Sausage help please

[dazco]

Can any sausage makers help me please.

I just want to make a nice English breakfast sausage but my first attempt was a bit of a fail.

I bought a rusk and flavouring kit off ebay and, following advice I saw on here, a fatty cut of pork. I followed the instructions to the letter but appear to have made a sausage that tastes and feels very cheap.

I chopped the pork then minced it finely.
Mixed in the allotted rusk mixture and water.
Mashed it all together with my hands
Left it to cool in the fridge
Then ran it through the sausage maker, with no cutting blade.
Left the sausages to 'flavour' overnight.

The taste is not great and the texture feels gritty and loose and dry. Although the casings were filled quite well if I say so myself.

Any help for me?

[pad58]

It takes time,I been at it for 30 years.

[dazco]

pad58 said:

It takes time,I been at it for 30 years.

• sets clock*

[Mobile Chicane]

I'd guess that you minced the filling too finely, and the pork wasn't fatty enough.

I sympathise: I really struggle to obtain properly fatty belly pork for rillettes de porc locally, unless I go to Borough Market (and pay Borough Market prices)

[escargot]

I suspect MC is right. Not enough fat and too finely minced. Perhaps one of the resident butchers could give you some pointers?

[dazco]

Cheers.

I have just watched a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4VhV7FTu6k he seems to know what he is doing. He minced his pork (mine seemed even fattier than his) on a much coarser grind than I did but he grinds his twice, I only did it once.

I can see this costing a fortune, everything has to be done in bulk

I have just cooked the rest of my sausages up, the texture is disgusting and you can feel every little bit of rusk.

[escargot]

Did you soak the rusk?

[dazco]

escargot said:

Did you soak the rusk?

No. but the recipe said to add so much pork, so much rusk and so much water. So it was done in the process I suppose. And the mixture was left for a good long while to 'gel'

[escargot]

Ahh gotcha. I wonder if the rusk isn't absorbing enough water meaning it feels dry and gritty?

[dazco]

escargot said:

Ahh gotcha. I wonder if the rusk isn't absorbing enough water meaning it feels dry and gritty?

I will soak some tonight, see how it behaves.

Any idea of ratios?

[escargot]

2:1 water:rusk springs to mind mate. I'm not an expert though!

[dazco]

Well I soaked the rusk overnight and if it was in the sausage in this state there is not a chance you would be able to identify it.

I shall pre soak it next time.

[pad58]

When I make sausages for the shop, I work with 50lb of shoulder pork ,I use this cut because it has the right fat to meat content,this saves me time messing about with weighing up the lean and then the fat.

Anyway for home bangers i'll bring it down.
4lb of shoulder pork,
1 1/2lb of rusk (dry)
1 1/2 lb of iced water
Salt and pepper x 2 desert spoons of each and one of sage.
Mince the pork once add rusk and water until the mix is sticky.
Add the s/p/sage mix (by hand).
Add mix to filler if you have one.

You wont get the same butchers flavour in this as we in the trade have special mixers made by sundriesmen.

Try that and let us know how you get on.
N.B. I work in lbs old school you see.

[dazco]

pad58 said:

When I make sausages for the shop, I work with 50lb of shoulder pork ,I use this cut because it has the right fat to meat content,this saves me time messing about with weighing up the lean and then the fat.

Anyway for home bangers i'll bring it down.
4lb of shoulder pork,
1 1/2lb of rusk (dry)
1 1/2 lb of iced water
Salt and pepper x 2 desert spoons of each and one of sage.
Mince the pork once add rusk and water until the mix is sticky.
Add the s/p/sage mix (by hand).
Add mix to filler if you have one.

You wont get the same butchers flavour in this as we in the trade have special mixers made by sundriesmen.

Try that and let us know how you get on.
N.B. I work in lbs old school you see.

Cheers for that, how much do you mince the meat?

[pad58]

dazco said:

Cheers for that, how much do you mince the meat?

I prefer a meaty texture myself so only once, the less you handle the meat the better.
A lot of butchers tend to bowl chop the pork, but I feel that adds heat to the mix and turns it into paste , to me that's a st sausage.

[dazco]

pad58 said:

dazco said:

Cheers for that, how much do you mince the meat?

I prefer a meaty texture myself so only once, the less you handle the meat the better.
A lot of butchers tend to bowl chop the pork, but I feel that adds heat to the mix and turns it into paste , to me that's a st sausage.

You mean the heat caused by chopping turns it into a paste?

[pad58]

dazco said:

pad58 said:

dazco said:

Cheers for that, how much do you mince the meat?

I prefer a meaty texture myself so only once, the less you handle the meat the better.
A lot of butchers tend to bowl chop the pork, but I feel that adds heat to the mix and turns it into paste , to me that's a st sausage.

You mean the heat caused by chopping turns it into a paste?

No the bowl chopper rotates at alarming rate and there is an element of heat, its how people like Richmonds, Walls do theirs, that speaks for it self.
As I said just mince the pork once, and you'll be ok.

[dazco]

pad58 said:

dazco said:

pad58 said:

dazco said:

Cheers for that, how much do you mince the meat?

I prefer a meaty texture myself so only once, the less you handle the meat the better.
A lot of butchers tend to bowl chop the pork, but I feel that adds heat to the mix and turns it into paste , to me that's a st sausage.

You mean the heat caused by chopping turns it into a paste?

No the bowl chopper rotates at alarming rate and there is an element of heat, its how people like Richmonds, Walls do theirs, that speaks for it self.
As I said just mince the pork once, and you'll be ok.

Cheers, thanks a lot.

[dazco]

this sausage mix has some crazy ratios.
3.225 kg of meat
568g of rusk mix
Add 747g of water.

I assumed the had been made metric from imperial but they do not tally to imperial measurements.

EDIT

I see it is some kind of ratio taken from ten pounds of complete sausage mix.

Edited by dazco on Sunday 17th March 15:02

[pad58]

dazco said:

this sausage mix has some crazy ratios.
3.225 kg of meat
568g of rusk mix
Add 747g of water.

I assumed the had been made metric from imperial but they do not tally to imperial measurements.

EDIT

I see it is some kind of ratio taken from ten pounds of complete sausage mix.

Edited by dazco on Sunday 17th March 15:02

Where did you get this mix from any links on the web?