To Rusk or not to Rusk

[Vernon Smith]

Some recipes use oatmeal and some soy meal, many other cereal-based ingredients too. Then some recipes refer to breadcrumbs, others refer to rusk, whilst others preclude bread altogether but in my opinion this is a play on words. All fresh English sausage requires bread. I have made rusk and various other styles of "meal" and I believe that any leavened bread will do the job perfectly. Cut a sliced white square tin loaf into small pieces and soak in cold water or stock for about 30 minutes. Trim off the crust first if preferred (I don't bother unless the crust is too dark in colour) then squeeze out the surplus liquid. This usually doubles the weight of a day old loaf. Mix with the meat and fat, add seasoning of choice and mince together ready to stuff into casings. Bread is cheap and plentiful. Rusk is not so cheap and not always easy to find so why bother. Many of my favourite recipes use bread prepared as above so don't make more work for yourselves unnecessarily. If anyone disagrees please let me know. I am always willing to learn.

[xbec]

I admit that I'm of two minds on the matter of whatever 'rusk' one might use:

Pro - If the meat you're working with is more than 20% fat, it (rusk, bread, oatmeal) will absorb the fats and give a more delicate flavour. It also makes more of what you've got. Also, in the retention of the fats, it's more juicy even if over-cooked.

Con - Leaner cuts of meat don't require the fat suspension and the flavour of the meat, herbs, etc. are more vibrant.

[Vernon Smith]

Thanks for that xbec.
Sorry, I didn't mention that I always make sure I have 25% back fat in my sausage blends. I don't believe in low-fat sausages. The old saying "fat = flavour" is king in my kitchen.
All the best
Vernon

[sausagemaker]

Hi Vernon

Like you I believe English sausage does require a filler for authenticity & Bread was the main filler used in exactly the way you have described, Cooked rice found favour also and rusk came along a little later for the reason of keeping qualities.
Bread being made with yeast sours the meat if kept a few day's & due to mass production a solution to this problem was needed, hence rusk which is yeastless & therefore helps the sausage keep a little longer,& it can be stretched a lot further soaking up to 3 times its weight in water this must have been a god send in meager times, but of course there are other factors in making sausage go off like meat not being fresh, little or no preservative or antioxidant.

Regards
Sausagemaker

[Wal Footrot]

Hi Vernon

Like you I believe English sausage does require a filler for authenticity & Bread was the main filler used in exactly the way you have described, Cooked rice found favour also and rusk came along a little later for the reason of keeping qualities.
Bread being made with yeast sours the meat if kept a few day's & due to mass production a solution to this problem was needed, hence rusk which is yeastless & therefore helps the sausage keep a little longer,& it can be stretched a lot further soaking up to 3 times its weight in water this must have been a god send in meager times, but of course there are other factors in making sausage go off like meat not being fresh, little or no preservative or antioxidant.

Regards
Sausagemaker

The butcher I worked with said the same thing about using breadcrumbs and how the yeast affects the flavour of the sausages.

[Vernon Smith]

Maybe I'm just lucky with my sausages because I never have a yeast problem. I use fresh bread (not stale) soaked in water or stock then squeezed out. I mature each batch of sausages for 1 or 2 days in the fridge before separating into 1/2 kg packs and transferring to the d/freeze. Please correct me if I am wrong but I don't see how yeast can survive the baking because anything over 80 deg C will kill it. Notwithstanding the baking, should any yeast survive the oven, refrigerating to ~4 deg C would not permit any yeast activity and d/freezing to -12 deg C will definitely stop it dead in its tracks. Perhaps the yeast problem arises if sausages are not refrigerated properly. I note "Sausagemaker's" comment about the possibility of souring during commercial production. I think we enthusiasts who make non-commercial batches (mine are usually 10kg at at time) should avoid this so lets keep on making our own. What do you folks think?
All the best
Vernon

[Lee]

Please correct me if I am wrong but I don't see how yeast can survive the baking because anything over 80 deg C will kill it.

I'm with you on this one, no way on earth that any yeast survives the baking process, so cannot be the yeast that sours any resulting sausage.
(think we've discussed this before someplace), but a number of people seem to get the sour problem when using bread, so must be something to it.
Maybe, it's unseen mould lurking in old breadcrumbs (I guess most people will use stale bread for sausages)??????
I ue oatmeal myself, seems to work a treat, and I like oats in most things anyway!

[wheels]

Parson Snows posted a simple recipe for making your own rusk.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=339

Hope this may be of some help

Phil

[Vernon Smith]

Lee, Phil,
Phil, glad you picked up on Parson's rusk recipe. I have a great deal of time for the man that taught Noah how to make small goods and hence survive the privations of his trip in the arc. Parsons has put me straight several times when nobody else could. Just for intrerest, did you know
that the Biblical Noah legend is based on fact. My credentials on this subject are cast in bronze. Trust me! I am an ordained priest and I read for my first post-graduate degree at the Institite of Archaeology at Tavistock Square in London. Noah was a Mesopotamian ship owner. When the Tigris and Euphrates flooded he had a full cargo ready to set sail for an undisclosed destination. In those days is was usual for the ship-owner to carry his wife, family and livestock on board but water was always a problem for the crew if the voyage was prolonged. Noah's certainly was... Water was reserved for the livestock even if the crew perished. As luck would have it beer was a regular cargo from Noah's home port to destinations around the gulf of Arabia so when Noah and his family discovered that the Lord was testing them in no uncertain terms they all got into the beer and sausage and lived to tell the tale. The arc was not washed up on Mt Ararat but around one of the present-day United Arab Emirates. Mesopotamian beer and Parson's small goods are therefore responsible for Noah's survival and all Biblical history thereafter. I hope you pick up this thread Parsons. I threw in the bit about Noah just so you don't get too smug over your superior knowledge compared to we mere motrtals. BTW thanks for your emails last week. Hope you enjoy your trip back home to the UK.

Nowtwithstanding the above I still think making bespoke rusk is a pain (wherever you wish to place it) when fresh bread is cheap and plentiful. Lee, I am intrerested in trying oatmeal though. Please let me know how you use it. I.e. what percentage dry oatmeal to meat/fat and what percentage water is the norm? I can get reasonably priced oatmeal here so I would like to try it sometime.
All the best,
Vernon

[wheels]

Vernon
Seems like half of England is in need of Gopher wood at present!!

[saucisson]

Please correct me if I am wrong but I don't see how yeast can survive the baking because anything over 80 deg C will kill it.

I'm with you on this one, no way on earth that any yeast survives the baking process, so cannot be the yeast that sours any resulting sausage.
(think we've discussed this before someplace), but a number of people seem to get the sour problem when using bread, so must be something to it.
Maybe, it's unseen mould lurking in old breadcrumbs (I guess most people will use stale bread for sausages)??????
I ue oatmeal myself, seems to work a treat, and I like oats in most things anyway!

I can't comment having never used bread but I can't see why yeast dead or alive would affect the flavour adversely, I feel another experiment coming on. I'll mince some pork and try it with and without yeast after 24 hours. If I don't post back you'll know it was a very bad idea

[Vernon Smith]

Lee, Dave,
I still don't know how to use oatmeal. Please advise.
Tks,
Vernon

[Lee]

Lee, Dave,
I still don't know how to use oatmeal. Please advise.
Tks,
Vernon

Hi Sorry Vernon, been away (in Poland mainly, eating lots of fine sausages!)
I use porridge oats that I roughly blitz with a hand blender to make them a little finer. I usually add a good handful to about 1kg of meat, then add liquid until the consistantcy looks right. Don't really use measured quantitys with my sausage recipes (should do really), sorry.

[saucisson]

Much as Lee said, I blitz 100g oats in a blender until oatmeal and add to meat mix with 100ml water, just as if it was rusk.

Dave

[Ianinfrance]

Hi Dave,

Much as Lee said, I blitz 100g oats in a blender until oatmeal and add to meat mix with 100ml water, just as if it was rusk.
Dave

May I ask why? Why use oatmeal instead of rusk, I mean?