I was a chef but now cook for me, I have tried making sausages without any great success, I used to have a cheap electric mincer that just smeared the meat no matter what I did, so I threw it in the bin and bought a manual mincer size #20
I have just been hunting and got two deer so my latest and best attempt was venison sausages. This was my best effort yet but still not right. I used
2.5kg lean venison (frozen)
1kg pork belly(this pork belly was not very fatty)(frozen)
1kg pork fat
250ml milk
Spices
Collagen skins
They turned out flavour wise good (still want to tweak my spices, but made two different flavours). But they were slightly dry pretty meaty, and the skins split when cooking.
I have just read Richards sausage making guide and think I can see a couple of issues.
1. meat had been frozen and ground while still to frozen, ground twice through a 8mm plate
2. I was very careful with keeping everything cool, had issues using mincer for filling, had to end up using a cheap plastic tiny mincer with a bigger sausage funnel, and meat may have got a bit warm then.
3. No rusk, i have seen sausage meal is this the same?
4. More liquid needed
5. I mixed by hand (ok I think) but only enough to absorb milk, mixing longer would have made a smoother texture?
6. Casing splitting, filled to tight? Next time will use hog casings.
I have purchased a small sausage filler for next batch.
Any advice appreciated
Tim