Sausage Texture

[deb]

First, appologies for what I am about to say, it goes against all that is holy on this site LOL .

I've tried my own sausages, I've tried "premium" sausages, and I know I should find them better than the usual supermarket sausage, but I don't. I'm not at all keen on the meatier texture. I seem to like a sausage made with mush. Nothing wrong with the taste it's the texture of the good sausage I don't like much.
As I'm still keen on knowing that what goes into the sausages I eat how do I make sausages with this sort of texture at home? I really don't want to stop but the meaty ones don't do it for me.

Please help, I desperately want to make my own sausages, what goes into them is important to me.

Thanks.

[aris]

Give us the recipes & technique you've been using. What differentiates most bought sausages from home-made are things like use of rusk and additivies.

[gideon]

Hi Deb,
Try mincing the meat with a smaller diameter mincing plate, if you only have the one plate with your set up try running the meat through it twice. My wife says exactly the same thing, that she prefers a finer texture to the ones that I have been making, I also found that increasing the amount of rusk that I was putting in has made the sausages more succulent. I have tried the franfurter recipe from Len Poli's site and to get the correct texture I had to use my food processor rather than my mincer, maybe this will work for you but be warned it doesn't take much to turn 1kg of meat into 1.5 litres of goo!!

[Josh]

Heathen. Mince it with a smaller plate and mince it more than once. For a really smooth texture you could give it some stick in a Magimix.

[Josh]

The softer mush texture of bought sausages tends to come about from more fillers and fat and less meat too. When I overdone it on the rusk I've lost the meaty texture I crave.

[Epicurohn]

I've found that the more water added to the mix, the softer the "bite". I've never had any of my "guinea pigs" describe it as mushy, just soft or springy.

David

[hoggie]

hi deb, just done making some pork sausages, what a nightmare. took about half an hour to mince a kilo of pork. i knew there was some thing wrong, but just kept on going, ending up with mush, probibly the texture you are looking for, lol. turned out i had put the cutting blade in the wrong way round i'll try them tomorrow. merry christmas. john.

[deb]

I've had a long hard busy day but John, that really made me smile (sorry).

Once I get the house back to myself in the New Year I'll have to do some experimenting bearing your comments and advice in mind.

Thanks.

[Paul Kribs]

deb

I have been using the small Fleischwolf mincer, which only comes with one plate. I have only ever passed the meat through once in an attempt to emulate the coarser texture of the 'Anthony Worrel Thompson' range of sausages.. one of the few brands I have not found undesirable bits in. I would then hand mix for about 5 mins. The result was a meaty sausage (the kind you describe that you are not keen on).

I recently purchased a 1.5 hp reber from Franco, and now have 3 plates. I haven't made a lot of sausage with it yet but decide to try an initial mincing through the 8mm plate and then pass it again through the 4.5 plate. I then mixed the rest of the spices, seasonings, rusk and water and stuffed into sheeps casings. I mixed by hand for the usual 5 mins. Once cooked, it resembled the result of the sausage you crave. I found them very similar to the cheaper, softer, shop bought varieties but without the 'surprise' hard bits. Although the texture was different to what I have been used to, they were as good as the coarser textured ones.
In conclusion I would say follow the advice already given on this thread by passing the already minced meat through a smaller plate, or if you don't have that facility then try just passing twice through the same plate.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[deb]

Thanks Paul.

I use the mincer attachment on a Kenwood mixer (don't do enough mincing for anything more exotic). It has 3 mincer plates so next time I'll start with either the coarse or medium plate and finish with the small plate.

[Spuddy]

Hmm, I only got two plates with my kenwood mincer attachment.


I find it a perfectly capable mincer though as it only takes a few minutes to do a 4 kilo batch.

[Josh]

I used to like the mincing attachment on my kenwood until I dropped a spoon in it.

[Fallow Buck]

Paul,

I used to have the problem with my Rebber as I minced the venison for my sausages then filled the sausages through the plate, thus double mincing it. the sausages came out like Deb likes but I wanted something more meaty.

I noticed Franco had some spacers on the site that allow you to run theonce minced mixture through the machine into the skins without passing it through a plate. The chorizo I made with it had a much better texture and a small batch of venison worked very well indeed.

You end up with a sausage that looks coarser like "premium" bought sausages.

I'm no expert but it would be worth you trying if you can get the spacer.

Rgds,
FB

[Paul Kribs]

Fallow Buck

I have 2 dedicated stuffers, I use the small one for small batches and black puddings, and the Reber stuffer when making larger batches, as it has longer filler horns/tubes and can take more casing. I must admit to not having even considered using the tubes from the Reber mincer yet. I have a 16mm plate as well so could try a coarser style sausage some time.
I have used the sausage filler on my electric Fleischwolf a few times and provided you make the mixture loose enough there are no problems with the finished product.

Regards, Paul Kribs