Homemade Sausage Making

Hi there,
this might end up being a silly question but I gotta ask!
Usually when I make the sausages I never cure the fat. I cure pork meat for 1-2 days depending what i'm going to use it for.
Ah yes, let me explain first, I live in Thailand, when I order pork cuts like shoulder or ham, they come without the fat.
Butchers here trim all the pork fat away from the meat, so I end up getting just pork shoulder with the connective tissue still attached but no fat. Therefore I resort to buying back fat and I use that in my recipes.
A basic recipe for Kielbasa I've been using is

70% pork shoulder cured with
Salt 2%
Curing Salt .25%
for 2 days

30% pork fat- back hard fat.
Pepper .75%
Fresh Garlic 1.25%
Marjoram .3%
Milk Powder 3%
Water 13%
Nutmeg .02%
Garlic Powder .15%
Paprika .15%

All the meat and fat is frozen before I grind.
Pork shoulder gets ground in 3 sizes, small medium and large to give more texture to the sausage. Pork fat I usually grind in two sizes large and small because I love those big chunks of fat in my kielbasa.
The issue comes when rainy season begins here. I feel like it affects the feed of the pigs and thus affects the quality of the pork fat. It feels softer and not as hard as during other seasons. So in these current months, I have an issue where the fat melts during the smoking period. After stuffed my sausages get dried in the smoker around 40min-1 hour, then smoked at 70-80C for about two hours until IMT is 63C
Then I poach in water at 80C for 10minutes, take them out and let them bloom for an hour or so.
During the smoking period the fat melts out of the sausages.
So my questions is, am I supposed to be curing the back fat as well? is that going to help me with the emulsification and will help the pork fat not to melt when getting smoked?

These guys here have taught me fat doesn't cure or doesn't take up the nitrite. However you can firm it up with white salt. That may help you. Take a look at my Serbian sausage link viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9365&p=44532&hilit=serbian#p44532. I detail that I "cured" the fat but it was only with kosher salt. I did notice that the fat was denser feeling after my couple of weeks cure. And if you like big chunks of fat, well the Serbian sausage will challenge you

Scogar wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 08, 2021 19:32

These guys here have taught me fat doesn't cure or doesn't take up the nitrite. However you can firm it up with white salt. That may help you. Take a look at my Serbian sausage link viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9365&p=44532&hilit=serbian#p44532. I detail that I "cured" the fat but it was only with kosher salt. I did notice that the fat was denser feeling after my couple of weeks cure. And if you like big chunks of fat, well the Serbian sausage will challenge you

Thanks for the response! i guess what I meant to say is " Should i salt my pork for smoked sausages" I see what you did with the salted fat. I will give it a try.

Scott is right. When making smoked sausages you don't need to add nitrite to the fat, but you do need to add salt. You can also cut back on the amount of the curing salt you use if the sausage has a high percentage of fat. When Polish sausage makers pre-cure meat prepared for sausage, and the fat is separate from the meat, they add nitrite salt to the meat and salt only to the fat. If you are making dry cured salami type products, do do need to add nitrite to the fat because it serves as an anti oxidant and preservative necessary to keep the fat from going rancid.

The fat melting out in your sausage may the caused by a too high smoking temp. 80C will start melting fat, so what I would do is smoke at 58-63C until you get good colour and finish by poaching in water at 76C

redzed wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 11, 2021 18:25

Scott is right. When making smoked sausages you don't need to add nitrite to the fat, but you do need to add salt. You can also cut back on the amount of the curing salt you use if the sausage has a high percentage of fat. When Polish sausage makers pre-cure meat prepared for sausage, and the fat is separate from the meat, they add nitrite salt to the meat and salt only to the fat. If you are making dry cured salami type products, do do need to add nitrite to the fat because it serves as an anti oxidant and preservative necessary to keep the fat from going rancid.

The fat melting out in your sausage may the caused by a too high smoking temp. 80C will start melting fat, so what I would do is smoke at 58-63C until you get good colour and finish by poaching in water at 76C

Thank you for your answer!
I think me not salting the fat has to be the real issue here. I've also got lost in this article viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5796 and I've picked up couple neat tricks to save myself from the future troubles.
Will post pics of my kielbasa as soon as im proud of them!

Yes, salting the fat will firm it up, but it will still start melting at 76-77C. So if you are smoking at 80 for longer than 30 minutes, you will have "fat out" and a crumbly texture to your kielbasa. If you are poaching, there is no reason to go over 65C in the smoker.

redzed wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 12, 2021 16:40

Yes, salting the fat will firm it up, but it will still start melting at 76-77C. So if you are smoking at 80 for longer than 30 minutes, you will have "fat out" and a crumbly texture to your kielbasa. If you are poaching, there is no reason to go over 65C in the smoker.

Thanks Redzed!
Always the true hero of this forum. A library of information!
Will follow this closely now and will let you guys know soon!