# Sausage - Keeping Meat Frosty



## wyogoob

Humans have been making sausage for thousands of years. More often than not the meat was crudely cut into small pieces with a sharp instrument and then rolled into a ball or cylinder. Today sausage is complicated. Now sausage has to look, and taste, like that Jimmy Dean stuff on the grocer's shelves. To get there it takes a half-dozen steps all of which add heat to the meat making it the consistancy of gooey paste, making it difficult if not impossible to grind and stuff and look like that stick of salami at the deli counter.

Meat, especially fatty meat like pork, lamb and mutton, needs to be kept very cold, frosty really, to make the whole sausage-making process easy and simple and to end with a quality product.

Here's a pictorial of sausage-making tips that might help. Keep the meat frosty:

I'm making 4 or 5 small batches, 10lbs to 25 lbs each, of sausage. There will be bulk pork breakfast sausage, pork breakfast sausage in sheep casings, some antelope salami, and a 10lb batch of Braunaschweiger. 
Here's a block of pork scraps I took out of the freezer 2 days ago and have been thawing out, slowly, outside. The meat is frosty. With little effort I can cut it with a large knife. I will cut it all up into pieces that will fit in the throat of the grinder:


For bulk pork sausage I like to use a better cut of meat than butts or picnics. Today I'm using lean pork sirloin. Back in the day it was common to make "whole hog sausage" where every cut, good or bad, went into the grinder. We butchered hogs outdoors in cool weather, late October and again in early April. The pork was cut into pieces and chilled overnight before grinding. The hog's small intestines that will later hold the sausage were flushed, turned inside out, and cleaned while the meat was chilling out. 


Boston Butt will be used for the link sausage and it was taken out of the freezer later, because it will be processed later. This roast has just the right amount os fat for breakfast sausage links, about 33% fat. Again, I cut the butt up in pieces that will fit the grinder throat but don't need this now so the frosty meat will be temporarily stored in the fridge or freezer until I'm ready for it: 


These are small jobs so I'm using a small grinder instead of eating up a lot of time cleaning large equipment between recipes. Both meat and fat will be ran thru a kidney plate or a plate with 3/4" holes. (I can't find my kidney plate dangit.) The spices will be mixed with the rough cut, and then the meat will get a final grind thru a 3/16" plate. Nothing wrong with dicing the meat up into 1" to 1 1/2" chunks either; the grinder auger does a certain amout of mixing too.

A bed of ice cubes are laid down in the sink. A clean garbage bag is laid over the ice to catch the ground meat:


If the meat is cold and frosty the rough grind is just a formality. It took 20 minutes to grind 25 lbs of pork and pork fat. The meat should grind as fast as you can push it into the auger; no stalling or "back-pedalling."

Running ice cubes thru the grinder will clean it out, removing all of the meat: 


Normally sausage spice and cure mixes are blended with water to better distribute the seasonings and cure. To provide quality and avoid sour spots it's very important that the cure is mixed evenly and thouroghly. If the meat is warm and sticky that is hard to achieve. Always use cold water mixed with ice cubes for the spice/cure mixes:









After rough grinding place the meat in a large container. If the meat is not cold and frosty, and you have the time, put the meat in a garbage sack and place it in the freezer for an hour or two. Blend the spices into the meat with a utensil, like a large wooden spoon. Try not to use your hands, that will just heat the meat up and make it sticky. The meat should be so cold that it would hurt your hands anyway. On large batches I use a small rubber raft paddle. If your arms are tired and you think you have mixed the spices with the meat long enough, mix it a little more. :grin: At this point the meat should be crumbly, cold and a little frosty, like in the picture below:


The spices are now well distributed in the coarse-ground meat. It's break time so I'm setting this tub outside where it's 31° until I'm raedy to grind and stuff.


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## Dunkem

Goob, when I make sausage at the store,I do it in 25 lb batches.Before I grind it(with a sausage plate)I add about 2 -3 lbs crushed ice. This makes it grind easier,and mix easier,also the ice will cause the meat to :bloom:I do mix mine with my hands,but after 48 years in the business my hands dont suffer to much,also I get a much more even mix without mushing the meat.We sell so much sausage that I have to order extra butts along with the trim we generate in the store.I used to make all kinds of links,but they have our labor so tight now that I just order Colosimos links.I use their seasonings exclusifly(sp) on all our store made product.Would love to have the time to try some of your recipes.


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## wyogoob

Dunkem said:


> Goob, when I make sausage at the store,I do it in 25 lb batches.Before I grind it(with a sausage plate)I add about 2 -3 lbs crushed ice. This makes it grind easier,and mix easier,also the ice will cause the meat to :bloom:I do mix mine with my hands,but after 48 years in the business my hands dont suffer to much,also I get a much more even mix without mushing the meat.We sell so much sausage that I have to order extra butts along with the trim we generate in the store.I used to make all kinds of links,but they have our labor so tight now that I just order Colosimos links.I use their seasonings exclusifly(sp) on all our store made product.Would love to have the time to try some of your recipes.


Thanks for the comments Dunken. I've been known to use my hands a time or two, even lately. 

I'm using store-bought spice/cure mixes more and more these days.

If I was in your shoes the last thing I would want to do would be to make sausage on my time off. So many newbies struggle grinding and stuffing hot pork I thought I'd put up a tutorial.

Until I get thru these 4 or 5 batches I'm going to add things as I go. Please jump in I welcome your expert opinions. Remember I'm gearing this tutorial for those hobbyists with small kitchen grinders like the #10 I'm using here. I would do it a little different with my commercial-sized equipment.

I might not post anything on the Braunschweiger. Emulsifying meat usually goes poorly for me.

Hey, I wonder how many guys out there ground a whole hog before and with a hand grinder? :grin:

Back to work.

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## Dunkem

Never tried braunschweiger.I used to have a great head cheese recipe but lost it.You have one?You are right on the larger grinders,they do make it easier.I did a food show once ,and they had me stuffing links out of a small grinder,no foot pedal,and I did struggle but somehow sold 10 of the grinders for the company:shock:


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## wyogoob

*my braunschweiger won a blue ribbon*



Dunkem said:


> Never tried braunschweiger.I used to have a great head cheese recipe but lost it.You have one?You are right on the larger grinders,they do make it easier.I did a food show once ,and they had me stuffing links out of a small grinder,no foot pedal,and I did struggle but somehow sold 10 of the grinders for the company:shock:


Cool. My first grinder was a hand crank. My first power grinder was the same hand crank grinder hooked to a motor. The pulley-driven grinder had a huge pulley on it that came off of a clothes dryer. In today's world the thing would have about 11 OSHA violations. Hey, you got me thinking. I have a spare foot pedal I could plug my small grinders into. :-o

I have a couple head cheese recipes and one for souse (pickled head cheese). Personally, I prefer souse over regular head cheese.

Also have a braunschweiger recipe that won a prize at the Wisconsin State Fair, late 70s. I gave it to the local butcher (northwestern Illinois) and he sold braunschweiger out of his shop using the recipe. The recipe was originally for deer liver. Had a lot of bacon in it, that's what made it so good. Everyone loves bacon and bacon flavor.

I'm trying a braunschweiger pre-mix for the first time. My brother says it's great; we'll see. I did add bacon grease to it though.  Liver sausage is super hard to make and I don't make it very often anymore. Mrs Goob likes it and we buy it at the store all the time.

Do they have any hog liver down there? All we have here is beef liver and we only have that once in awhile.


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## Dunkem

Ive seen pig liver in the Reams on State Street.Also Dale T. Smith packing Im sure has it,although I dont know if they would sell to the public.Im sure they would.I picked some up at Reams for a customer of mine 2 weeks ago.

There is nothing better than a braunschweiger sandwich with colemans mustard and a thick slice of red onion.:hungry:


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## elkmule123

wyogoob said:


> I've been known to use my hands a time or two, even lately.
> .


What are your thoughts on using the bread kneader attachment on a kitchen aid mixer to mix the ground meaty goodness?


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## wyogoob

elkmule123 said:


> What are your thoughts on using the bread kneader attachment on a kitchen aid mixer to mix the ground meaty goodness?


Not a bad idea at all. Try it! I have a bread kneader on my old Oster Kitchen Center but never used it for mixing sausage meat. I don't know why it wouldn't work. (The Oster Kitchen Center had a #8 grinder and other attachments similar to the Kitchen Aide outfit)

There are many ways to mix the spices into the meat; by hand, a wooden stirerrererrer, power meat mixer, adding more (ice) water to the cure/spice mix, running the meat thru the grinder several times and let the auger mix it up, or a combination of any of these things.

Another point: The longer the sausage "cures" in the fridge before it is smoked the less chance there will be sour spots, spots of sausage that didn't get any cure/spice mix in them. But longer is not really better. With many cure/spice mixes the longer the meat sits in the fridge the stickier it becomes. So it's normally better to get the mixing and stuffing out of the way first and then let the sausage "work" for a day or two while stored in a cool place before cooking or smoking.

The point of this thread is to make sausagemaking easier especially when using small kitchen grinders.

.


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## wyogoob

*keep the meat on ice when it's hot*

It's July, 80° in the kitchen, and I'm making sausage. Who cares. I'm keeping my meat, and my meat cutting equipment, frosty.

After coarse grinding or cutting the meat in chunks the spice mix is mixed in and then the meat goes in a garbage sack and into the freezer to cool down, get frosty, for the final grind.

There's always gallon jugs of ice in the goober fridge. If it's real hot I'll bust one up into a meat tub and then lay the garbage sack of sausage meat on the bed of ice:


Where's the grinder head? In the freezer until I'm ready to grind:


Try not to use your hands when feeding the meat into the grinder. Use a meat ladle or a stout spoon:


I ground and stuffed 25 lbs of the frosty sausage meat at the same time through a 1/4" plate in a small #12 grinder. Used 28mm and 30mm collagen casings; 28mm for Polish and 30mm for some fresh andouille. Worked like a charm, no gooey back-peddling. The meat was as cold at the end as it was when I started grinding.

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## High Desert Elk

We make a green chili flavored summer sausage and bratwurst. The green chili is diced and frozen. Before adding to the grind, we thaw enough to get it broke apart but there is still definitely ice crystals in it. As outlined, keeping sausage cold when working with it is key.

We grind and put back into the cooler prior to stuffing.


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## wyogoob

Adding ice cubes with the sausage seasonings is cool (uh...sorry 'bout that):


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## wyogoob

bump


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## Idratherbehunting

Trying my hand at a duck summer sausage. We'll see how it goes. The test fry of the meat tasted a little too salty, but we'll see how it turns out.


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## hunting777

I also am trying my hand at making brats, I have never done it before. I have some Jalapeno and butter garlic brat seasoning on the way from PS Seasoning. Any pointers a on making these brats other than keeping the meat really cold?


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## wyogoob

*keep yer fingers wrapped around the end of yer horn*



hunting777 said:


> I also am trying my hand at making brats, I have never done it before. I have some Jalapeno and butter garlic brat seasoning on the way from PS Seasoning. Any pointers a on making these brats other than keeping the meat really cold?


I like to use hog casings 28mm to 32mm in diameter. The PS seasoning mixes have some sort of phosphates in them to hold the moisture in and to make the sausages plump up. So don't stuff them too tight or they will burst when you cook them.

If you're going to grind n stuff at the same time and it's your first time I recommend cutting the casings in 25"-long lengths. You'll get 3 links a little over 7" long that way, just right for a deli bun.

If you're going to link the sausage and hang it on sticks in the smoker cut the casing a little longer so there's enough casing on the ends for a good knot.

Soak the hog casings in warm water at least 20 minutes before stuffing. 
> Run the sausage out to the end of the horn. 
> Slip the casing on the horn and then tie a knot in the end. 
> Poke a hole in the casing by the knot to let the air out, if any.
> Wrap your forefinger and thumb around the end of the horn, open and close them as the sausage pushes into the casing. Any air should move up into the casing that is on the horn above your hand. Keep you finger and thumb on the end of the horn or the air will end up in the stuffed sausage.

It's the same if you're stuffing thru a stuffer in a separate operation after the sausage has been mixed and ground.

Good luck and keep us posted.


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## wyogoob

I do not use collagen casings for brats.

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## wyogoob

I like Mortadella but don't care to make it. It's a slimy sticky gooey mess of corn syrup, non fat dry milk and finely ground meat.

Nearly frozen meat was ground thru a kidney plate and then the seasoning mix was blended in with a plastic paddle. The next grind was thru an 1/8th plate and the sticky sausage thawed out and stalled out. 

I wrapped the auger housing with an ice bag, put the coarse-ground sausage in a plastic bag and then laid it on a bed of ice, the ice storage drawer out of the fridge. It didn't take long and we were back in business.



The mortadella should be ground again thru the 1/8" plate or emulsified. I'll pass, thank you.

Keep your meat frosty!!

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