9 TIPS WHEN MAKING SAUSAGES
TIP ONE
The main mistake when you first learn how to make sausages is to use meat that’s too lean. Good sausage contains 20% to 25% fat. Fat lubricates the meat and gives it flavour. It also serves as a binder and without it, the texture of the sausage becomes almost unpalatable.
TIP TWO
If you grind your own meat, clean the sucker by running some white bread through the grinder. It will clean out all the meaty chunks allowing you to easily finish cleaning the grinder.
TIP THREE
Sausage must contain salt. About 2% in fresh sausage and 3% in a “dry-cured” sausage requiring up to 3%.
TIP FOUR
Follow your recipe for sausages precisely. You cannot “fudge” on established, time-honoured and proven rules on how to make sausages! The rules on how to make sausages are the combined knowledge of centuries of sausage making history. If you substitute ingredients or alter the technique, don’t blame the recipe for the disastrous end product.
TIP FIVE
Always use sterilised (prepared) spices in your homemade sausage. Non- sterile fresh spices and herbs from your garden may contain various bacteria from the soil and can spoil your batch of homemade sausage within hours. (See sausage spices available from Copcas). Always use non-iodised salt in your homemade sausage. Iodised salt leaves a metallic taste behind.
TIP SIX
Do not stuff the sausage casings as soon as the meat leaves the grinder. The meat must be mixed and kneaded (the primary bind) to develop the proteins that makes a sticky “meat paste in order to have proper texture in your homemade sausage. But, be careful of over mixing the meat, as this may result in the sausage becoming “rubbery” in texture.
TIP SEVEN
It is a good idea to develop the primary bind before vinegar, tomato, or any highly acidic food are added to your homemade sausage. In chorizo, blend in vinegar, but do not over-develop the mixture.
TIP EIGHT
If your homemade sausage is tough or rubbery in texture, you may be over-extracting the proteins. In other words, you may be mixing the sausage a little too much, especially when you added the salt or water. This elasticity may also be perceived as toughness or stiffness in texture. Most often an “insufficient amount of water” is bound to receive the blame when it is not.
TIP NINE
Avoid air pockets in your homemade sausage by firmly packing the meat into the stuffer using your fist.
