Homemade Sausage Making

NCK & Bubba, thank you both very much, great information! I doubt my 18qt turkey roaster will take the entire 25lb batch so I'm going to smoke half all the way in the smoker and bathe the other half, should be great for a comparison test. Thanks again! RAY

Hi Bubba,
Thanks for sharing your recipe. Winter is coming up and it's on the TO DO list. Smoked with Australian hardwood sawdust/chips mixture.
I am still a bit worried about the cream going off though. Our winters are not the same as where you live.
Cheers,
Jan.

crustyo44 wrote:I am still a bit worried about the cream going off though.

Hi Jan, that is an interesting point about the heavy cream and outside of my experience.
I would also be interested to find out, and am sending CW a message if he can help us on your concern.

Hi Bubba,
You wrote:

I ground the meat through the course plate on Friday night, mixed all the ingredients (including the cure) in thoroughly except the Heavy Cream.
Saturday morning I mixed the cream in and ground through the small plate, stuffed and let the links hang over-night. Sunday I smoked them.

The problem is hanging the links overnight. As milk increases in temperature, lactococci forms in the milk along with other bacteria. The bacteria multiply and converts the lactose in the milk into lactic acid. The sour taste develops because of the acid production as the pH becomes more acidic.

Normally, in fresh milk (cream), casein proteins exist as negatively charged groups that repel each other. They are distributed evenly throughout the milk unless the acidity increases, causing groups of casein proteins to lose their negative charges and their ability to repel each other. These actions of bacteria are called "fermentation". At temperatures of 45 degrees and higher, spoilage bacteria rapidly multiply in milk. These types of bacteria may cause gastrointestinal problems, such as nausea, stomach cramps or diarrhea, as well as more serious health problems or even death. The growth of the bacteria actually doubles with each increment of only 18 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you ever find a recipe calling for spoiled milk, DON`T use it! Instead, simply stir a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar into each cup of [fresh] pasteurized milk in the recipe. This will add the desired sour flavor. Be aware that although pasteurization will kill pathogenic yeasts, molds, and other microorganisms, there are always live bacteria remaining that will multiply in dangerous levels.

If the cream were mixed into the sausage just before it was prep-cooked, it would be safe. Cooking (while smoking) is a popular way to prepare brats, as you know. Our ol' buddy CrustyO indeed has a valid concern with adding milk and then hanging the sausage without refrigeration. Brats in the grocery store are always found in the refrigerator case for this very reason.

Hope this helps ol` pard. It`s nice to have you back with us. Welcome home!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Any of the fermentables (not just the cream) in that mix could potentially lead to trouble if the sausage was hung overnight at warm temperatures.

Baconologist wrote:Any of the fermentables (not just the cream) in that mix could potentially lead to trouble if the sausage was hung overnight at warm temperatures.

I agree, and any of my sausages are always hung in the refrigerator.

Chuckwagon wrote:If the cream were mixed into the sausage just before it was prep-cooked, it would be safe. Cooking (while smoking) is a popular way to prepare brats, as you know. Our ol' buddy CrustyO indeed has a valid concern with adding milk and then hanging the sausage without refrigeration. Brats in the grocery store are always found in the refrigerator case for this very reason.

Thank you CW, when I used the posted recipe before, I enjoyed the flavor but moisture seemed to be lacking, that is why I tried the thick cream.
If I substitute the cream with Fat Replacer?
Then the recipe for 2 lbs meat would be changed to:-

1-1/2 lbs Pork
½ lbs Beef Chuck
2.1g Cure #1
18g Nonfat Dry Milk
13g Kosher salt
4.4g Onion Powder
3.7g Dextrose
0.7g White Pepper
0.7g Ginger, ground
0.7g Mace
1g Dried Parsley
0.5g Celery Seed, ground
7.5 g Fat Replacer

Ron, I didn't mean to mislead you about fat-replacer adding moisture. It certainly will not. Neither will adding fat, (other than the minimal amount contained in its composition). Adding moisture will increase moisture; adding fat will increase the creamy mouth-feel texture of the sausage because of its composition. Real fat "lubricates" the meat particles as you chew them. This is the reason a sausage "feels" just like sawdust when the fat is heated over 170 F. degrees - the fat liquefies and separates from the meat.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Chuckwagon wrote: This is the reason a sausage "feels" just like sawdust when the fat is heated over 170 F. degrees - the fat liquefies and separates from the meat.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Wow, what a wealth of knowlege! A few years back I guided one of my Hungarian buddys to a beautiful wild sow, covered with a nice layer of white fat once it was skinned. He brought it home and the family got together for a sausage making party, he told me they didn't cut the wild pig meat with any domestic because of the beautiful layer of fat. When he gave me a pack I couldn't swallow a bite, I thought it was cut with sawdust. Now I know how all this came about. RAY

I thought I would add something here on the subject of lack of colour in smoked sausages. I just finished reading a post on the Polish WD site where there was a discussion about the amount of humidity in the smokehouse. It was stated in the post that the humidity should not exceed 65% and if it does it will not penetrate the meat as well and result in a pale looking product. After reading that, I will make an effort to monitor humidity in my smoker. It's something that I nave not paid too much attention to in the past.

I use Australian Hardwood chips and sawdust straight from the sawmill and I still get a nice deep smokey colour on my csabai sausages and bacon pieces with humidity sometimes in the high 80%
Cheers,
Jan.

There exists considerable variation in the chemical make-up of smoke from different wood varieties. Some of them will color the meat more quickly than others.

redzed wrote:After reading that, I will make an effort to monitor humidity in my smoker. It's something that I nave not paid too much attention to in the past.

Same here, and this one was an interesting learning curve.