I twist, cut and freeze. Back in the days when I left them overnight before freezing I would still twist and cut and then place in a dish in the fridge and yep I did get some seepage. However as sausagemaker points out I may not have had the correct rusk / liquid ratio.

Cheers WW

[Paul Kribs]

Welsh Wizard

Oddley advised me on rusk / water content.

"May I suggest 5 - 10% I would personally go with 5%. Recommended is rusk 1 part water 1.5 parts."

I apply this ratio, as my first attempt at sausages the rusk was a little high at 14%. It appears to be a good ratio as I get no seepage.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[welsh wizard]

Thanks Paul

I will try your method - I posted a wile ago that I had holes in my sausages and after reading the various replies to this posting and mine I think I need to be mord dillegent in the prep.

Cheers WW

[deb]

Thanks to all.
I think I'll try the info regarding ratios that Paul has given, if it's already proven don't mess with it, I say.
I can only see one problem I may have and that is, as I'm going to be using the "mastic-gun" arrangement for stuffing I was advised to use a slightly looser mix so I'll just have to try it out and see if this ratio will still enable me to get the mix through the tube o.k.
If I'm going to be freezing the sausages I'll do it straight away however if I plan to keep them in the fridge it seems that putting them on a piece of kitchen paper will help absorb any seepage there may be.

[Paul Kribs]

Deb

I made Francos somerset apple today but added some canned apple. I did encounter the seepage problem. It is obviously one of liquid content, as I added a can of apples to the mix and because of the moisture content exacerbated the seepage problem. Not a lot of moisture but enough, but I shall freeze them in the morning. Sure the problem is down to moisture content.
I did not add water to this, just rusk, because of the wet ingredient. A bit hit and miss.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[robin]

Paul,

Are you talking weight or volume when you say 1 part rusk to 1.5 parts water.

Thanks

[Paul Kribs]

Robin

I did it by weight, It is a very good average to follow, a bit exact but worth the effort.

Regards, Paul Kribs