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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 02:37
by Chuckwagon
Hi Folks,
I`d like to share one of my favorite recipes with you. So far in "Project B" you have learned how to make fresh sausage, cured and prep-cooked sausage, and semi-dry cured sausage. This original recipe for Krainerwurst required some research a few years back and it is for "cured-smoked-cooked" style sausage. You may prefer to make "fresh" sausage by omitting the Cure #1. Perhaps you`d like to try a "semi-dry cured" version of the Krainerwurst. If so, just add the Cure #1, a tablespoon of sugar, and a single gram of LHP culture.

Krainerwurst (Slovenian Sausage)
(Cured, Smoked, Cooked)


Genuine Slovenian Krainerwurst has pretty specific traditional instructions. It must contain a minimum of 68% pork, 12% beef, and 20% fresh pork belly (bacon) with a little added water and only salt, garlic, and black pepper added for seasoning. The meat must be cut into 10 to 13 mm. pieces, and the bacon into 8 to 10 mm. pieces. Only 32-36 mm. hog casings are used, and links are formed in pairs of 12 to 16 cm lengths having the weight of 180 to 220 grams. Wooden skewers are used to hold the pairs together. The sausages are cured and then hot-smoked at relatively low temperatures. It`s interesting to note that the recipe has been widely misrepresented over time, especially in America where various spices and cheeses have been added. Here is the basic recipe:

7 lbs. pork butt with fat
1-1/2 lbs. lean beef chuck
1-1/2 lbs. fresh pork bacon
2 level tspns. Cure #1 (if making "cured-cooked-smoked" sausage or "semi-dry cured" sausage).
1 gram Bactoferm™ LHP culture (if making "semi-dry cured sausage).
4 tblspns. salt
3 garlic cloves (crushed and minced)
1 tblspn. granulated garlic
2 tblspns. coarse black pepper (freshly ground)
32-36 mm. hog casings

To make "fresh" sausage:
Place the grinder knife and plate into the freezer while you separate the fat from the lean meat using a sharp knife. Cut the meat into 1-1/2 " cubes to keep sinew from wrapping around the auger behind the plate as the meat is ground. Grind the meat using the 3/8" plate and the pork fat using a 3/16" plate. Mix the Cure #1 with a little water for uniform distribution and add it to the meat. Work with small batches, refrigerating the meat and fat at every opportunity. Next, mix the meat into a sticky meat paste by adding the remaining ingredients and kneading the mixture to develop the primary bind. Stuff the sausage into 32-36 mm. hog casings, allowing them to hang and dry at room temperature for an hour. "Fresh" sausage must be refrigerated and consumed within three days, or frozen for future use.

To make "cured-cooked-smoked" sausage:
Grind the meat using the 3/8" plate and the pork fat using a 3/16" plate. Remember to add Cure #1. For ten pounds of meat, use 2 level teaspoons of cure mixed with a little water for uniform distribution and add it to the meat. Mix the cure and ingredients thoroughly throughout the primary bind. Work with small batches, kneading the meat into a sticky meat paste, refrigerating the meat and fat at every opportunity. Stuff the sausage into 32-36 mm. hog casings, allowing them to hang and dry at room temperature for an hour. Place the sausages into a preheated 130°F. (54°C.) smokehouse for an hour (with the damper open) before introducing hickory smoke and adjusting the damper to only 1/4 open. Gradually, only a couple of degrees every twenty minutes, raise the smokehouse temperature until the internal meat temperature (IMT) registers 150°F. This procedure must be done slowly to avoid breaking the fat. Remove the sausages, showering them with cold water until the IMT drops to less than 90°F. (32°C.). This sausage remains perishable and must be refrigerated until it is grilled on a smoky BBQ grill.

To make "semi-dry cured" sausage:
Grind the meat using the 3/8" plate and the pork fat using a 3/16" plate. Remember to add Cure #1, a tablespoon of sugar, and one gram of LHP culture to the recipe. For ten pounds of meat, use 2 level teaspoons of cure mixed with a little water for uniform distribution and add it to the meat. Next, prepare the culture by following the mixing directions on the packet. Use non-chlorinated water and mix the cure and ingredients thoroughly throughout the primary bind. Work with small batches, kneading the meat into a sticky meat paste, refrigerating the meat and fat at every opportunity. Stuff the sausage into 32-36 mm. hog casings.

If you have a "curing chamber", place the sausages in it and ferment at 100°F for 24 hours in 90% humidity. If a drier sausage is desired, ferment it for 48 hours.

If you do not have a "curing chamber", place one pound of regular table salt onto a cookie sheet with a lip around it. Spread the salt out evenly and add just enough water to barely cover the salt. Place the cookie sheet and salt in the bottom of an old fridge (unplugged) or your home kitchen oven. Keep the oven warm by using the pilot light in a gas model, or a hundred-watt light bulb covered with a large coffee can with several holes drilled in it. This will produce a warm area for a 2-day fermentation period at about 70% humidity.

When the fermentation has finished, place the links into your pre-heated 120°F smoker and introduce warm smoke. Use a hygrometer and try to maintain a 70% humidity during the process. Gradually, raise the temperature of the smokehouse by merely 2 degrees every 20 minutes. Do NOT attempt to boost the heat to shorten the duration. This procedure may take several hours. Monitor the IMT (internal meat temperature) and when it reaches 140°F, discontinue the cooking-smoking.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 05:17
by el Ducko
Chuckwagon wrote: ...or a hundred-watt light bulb covered with a large coffee can with several holes drilled in it. This will produce a warm area for a 2-day fermentation period at about 70% humidity.
Sufferin' succotash! That incredible, ever-changing chorizo recipe looks GREAT! ...gotta do it again, right away.

Then, for a second batch, I plan to substitute a string of Christmas lights for the 100-watt bulb, and make Christmas sausage.
WooHoo! WooHoo! WoHoHoHo! :mrgreen:

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 23:33
by el Ducko
Chorizo Recipe: Important Notes: You should probably note two items in the "semi-dried cured" version (#3) chorizo recipe.

**1** As reads "If you choose to lighten up on the vinegar," (looks like we do without vinegar entirely, because the tang is supplied by the ferment,) "mix the cure into a half-cup of ice water instead."

**2** The recipe calls for 0.24 grams of BactoFerm LHP culture. If you're like me, your scale isn't that precise. What to do? I plan to measure out 1.0 grams of culture, pour it onto a smooth surface, then take a knife and divide it in two. Then, I'll take one of the piles and either make a double recipe (2 kg of meat), or divide the pile a second time to give a quarter pile, which should weigh close to the right amount.

For those of you who have been concerned because the vinegar made your chorizo not stick together, rejoice! This time, you have bragging rights- - you can blame it on lactic acid instead of acetic acid. ~~~ :mrgreen:~~~

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 04:15
by grasshopper
Just ramblin! I at one time ruined a recipe of fresh sausage by using ground sage insteaded of rubbed sage.I have since learned, ground is more dense and has a lot of flavour. So my point is on the chorizo I did use ground ancho and red chipotle and there is the big difference in taste. I did check with butcher & packer and also sausage maker for pasillo or pasilla chiles and they don't list it. When a person grinds the (ancho-pasillo) chiles up, to me It would be similar to red chile flakes not ground. To find these chiles up north is like finding a snow shovel at El Ducko place. I hate to ruin a recipe over grind verses ground and how to substitute.? :roll:

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 04:26
by ssorllih
Substitute by weight. !0 grams of dried whole chilis will make 10 grams of flakes or 10 grams of powder. The volumes will be vastly different.

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 16:34
by el Ducko
grasshopper wrote:Just ramblin! I at one time ruined a recipe of fresh sausage by using ground sage insteaded of rubbed sage.I have since learned, ground is more dense and has a lot of flavour. So my point is on the chorizo I did use ground ancho and red chipotle and there is the big difference in taste. I did check with butcher & packer and also sausage maker for pasillo or pasilla chiles and they don't list it. When a person grinds the (ancho-pasillo) chiles up, to me It would be similar to red chile flakes not ground. To find these chiles up north is like finding a snow shovel at El Ducko place. I hate to ruin a recipe over grind verses ground and how to substitute.? :roll:
Yikes! A place with no chiles is like a... what's a snow shovel?

Red chipotle is probably chipotle made by smoking red jalapeños. That's quite a find- - these days, the folks making Sriracha have just about bought up all the red jalapeños in the galaxy. I hope you enjoyed the taste.

What's fun about this recipe is that for chiles, like barbecue or Mexican food, the next place down the road has an entirely different taste. Which is better? Lemme try both a few dozen times, and I'll try to tell you. Just don't go TOO far down the road, or you leave familiar territory and wind up at Taco Bell or some other state's interpretation of barbecue. (To quote a ten-year-old daughter when we were moved to North Carolina, "What IS this stuff? ...road kill?") The various chiles are that way too- - they're different and endlessly fascinating, so embrace it, find the ones you like, and tune the recipe to your own likes. Personally, I don't like habañero chiles in mine (too hot), and you probably won't want red jalapeños again.

As to substitutes, like Ross suggests, substitute weight for weight. However, if "hotness" (piquancy???) is an issue, weight it by Scoville units. (Search back through my posts for "Scoville", for a table). Try to hit the same Scoville value or so, meaning that if one chile type has 100 units and another has 1000, go with a tenth of the hotter type.

This will inevitably change the taste, but at least you won't be pilloried for the rest of your life by angry family or neighbors who tried unsuccessfully to eat your fiery free-will sausage offering. When in doubt, go with a lower Scoville pepper at the same weight (or a bit more). If you can't find pasillas, try boosting the ancho weight by that same amount. And please be aware that ancho chiles sometimes are made from different peppers. I find that the different brands available around here vary a fair amount in hotness.

...kinda like hot wimmin, huh? They're not all alike, which is yet another reason... uh... If you have to substitute, is there an equivalent to Scoville units for... uh... (Oh, never mind. We'd need another thread, heavily censored, for that one. :!: ) :mrgreen:

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 17:43
by grasshopper
As to substitutes, like Ross suggests, substitute weight for weight. However, if "hotness" (piquancy???) is an issue, weight it by Scoville units. (Search back through my posts for "Scoville", for a table). Try to hit the same Scoville value or so, meaning that if one chile type has 100 units and another has 1000, go with a tenth of the hotter type
.

Thanks! Now thats is a great system to follow especially dividing up the scoville units. Now I will try the chorizo recipe again. :smile:

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 18:00
by el Ducko
grasshopper wrote:Thanks! Now thats is a great system to follow especially dividing up the scoville units. Now I will try the chorizo recipe again. :smile:
Thanks. Have faith!

To save a little time, here's another listing of Scoville ratings, in ascending order. (Sorry about the alignment (or lack thereof).) Optional exercise- - Whichever peppers you choose, if you want, try toasting 'em a bit to bring out the flavor and color. (...got vent-a-hood? The first time we made Blackened Redfish, we had to evacuate the house.)

Russ :mrgreen:

Bell (0 - 100)
El Paso (0 - 100)
Anaheim (100 - 500)
Paprika (250 - 1000)
Poblano (500 - 1000)
Pasado (dried Anaheim) (500 - 2500)
Ancho (dried Poblano) (1000 - 3,000) <-----
Pasilla (Chilacas, dried Chile Negro) (1000 - 1,500) <-----
New Mexico Green Chile (Hatch) (1,500 - 3,000)
Guajillo (dried Mirasol) (2,500 --6,000)
Jalapeno (3,000 - 6,000....25,000)
Serrano (5,000 - 15,000)
Yellow Caribe (5,000 - 15,000)
Aleppo (10,000)
Cascabel (11,000)
Chipotle (New Mexico red chile) (15,000)
Chipotle (New Mexico Morita red chile) (15,000) <-------WooHoo!
Chile de Arbol (15,000 - 35,000)
Asian Hots (15,000 - 30,000)
Hidalgo (15,000 - 30,000)
Serrano (15,000 - 30,000)
Crushed Red Pepper (California) (20,000)
Cayenne (30,000 - 50,000)
Tabasco (30,000 - 50,000)
Red Chile (30,000 - 50,000)
Chiltecpin (30,000 - 50,000)
Tabiche (30,000 - 50,000)
Bahamian (30,000 - 50,000)
Kumataka (30,000 - 50,000)
Piquin (30,000 - 70,000)
Thai (bird`s eye) (30,000 - 70,000)
Crushed Red Pepper (Indian) (40,000)
Saanaam (Indian) (40,000)
Aji (50,000 - 100,000)
Dundicut (Pakistan) (55,000 - 65,000)
Tien Tsin (Asian) (60,000)
Habanero (Scotch Bonnet) (300,000)
Naga Jolokia (1,000,000+)

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 20:13
by redzed
For the semi dry fermented sausage I am making a 4 kg. batch of summer sausage. Using the Marianski recipe with the exception that I am using Mondo 2M starter culture rather than F-L-C. It is a fast to medium acting culture and have an opened pack so I decided to experiment with it.

I have a couple of questions CW, regarding the following instructions:

6. For a drier sausage: dry for 3 days at 22-16° C (70-60° F), 65-75% humidity or until desired weight loss has occurred.
I am unable to create this environment with the temperature and humidity combination. Can I dry it for three days at 18°C and 50% humidity?

7. Store sausages at 10-15° C (50-59° F), 75-80% humidity.
My curing chamber is currently running at 11°C and 78-82% so that would work. So can I skip step 6 and move it to the curing chamber after smoking?

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 09:35
by Chuckwagon
Hi Red,
You wrote:
Can I dry it for three days at 18°C and 50% humidity?
A drop below that temperature for any length of time is not recommended but if you have no choice, you might have to bend the rule.
Also...
My curing chamber is currently running at 11°C and 78-82% so that would work. So can I skip step 6 and move it to the curing chamber after smoking?
Yes. Keep us posted.

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 15:57
by redzed
Thanks CW. One more question. When we aim to attain the 20% weight loss, do we start with the raw sausage weight or the smoked?
Thanks you
Chris

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 04:40
by el Ducko
...'nother question regarding the fermented/smoked/dried/folded/spindled/mutilated :roll: chorizo:

As a result of having to rinse the last "goodies" out of the blender/grinder, my mix now has excess water, and weighs 5% to 10% more than it should. What I'll do is weigh before I stuff, to calculate the excess water, then stuff, then weigh the results. (There's always loss, due to sample patty + mess.) I'll base what the starting weight SHOULD be by subtracting the percent overage, then calculate water loss from there.

Sound reasonable? :shock:

Why use a simple solution when a complex one sounds sooooo much more impressive? (Aaarrrggghhh.) :mrgreen:

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 04:52
by grasshopper
Why use a simple solution when a complex one sounds sooooo much more impressive?
Having a tough day in mold design and EL Ducko you made my day. Works for me! For that I thank you. Mike

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 09:05
by Chuckwagon
Redzed asked:
do we start with the raw sausage weight or the smoked?
"Greenweight" pal. (raw weight).
El Duckster, did you by chance, eat paint chips as a child? Run into walls? Fall overboard?

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 23:46
by el Ducko
Chuckwagon wrote:El Duckster, did you by chance, eat paint chips as a child? Run into walls? Fall overboard?
I forget.
I ran into an old friend, the other day. Does that count? :mrgreen: (He wasn't hurt.)