A Working Low Fat (Cumberland) Sausage+orig. recipe

[_Darkstream_]

I have made these sausages twice now, and they are very tasty, better than many
bought sausages (but I guess that is not dificult as many of you know!)

I give the recipe I use below. It is for 1/2 lb of Tesco�s 5% fat �Healthy Eating� pork
mince. I still use small quantities, beacause (a) I am still experimenting and do not
want to throw a lot of food away, (b) I must still loose weight so I cannot just �eat up�
the rejects and try again, (c) I have a limited amount of freezer space and need to vary
my diet. You can of course scale up, and you will get more control over the flavour.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 lb low fat pork mince

3 oz of SILKEN tofu finely chopped

20 grams (1/2 slice) fresh brown breadcrumbs

water, about 1/2 cup, mix to a good texture

and;

SPICES (to 1/2 lb of pork meat)

[NOTA BENE: There is very little fat in this mix, and therefore only a minute flavour
carrier. The ammount of spice per pound of meat may therefore be artificially high.
Tofu itself is supposed to be a good flavour carrier provided it has marinated with the
spices, but I seem to need to add much more spice than the recipes normally require.
Therefore, TEST the mix by frying small amounts and then altering the main mix.
Saves a lot of waste. And if you are making the original recipe, given later, go easy to
begin with.]

1/2 teaspoon of whole white peppercorns - mill or grind this VERY fine

1/4 teaspoon of whole black pepper corns - cracked or very coarse milled

a small pinch (1/8 tsp or less) of each of ground mace, dried powdered ginger, and
cayenne)

10 to 15 fresh sage leaves, finely ground (note, my sage is a narrow leaf sage, broad
leaf sage probably half that amount)

1/4 tsp chopped fresh marjoram


mix it all together and make up your sausages.

They have frozen fairly well, but the water tends to come out when defrosted and
make the texture more solid when cooked. Also I am not too sure about the behaviour
of the tofu after freezing.


Original recipe from Farmhouse Kithchen II

Cumberland Sausage

4 1/2 lb lean pork

1 1/2 lb fat belly pork

1/4 oz powdered sage

pinch marjoram

1 oz white pepper

3 oz salt

4 oz breadcrumbs

Coarse grind


Interested in any comments from experimenters.

[Parson Snows]

Darkman wrote:

They have frozen fairly well, but the water tends to come out when defrosted and
make the texture more solid when cooked. Also I am not too sure about the behaviour
of the tofu after freezing.

General Tofu Information
Tofu most commonly is sold in water-filled tubs, vacuum packs, or in aseptic brick packages. Tofu is usually found in the produce section of the grocery store, although some stores sell tofu in the dairy or deli sections. Tofu is sometimes sold in bulk in food cooperatives or Asian markets. Unless it is aseptically packaged, tofu should be kept cold. As with any perishable food, check the expiration date on the package.
Once the tofu package is open, leftover tofu should be rinsed and covered with fresh water for storage. Change the water daily to keep it fresh, and use the tofu within a week.
Tofu can be frozen up to 5 months. Defrosted tofu has a pleasant caramel color and a chewy, spongy texture that soaks up marinade sauces and is great for the grill.

Personally I would replace the tofu with oatmeal, it's also a lowish fat option (maxing out at about 8 %, though you're not including much), and will retain the water/moisture better.

Hope that this is some use to you

Kind Regards

Parson Snows

[_Darkstream_]

Thanks for that mate, I will give it a try.

I presume I should use dry oatmeal rather than cook it first?

Mostly, the tofu has been ok but on some sausages that have been frozen for about two weeks it kind of "oozed" out of the sausage while cooking and stuck/burnt to the pan. Sausage tasted fine but a bit "tough" for a Brit sausage.

Thanks for the help.

Regards,

[Parson Snows]

Yes include the rolled oats (quick cooking or regular) in their dried state

Kind Regards

Parson Snows

[Fatman]

Darkstream

I tried the original Cumberland recipe you posted, today.

I stuck to your recipe except I used a total of 10lb of pork, as I always experiment in 10lb weights. I shallow fried some patties of the mix at the end of my sausage making and I found for my personal taste there was too much salt and white pepper. A reduction of both of these plus maybe by adding some coarse ground black pepper would suit me better.

Thank's for the recipe

Fatman

[Parson Snows]

As a general guide allow the following per kilo of sausage

one Tablespoon of salt and
one teaspoon of ground pepper

Hope that this is of some use

kind regards

Parson Snows

[aris]

How much do each of those weigh? I always weigh spices as some can have a fair amount of 'air' in them when freshly ground, or ground into different coarsenesses.

Is this the wrong approach?

[Parson Snows]

You can certainly weigh the spices and there nothing wrong with doing it. In fact this is how it is done by the professional sausagemakers however, most people don�t have gram scales and normal kitchen scales are just not accurate enough for this purpose. I mentioned the Tablespoon for salt and the teaspoon for pepper as most kitchens/households do have a set of measuring spoons.

I agree that several spices/herbs contain �air� such as rubbed dried sage etc. however, table salt and ground pepper will be pretty consistent.

For salt an average content would be in the range of 1.7 % of the overall sausage weight. Typically we are only talking about salt at ≈ 18 grams per Tablespoon and ground white pepper at ≈ 2.5 to 3 grams per teaspoon. Hope that this helps you out

Kind regards

Parson Snows

[aris]

I use one similar to this:

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/store ... kfrom=name

It is accurate to the gram (but not subdivisions of a gram). Works well enough for me.

[Parson Snows]

Aris they look fine, but I can guarantee if you did a survey on this forum you wouldn't find many with gram scales. Maybe Franco could stock something like this (if he already doesn't). You definately need the so-called "weigh and zero" feature on any that you are going to buy. Check out the specifications for your scales and see the +/- tolerances for the range covered. I can also guarantee that every one has a set of measuring spoons, it's also much quicker to measure out a Tablespoon of Salt than to get out the scales etc. and weigh out the same amount. Though it's a personal choice I would recommend that for any standard recipes that you use that you weigh out your standard spices and them see how many Tblpsns / tspns that each covers and then use these figures for later batches.

Kind Regards

Parson Snows

[_Darkstream_]

I have a pair of electric Salter scales which measure in grams and 1/4 ounces. Quite old now. You used to be able to get a very accurate electronic scale that measured in even smaller units, it was much favoured by drug dealers.

I have a an old Redding powder scael that measures in 1/10 of a GRAIN Avoirdupois. I had thought of using that eventually, but right at the moment I tend to go more on "eye", particularly with the salt.

If anyone wants anything measured accurately, I can try and dig it out.

I will give gram measures for spices as well as Imperial from now on where it is available. But cook it before you put it all in!

[Parson Snows]

Darkman

If my calculations are right your scales certainly are accurate.

1 Grain = 64.798 91 mg or 0.064 798 91 grams

therefore

1/10 of a Grain = 6.479 891 mg or 0.0064 798 91 grams

kind regards

Parson Snows

[bistro Griffo]

Dave

Thanks for the quick response, I am a Brit living in the US Midwest and suffering withdrawal symptoms from good sausages for breakfast

Regards
Bill