"Ratio" and Sausage

[Tyler Kee]

I had to clear out some space in the freezer this weekend and I had 20 ish pounds of Axis my butcher had coarse ground earlier this year. I ran it all back through a medium die as the single pound I'd used it spaghetti a few weeks ago was WAY too chunky.

I broke off 8 pounds and mixed it with 2 lbs of pork fat (79 cents a pound at the HEB!) for a local family and used the rest for pan sausage. I tried out a new recipe that I found via Texas Monthly:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/sausage-making-freedmens-style/

3 parts meat
1 part fat
Any liquid, up to 10 percent of the total weight of meat and fat
Kosher salt, up to 1.67 percent of the total weight of the batch

I followed those to a T and mixed by hand for a few minutes to get a good bind. They didn't mention it it their recipe but I added Instacure #1 because I'm opposed to botulism.

I cooked up a tester piece which my wife declared "surprisingly good" - I went ahead and added pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste, and mixed again by hand until it was all bound. The next taster got wifey's approval so off to the stuffer it went! Stuffed it into hog casings and called it a night.

I dropped some off at my in laws earlier this week. Both of them loved it and declared it "professional quality and delicious" which is high praise as far as I'm concerned.

I had some "broken casing" ones the other morning for breakfast and thought they were pretty good. It could probably stand more fat but other than that, a totally workable sausage. They cooked up pretty "red" which is a sure sign of nitrate penetration and two days later, none of us are doubled over a toilet which is always a great thing. If there were going straight from the stuffer to the grill, I'd omit that step.

I haven't really done much pan sausage so I was really happy to find such a bulletproof recipe right out of the gate. If you're in the same camp, feel free to use this as a great starting point. Good luck!

 

[Hand Skills]

Yum. Those look good! 'Tis the season (for sausage, that is).

I think your ratio is right. A little bit of binder can help with juiciness. Classically 'rusk' is used - we just freeze bread crumbs and use them at 3-5% by weight.



Sometimes the simple recipes are the best!

If you're looking for sausage recipes and ideas, I highly recommend checking out the Scott Rea Project on YouTube.

He runs the gamut on wild game butchery, and whenever I'm looking to get creative, SRP is generally the first stop;

 

[Tyler Kee]

If you're looking for sausage recipes and ideas, I highly recommend checking out the Scott Rea Project on YouTube.

He runs the gamut on wild game butchery, and whenever I'm looking to get creative, SRP is generally the first stop;

Excellent series! Thank you!

 

[Dosh]

TK, tried just adding fat several times, but was too much grease left after cooking. A neighbor from Belgium who grew up in a family of butchers urged me to try pork shoulder instead. Tastes great and a lot less fat.

 

[Ckgworks]

I use pork shoulder as well....I have a ground sausage recipe we came up with that is 5 pounds pork shoulder to 10 pounds venison. This is a touch on the dry side for some people......if you go 7 pounds to 10 pounds it ends up just about like Jimmy Dean's hot sausage, with no grease left in the fry pan!

 

[nmbarta]

I use 20% pork belly and 10% white sharp cheddar, then add enough water to mix the seasoning and get the meat to the right thickness for stuffing. They turn out really good

 

[Ckgworks]

This thread reminded me......an old man recommended me the below book called Charcuterie. It is a excellent reading source that has a ton of information on sausage making and other meat cures. Someday if life ever slows down, I'd love to get more in casing stuffed sausages.

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...&ved=0ahUKEwi87MzqqcreAhUnllQKHYBgAL4QgTYIuwY

 

[Jon Conatser]

I use 60/40 being the 60 is pork meat then I use 40 of deer/elk or even beef

 

[just country]

morning, depending on the lbs of meat. polish reciepe sp.
half vension, 1/3 boston butt, 1/3 cheap beef--bull meat.
salt-pepper, regano, sp. garlic, 2 shots of Worchester sauce, and
more of ur choice. we grind and mix by hand. fry up a patty
and eat. add spice to ur favor. never had any complaints.
let set over night. mix again. test again. by setting over
night the seasoning adheres to the meat.
justme gbot tum

 

[Doodle]

Hey there!

Glad your recipe worked out well. I typically use a 70/30 ratio, but will skew it in either direction a bit of I've got a specific purpose in mind.....or if I want to do something like a venisony mortadella...yum.