Homemade Sausage Making

Today Steve and I were making breakfast sausage patties and we mixed the sausage in a large enameled photograph developing pan. It was perfect for the job. As soon as we finished mixing and moving the mixture to a bowl in the fridge I told Steve that it was essential that I clean the pan at once because It would warm up very quickly and the residue in the pan would start growing bad bacteria and would serve as a source for contaminating any additional mince that would be added to the pan.

I agree, I make 10-12lbs batches and I wash everything before I make the next batch. I either do that or put some of the equipment in the fridge. Glad to see I am not the only one doing this.

I divide food in small groups and store in fridge. To store food in big groups create chances to spoil the food but in small groups/ quantity keeps food for long time.

vthe pan would start growing bad bacteria and would serve as a source for contaminating any additional mince that would be added to the pan.

Crown123 wrote:vthe pan would start growing bad bacteria and would serve as a source for contaminating any additional mince that would be added to the pan.

That is correct. Also a gallon milk jug that is less than full will have a film of milk on the sides and that can and will warm rather quickly when left out of the fridge and will shorten the storage life of the milk.

When I reuse "Food Saver" bags I will take a paper towel and throw a little hydrogen peroxide and wipe out the bags before packing. Will let them dry out in a couple of minutes and pack the goods. I use H2O2 quite a bit since it breaks down to water and oxygen.

It seems as much time is spent cleaning utensils and gear as is spent on working the meat. I always have the bottom shelf of my fridge vacant when making sausage, it holds the food lug perfectly for my 22 pound batches. After every step the loaded lug of meat goes into the fridge and everything gets washed and dried to be ready for the next step. Lately I've been taking two days to make each batch, grind and mix one day, stuff the next. This allows me to freeze the throat and tray on my grinder one night, and the tank on my vertical stuffer the next. To go from deboning meat to having sausage stuffed and everything cleaned up in one day just feels too much like work lately for me. I am going to make a couple of smaller batches just using my grinder to stuff, the way I did before the vertical stuffer came along. I just got a copy of Bruce Aidells' sausage book and want to try out a couple of recipes, mostly his Chicken Apple sausage. RAY

Ray, Ducky aka Russ grinds a substantial amount of pork and packages it in one kilogram portions for small trial batches of sausage. That seems a good plan to me.

sawhorseray wrote:It seems as much time is spent cleaning utensils and gear as is spent on working the meat.

That's an Understatement! My wife only helps with the grind and stuffing portion and can't believe all the amount of time I'm spending on Cleaning!

Ross, I figure I can easily do a 5-8 pound batch just using the stuffing tube attachment on my grinder, it works pretty darned well

I can grind, mix, and stuff with no wasted time and no added clean-up. The only portion my wife helps with is the eating portion. RAY

I am wondering if mixing the seasoning with the knife cut meat before grinding will do an adequate job of seasoning the sausage. It could reduce the mixing phase.

ssorllih wrote:I am wondering if mixing the seasoning with the knife cut meat before grinding will do an adequate job of seasoning the sausage. It could reduce the mixing phase.

I've read more than one recipe where it stated to let the cubed meat "marry" with the seasonings overnight in the fridge before grinding and stuffing. I've been letting the ground seasoned meat sit in the fridge overnight when I do a batch that covers two days, then stuff. I thing the seasonings can marry just fine once everything is stuffed into a hog casing. RAY

When I buy meat in bulk lots I always cube it in 2 kg zip lock bags and freeze it. Saves a lot /of time later on.All the skin and bone is boiled down for headcheese, sulze and/or brawn and frozen. The cubed meat is always mixed with the/salt spice mix and left in the fridge at least 24 hours. Csabai spiced cubes are always left in the fridge for 2 or 3 days before mincing, mixing and stuffing.
I also use a # 22 hand grinder with stuffing tube for small batches.
That's my 2 cents worth.
Jan

I am going to try it and see if there is any difference.