A Couple of Old Recipes - Will They Work?

[captain wassname]

It seems that your problem lies with the amount of water.If you need the 1 kilo of water if you use rusk you will need 600 plus gms of rusk.
I have had a simlar problem with making beer sausageswher I needed 20% liquid and in the end I used soy protien at 1 to 5 thats 200gms for your 1 kilo of water.
This resulted in a very firm and succulent sausage which was not 100% what I was looking for but nevertheless an improvement on my attempt with rusk.
Next time I may try a mixture of rusk and soy.
Texture is really a matter of experimentaion and personal preference.
Sorry cant help with the milk powder as Ive never used it.

Jim

[wheels]

Wal

To add to captain wassname's advice, a couple of things spring to mind:

There's no salt included in your recipe (although there is in the original). You will need to be sure that the cured meat contains sufficient. You may also want to look at how much you are mixing the meat as per this advice from expert member sausagemaker:

Both salt & liquid affects texture
The salt helps release the protein in the meat, which in turn allows for the water to be absorbed. the protein can now start to bind the pieces of meat back together with the added water, the longer you mix at this stage the tighter the texture

If you want a firmer sausage and are sure of the salt level and mixing, then I would add up to 2% of soya/potato flour/starch/flour/cornflour and even reduce the water at the same time. To make up your total of 2000gm of filler/water I'd try something like 650g rusk, 140g soya etc, 1210g water. I believe that this may produce something more like a slicing sausage. However, I suggest that you make up a few small batches, with differing ratios, to get the effect that you want.

Phil