Homemade Sausage Making

Since my retirement (2-1/2 years ago) I`ve been somewhat absorbed in making sausage and curing meat. Since our family has a strong preference for Asian food and flavours, I have spent many hours searching for Asian sausage recipes but Lop Cheong and Gyoza seemed to be the only ones, readily available.

In my considerable research, the occasional website, Asian or otherwise, provides outstanding ideas, information and recipes.

These links will take you to such a site. Hank Shaw is a man after my own heart. Since the site covers a lot more than curing/preserving meat, I have provided some selected topics.

http://honest-food.net/about/

http://honest-food.net/2011/03/22/sichuan-bacon/

http://honest-food.net/cured-meat/fresh-sausages/

http://honest-food.net/wild-game/wild-b ... wild-boar/

It would be interesting to share websites which we may deem worthy of a second look. There are a sh!t load of worthless, plagiarized, copycat recipes out in www.land, many with poor, bad and/or dangerous formulations and advice.

It would be prudent to provide a warning with each link, to:
Check the nitrate/nitrite ratios and always follow basic hygiene, temperature, storage and preparation procedures.

Hey Jer,

Sonoma Mountain Sausage - Leni Poli's site is where I started out on this venture. They have a huge offering of tasty products. The site's owner is a Microbiologist and has worked for a major commercial sausage maker as an advisor.
With due respect to Len's formulations, my switch to this site was primarily because I wanted to eliminate the chemical components in my own sausage, (as much as possible.)
The phosphates and binders that are prevalent in many of his recipes do not fit with my concept of 'Homemade Sausage."
There is a wealth of information on the site regarding meat preparation, hygenic procedures etc. and no dispespect is intended. It's a matter of choice.

I totally support your choice to avoid binders and such. I had a heck of a time getting just the right texture on my sausages and found that a smidge of binder fixed it right up. While a lot of commercial places use the chemicals to add water and with it reduce cost and add profit I'm doing it for texture alone and so far I like the results.

Ethnic sausage recipes are also to be found here:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/ai407e/AI407E27.htm

JerBear wrote:I totally support your choice to avoid binders and such. I had a heck of a time getting just the right texture on my sausages and found that a smidge of binder fixed it right up.

Hopefully, my observations did not confuse the issue. There are definite circumstances that require the use of binders, phosphates and starter cultures etc.
The point I was attempting to make is that some sites advocate the use of chemicals in nearly all formulas. I have found that the recipes on this site, use chemicals only when required for a particular feature.
Furthermore, if anyone prefers to use chemicals in their recipes, I'm not here to judge. It's all a matter of perspective and personal preference.

Yeah - guess I did mis-read it as a total condemnation of chemicals. What formulations have you found that benefitted from the use of phosphates or other similar product?

JerBear wrote:What formulations have you found that benefitted from the use of phosphates or other similar product?

I can't answer your question as posed. My focus has been on finding alternatives to chemically adulterated products. I haven't looked for beneficial formulations.

Len Poli's "Smoked Beef Summer Sausage" is a good example of an uneccessary use, IMHO of phospates.

That's the best I can do pal. I am presently approaching a Thuringer project. I've never used a starter culture before and am somewhat apprehensive.

Another element is age. My generation has been lied to about food safety for so long that we are head-shy about all claims.

Don't discount the possibility that I am wrong.

A final comment about the Sonoma site is the security associated with re-production of the recipes.

Bizzare, is the only way I can represent this. You can download the formulation but you can't edit or print it.

Well if anyone has the need to deal with this issue, I have a PDF cracker that works very well. PM's and some security would have to be considered for any such request.

Bizzare, is the only way I can represent this. You can download the formulation but you can't edit or print it.

Hi Steelchef,
I use Fire fox click on file, on the drop down click on "save as" then save it to where ever you want.
To print open the file then right click on the page the dropdown will give you the print option.
Hope that helps,
Maz.

Thanks Maz,

I misspoke. I can print it; just can't open and/or edit it. I like to have the facility of changing quantities or substituting ingredients to suit my own tastes.

Happy Easter!

Steelchef,
Do you have a word program? Like Microsoft Word? If you do you can always copy the Recipes by Highlighting the area on the Web page you want to copy (Highlight then Ctrl+C) Then Paste it (Ctrl+V) into a word document then you can change it any way you like! Hope that Helps
John

jbk101 wrote:Steelchef,
Do you have a word program? Like Microsoft Word? If you do you can always copy the Recipes by Highlighting the area on the Web page you want to copy (Highlight then Ctrl+C) Then Paste it (Ctrl+V) into a word document then you can change it any way you like! Hope that Helps
John

Thanks John but that doesn't work. I have MS Office 7. The PDF file is locked and can only be opened with a 'cracking' program. My oldest son owns an IT company and I had to enlist his aid to open these files. I don't share or abuse the process but I do like to tinker and record changes to recipes.