Making sausages, any tips?

[mje1980]

Well they were pretty damn good I must say. Bit over spiced but no big deal. Not dry either, which I was worried about. I'll definitely di that again.

In an epic fail I realised last minute I was out of beads for the weber so had to cook them in a pan. Next time I'll smoke them on the weber

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Mix your herbs and spices, salt etc in with the iced water then mix in, gets a more even distribution

 

[seamad]

replacing the water with a good apple cider with some dried apples left to soak for a bit is tasty too, my kids favourite snags

 

[Rod]

I find it hard to buy a good sausage

I have an old kenwood chef with a mincer and sausage attachment

I see the country brewer sells skins

where can I look up how to make snags 101

did a google and came up with this site

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_homemade_sausage/

seems to cover the bases

anyone have a favourite reference site

 

[Matplat]

Www.thespicysausage.com

 

[simmo1972]

I get my skins from casingboutique as well. Speedy delivery and long expiry dates.

 

[Rodolphe01]

My basic tips:

• 20g salt per kilo meat
• 20g sugar per kilo meat
• No less than 30% fat (I find pork shoulder with ALL the fat to be the bare minimum)
• Prepare your meat for for grinding, toss through spices/salt/etc then refrigerate and grind when well chilled, it will mix through the spices nice and evenly. Trying to mix through spices after grinding is hard.... some will disagree though because of the affect of salt on the meat and making it hard to put in casings later. Overworking it after grinding has the same affect though
• Whatever spices you like, my favourite snag is 100% pork bratwurst - there will be dozens of recipes online - just experiment and do what you prefer

I only use bread when doing pommy snags....... not often

If you can't be arsed putting the meat in casings most sausage recipes makes awesome burger patties.

 

[mje1980]

Great stuff guys cheers!

 

[simmo1972]

My basic tips:

• No less than 30% fat (I find pork shoulder with ALL the fat to be the bare minimum)
• Prepare your meat for for grinding, toss through spices/salt/etc then refrigerate and grind when well chilled, it will mix through the spices nice and evenly. Trying to mix through spices after grinding is hard.... some will disagree though because of the affect of salt on the meat and making it hard to put in casings later. Overworking it after grinding has the same affect though

Going to try the spices idea next time, some say to mince it again but whenever I try that it's a mess.

I often fry a small patty to see if I have the spices right prior to stuffing.

Been reading about using back fat to boost the shoulder fat.

Had some good organic pork sausages yesterday and they had beef fat added.

 

[Matplat]

Bought stuff to make bratwurst today... mmm beer and sausages

 

[Rodolphe01]

Another tip....... get an 0.1g (or better) accurate scale, a cheap honkers ebay one is fine (you might already have one for hops). You will find most recipes use volume measurement (e.g. teaspoons) which is just awful. Follow the recipes once (or use as a guide), but then weigh our your spices after measuring out with spoons or whatever - it will make it must easier and accurate in the future particularly when you want to scale the recipe.

Also, I think this is a cracking snag - http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/toulouse-sausage - the recipe doesn't ask for salt!?! You should add this! Also, I think pork belly is wasted in a sausage. I'd use shoulder and adjust fat as required with back fat.

 

[Matplat]

Here's a tip... don't use beef hearts in sausages....

I batch of bratwurst pretty much ruined. I thought it would just be a toughness thing and if you're mincing them then who cares... but the hearts have a really unpleasant flavour.

I should have gone with my initial thought and got beef cheeks. Beef cheeks in a stew are delicious!

 

[mje1980]

Which cuts of meat do you use for snags?. I used pork shoulder and beef topside for bratwurst

And what about recipes for plain old beef snags?.

 

[Matplat]

Yeah usually just pork shoulder alone, fat content is about right, i just cut the skin off then dice the rest... haven't made beef ones to date....

 

[danestead]

The 'twiggy sticks' type recipe in the latest episode of 'Chop and Brew' looked pretty damn nice if you have a capable setup for making them.