Chicken, Mango, jalapeno sausage

[JerBear]

phosphates... It's used to help the meat bind to the liquids in the mix and maintain moisture and is available from most large sausage supply shops. Lots of people prefer not to use it but I like it in some of my recipes, particularly the ones with a high ratio of liquid/meat.

[chefisaac]

Why don't people like it?

[JerBear]

I would say there are a few reasons. First and foremost is that it's not a "natural" product so people who prefer to avoid chemicals wouldn't want to add it. Second, if you notice the amount used in the recipe is teeny-tiny, in this case 1 tsp to nearly 6 lbs of mix so you can easily go overboard and your sausage will be pretty close in texture to a tennis ball.

I get mine from Butcher-Packer (http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_103&products_id=894) and used the prescibed amount of 0.5% [2 oz for 25 lbs meat] for some bulk italian sausage. I mixed the sausage and put it into ziploc bags and froze the meat flat for storage. When I fried up one of the large ziploc size patties I planned on just breaking it up into pieces to add in some sauce but couldn't hardly cut through it with a wooden spoon. Decided to wait until fully cooked through and had to use a knife to dice it and it was still like cutting through hard meaty-jello. Definately not good eats....

After a little experimentation I found that I prefer to use about .17%-ish based on the weight of the meat and typically skip it if using NFDM. According to the book Modernist Cuisine the legal limit is 0.5% but percentages higher than 0.3% can leave an off-taste.

[chefisaac]

Does tapioca give you the same results?

[JerBear]

Tapioca starch? Never tried it but I would guess it's somewhat similar to corn starch in application. You have to be careful with some of the flours and starches as the amount needed for your preferring binding might need longer cooking to eliminate the taste. Definately worth an experiment. A second concern would be texture, I've found the things I use tapioca starch for, such as pie fillings, have a jelly-like consistency which might be good for certain applications, say pork pies or head cheese, but not so much for linked sausages.

[chefisaac]

What do people use instead of phosphates?

[JerBear]

It's really not needed, more for insurance. In England a type of breadcrumb called risk is popular, some recipes call for non-fat dry milk (NFDM). Or you can just use the meats inherent binding abilities when mixed (salt helps).

[chefisaac]

I would assume meats inherent to more binding would be higher fat meats?

[wheels]

Au Contraire, Myosin is developed from the muscle.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.theingredientstore.com/sausage/myosinx.htm

I hope this helps.

Phil

[Chillistarr]

Tried the Dingo-remix version a good while back, pulled some out of the frezer for breakfast this morning which reminded me to post up her about them - fantastic result! Didn't have any onion flakes or fresh coriander (cilantro) at the time so omitted them, and swapped the fresh jalapenos for a handful of dried chipotles, ripped up and soaked in a little hot water and used colagen cf hog casings. Kept it to a single grind through what counts as a 'medium' plate on my Kenwood (for 'medium' read 'not large or small', from memory it might be about 5mm) as I prefer a bit more chunky texture. The ginger really popped up in the flavour which I loved, while the larger chunks varied the overall taste of each mouthful a bit (though that may be my imagination!). Grilled up a treat, really juicy on eating (in fact the burgers made out of the 'spare' mix left in the horn and elbow were pretty hazardous to eat, red-hot juice escaping at every bite). Thanks for the recipe folks, will certainly be making them again after moving house!