To Make a firmer Sausage...

[Upsidasium]

I am making a Boudin sausage for a catered event. The first/tester batch that I made was very good. Excellent flavor and juicy. The only problem is that they are to crumbly.

This event is to be a stand-up affair: little plates and little else. I am looking for a firm product that can be easily eaten w/fingers from a napkin.

The recipe I first worked w/said this would be a soft sausage, and one that should be cooked before processing and casing. I took it from a different angle, and ground and packed raw, hoping this would make for a firmer sausage.

It certainly did make for a firmer product than the recipe promised, but I want to take it further.

Recipe is as follows:

5# pork
1.5 # back fat
2 cups cooked rice (ground fine)
1 cooked onion (ground fine)
1 cooked bell pepper (ground fine)
2 cups ground oats
salt and spices to taste.
A little water.

My feeling is this: If I add raw egg to this, I bet it will firm up to the level I would like.

Has anyone any experience w/this? And if so, what are acceptable ratio's of egg to meat (keeping in mind that the egg will bleed out of the cooked product and make for a less appealing sausage).

-Thanks to all for an excellent and informative forum--

[Oddley]

It looks to me from the recipe, that you have an awful lot of filler ingredients in this particular sausage i.e.: rice and oats. These ingredients will draw a lot of water, so to counter this, I suggest you either reduce the amount of filler ingredients or add more water. If you are not already doing so, I would also suggest that you use an electric mixer, or knead the meat by hand to develop the proteins, this will help stick the meat together.

[Wohoki]

I've added egg to a few Roman sausage recipes that I cooked for my kids when they were doing a project on ancient Rome, and it does produce a firmer finish, and doesn't ruin the final appearence, but I'd not add any more than than 1 medium/large egg per kilo of mix (so about three for your recipe), and it is vital to work the mixture very well before stuffing. Any more than that and it gets sloppy to stuff, and the sausage sets solid when cooked, which is not that nice on the tongue. (The Romans were very fond of sausage, but they used 30%+ filler in them, which isn't to the current European taste.)
And, as Oddley said, you need to add a lot more liquid to a sausage with this much "rusk" in it. Try adding either good meat stock or red wine reduced by 50% for a rich flavour.
The problem with using cooked rice is that, even after it is cooked to the point that you'd serve it with food (slightly al dente), it will still happily go on absorbing moisture until it turns into wallpaper-paste. Rice flour and plenty of water/stock works better.

[Upsidasium]

Here is what I did: Your advice was sound. I think the problem was a lack of moisture/a hefty amount of rusk.

After sausage was finnished, I added 5 eggs and 12 oz of chicken stock to a total of 20# of meat. I mixed the egg on my Kitchenaid until frothy, and then mixed in the chicken stock.

I made sure the rice was well cooked, and well ground. Mixed all very well, and let stand over night before casing.

The water content helped make the casing easier (though I now know I need a better and more professional caseing unit before I take on a task this size again).

After casing, I pricked each sausage at 2" intervals, and then slow-oven cooked for 2-3 hours in water (starting in cold water).

They have turned out very well. Let's hope that the person throwing the party, and paying the bill, will think so as well.

I am also serving homemade mustard devised from a hybrid of recipe's from this site as well.

Thanks to all for thier time and wisdom.