Homemade Sausage Making

Why is my sausage rubberier? Is it the size of the grind or over mixing or what? I have made homemade sausage for years and have never made good texture sausage like the commercial sausage makers. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks

snakeoil wrote:Why is my sausage rubberier? Is it the size of the grind or over mixing or what? I have made homemade sausage for years and have never made good texture sausage like the commercial sausage makers. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks

It could be overmixing, could be the grind, could be too much binder, or it could be the way you prepare it. Give us a bit more info (ingredients and process) and we can try to figure it out.

redzed wrote:

snakeoil wrote:Why is my sausage rubberier? Is it the size of the grind or over mixing or what? I have made homemade sausage for years and have never made good texture sausage like the commercial sausage makers. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks

It could be overmixing, could be the grind, could be too much binder, or it could be the way you prepare it. Give us a bit more info (ingredients and process) and we can try to figure it out.

Thanks redzed for the quick reply! I grind it through the 1/4 inch plate first, season it, mix it and back through the 3/16 plate. I stuff it in my stuffer and then stuff it in Polly bags and freeze it. I never tried mixing my own seasoning and have always used Leggs Old plantation #10. (What about the binders in Leggs?) I purchased a 17lb mixer from Oncom received it yesterday 25th thinking mixing with it with a little ice water might do the trick. As I pointed out I have made a lot of sausage in my lifetime being as a Butcher for 35years but, have never satisfied myself with the results. I want to get into sausage making as a whole but would like to prefect it as I go along.
Thanks again Friend for the help!

You may be making it too lean.

I agree with Ross....consider the fat level first...commercial sausage tends to be on the fatty side and that definitely affects the texture.




~Martin

Some of the toughest sausage I have made was from loin. Compared to butt, loin is tough and dry.

Yeah, some of that real lean stuff is like a pencil eraser!

There is a sale on whole loins this week at $1.29/pound. I can buy whole butts for $1.49 and I believe that they are a better cut of meat.

Is that at Wegman's?

Butts at Wegman's loins at Shoprite

I think if you use a pork butt and grind it once through a 3/16 and mix the seasoning with ice water @ 1 pint per 10 pounds you shouldn't have any rubbery texture. That is assuming your mix is "clean". I don't see any reason for using any binders in fresh sausage. And like the other guys said, if there is enough fat in the mixture there should be no reason for binders and in my opinion, a pork butt has the right amount of fat. Generally when I make sausage I run the fatty and grissely (gosh, however that's spelled!) meat through the 3/16 and the lean meat through a 1/2 plate. Then if I am making breakfast sausage, I use all 3/16 grind meat for the breakfast sausage and what ever is left over from the 3/16 meat I mix with the 1/2" meat and make whatever else kind of sausage is on the list like Italian or Swiss. That has always made great breakfast sausage.

Snakeoil - are you saying that you don't do any mixing besides feeding it back through a smaller plate?

Snakeoil, all of the above suggestions could be the cause of the rubbery texture. The Leggs seasonings are an unlikely culprit, I have used their Italian mix and liked it, but give a shot at preparing your own mix, maybe it will make a difference. Lean, finely ground meat will make your sausage rubbery. So will overworking the meat, so stop mixing as soon as it starts getting sticky. And as sausagemaneric writes, no need to grind everything twice through a medium and then a small plate. Try grinding it only once with the 1/4 plate and see if thre will be a difference. Another cause of the rubber effect is meat with sinew, gristle, tendons, silverskin, etc., you know what I mean, especially from the lower part of the shoulder and hocks.

Hope one of these suggestions will help. So experiment, take notes and give us an update.

I have as an experiment knife cut soft frozen meat into quarter inch dice and seasoned it and made patties with it and found that it works well.

Oh, one more thing just so we've covered all the bases. In order to have premium sausage you must have premium cutting blades and plates. They do get old with age and your problem could be a dull knife and plate or possibly not tightening it enough. Just checking since I didn't see it mentioned.

V-465