Sausage Semi-Success Satisfies
Posted on February 13, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cooking, Food, Politics.
And so on to attempt number three. This time I followed the advice of Podchef Neal and others regarding keeping everything as cold as possible when trying to mince the pork. So I stood outside for half an hour.
More usefully, I put the mincer attachment in the freezer for the day and used meat which had barely defrosted. Lo and behold, the meat flew through the mincer. I was using the coarsest holeage (I’m tired, I have no idea what the right term is for that) and so had to run the meat through again. Even tho I had re-cooled eveything (I lay in a bath of ice water for 10 minutes), it must not have been enough because the second run had a bit of jammage (feel free to use that new word in conversation). But still far far better than before.
I went with a very simple flavouring of a hint of parsley, sage, thyme and oregano all fresh from the cat wee area at the front of the house, a good blast of white pepper and some salt. I probably didn’t use enough bread crumbs. This time I went with hog casings which are the bigger ones. The fillage was a bit fiddly but went fine and the linkage was a disaster with the resulting sossies ranging from 1 inch to 6 inches (or 0.25cm to 3cm on a female ruler).
The hangage went fine overnight and I cooked them up the following morning. During frying I realised my biggest mistake - overfillage of the sausages. The meat started pushing out through the ends of the casings and after ten minutes I must have had over a centimetre of liquid in the pan.
It was therefore no surprise that they were very dry again and the texture was too dense due to the lack of bread crumbs. But they tasted really great, as good as shop bought in my humble estimation. I had them with a lovely organic egg from Tesco and some very succulent Danish rashers from the same source.
I highly recommend that you temporarily buy these tasty offerings from Denmark, at least whilst Riots R Us are having this week’s riot on the topic of cartoons. Next week’s riot will be back to the usual topic of why America is the great satan and will be protesting NBC’s cancellation of “Jihad Idol”.
Actually, it might be a good idea to stock up on bacon in general. At the rate our dear president is offering to swap our rights for improved business in the Middle East, she’ll probably have got the eating of pork banned in Ireland by the end of her trip.
Three attempts at sausage making and still not perfect. A lesser man would give up and just buy Denny. But then I’ve been cooking steaks for 20 years and I still get that wrong on a regular basis. I think the next attempt will focus on keeping them juicy. One question I still have on filler is whether the 20% or so that is recommended is by weight or volume. It’d surely take a whole hell of a lot of breadcrumbs to make up 20%?
[tags]sausages, Kenwood Chef, Danish Bacon, Mary McAleese, The Irish People, The Life of Brian[/tags]
5 Replies to "Sausage Semi-Success Satisfies"
conor on February 14, 2006
Thanks for all the tips. The sugar is brilliant idea. I think the problem with the lack of fat is that whilst the belly pork has plenty, we used diced pork shoulder which seems to have been trimmed. Next time we’ll get a solid piece and ask for some extra back-fat. I’ve also been wayyyy over-filling.
One question on the casings; They stink to high heaven even after several hours soaking in water to remove the salt. The smell doesn’t go away until I cook them up. Is that normal? They seem well preserved in the salt and I recently moved them to the fridge just in case.
I’m a little behind, I just finished Gastrocast 43 and I’m on 44 now. Loved the look of the choucroute garni.
Podchef on February 14, 2006
I don’t think the casings should unduly stink–I mean, they do smell. . . a bit. . . but it should only border on the unpleasant and not be foul. Think of what they are. However, several changes of water during the soak, and a couple of good flushings should work to keep the stench down.
The thing about the Choucroute Garni is that I bought all those sausages from my local butcher (well, 70 miles away)–they looked fantastic, and they were miles ahead of anything I could have bought at a supermarket, however once we tucked into them I wasn’t all that chuffed about them. I’ve had better. My determination at that time was that I had to have a go at making my own selection of sausies again very soon. One more sponsorship and perhaps I can buy a spiffy new meat mincing machine.
Rebecca on August 4, 2007
We have just made our first rounds of sausages recently from our free range rare breed Gloucestershire Old Spots …. fanflippintastic. I found the casings odour somewhat disgusting too! We are also having a go at air dried ham, our own Irish Parma, and dry cured roasting hams and rashers. If your ever tempted, theres a piglet here with its name on for you … or at the very least, a plate of rashers if you are ever passing our door.
http://sallygardens.typepad.com/sallygardens/2007/07/dry-curing-pork.html
conor on August 4, 2007
I’ve been reading your reports closely!
Haven’t done it in a while but really want to get back to it.
Have a loooooong term aim to do parma too.
Parents keep bringing back Serrano from Spain and we’re all addicted to “special ham” as Sibéal calls it.
I’d love a pig - far preferable to cats! But it’ll be at least 18 years before we get one 
Podchef on February 13, 2006
You might try for 20% back fat–as in filler. But I’d stick with less than 10% bread crumbs. Dry them well in an oven, mix the cooled crumbs in, and then slosh a bit of water over the mix to wet it up before placing through the mixer a second time. A good pinch of sugar should be in there as well–it will help seal up splits in the casing through caramelization. And don’t be stuffing them things so full, no matter how sexy they look as you’re pumping them up. Leave a little room for growth.
All in all though, I’d eat those dudes you’ve been making. They look great.