Comments on: Tinkering with Sausages

By: Sweet Italian Sausage with Brown Sugar and Fennel | Smoke Cure Pickle Brew

Sweet Italian Sausage with Brown Sugar and Fennel | Smoke Cure Pickle Brew — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:45:48 +0000

[...] 1. Hank Shaw pulled together a series of tips on making and cooking sausages that are incredibly helpful, including recipes and an overview of his sausage-making library. Tinkering With Sausages, April 30, 2009. [...]

By: Homemade Sausages | Food With Legs

Homemade Sausages | Food With Legs — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:45:14 +0000

[...] for grocery store pork. He wrote this dead-simple guide to making sausages on Simply Recipes, an advanced guide on his own site, and for those who prefer books here is his sausage and charcuterie [...]

By: Jonno

Jonno — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:57:45 +0000

Hank, a couple of fantastic articles on sausage making. Loved the step by step guide with pictures and tips. Great work!

I am a British Expat who now lives in Canton, China, where savory sausages are impossible to find – along with many other foods that are either non-existent or ridiculously expensive.

My website offers advice and support for Expat’s, and I am about to add a new section concerning how to make Western food you simply cannot buy here. Obviously, we cannot go to the store and buy the equipment like grinders, or materials like casings either – although intestines are easy to get anywhere.

I’ll obviously link to your excellent webpages, but wondered if we can take this a little further so other Expat’s can make their own sausages with what is readily to hand over here? I was thinking about how to choose intestines and prepare them to make casings, and that sort of thing. Cheers!

By: hank

hank — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:46:41 +0000

Richard: You bet. Salt is a wonderful thing. I have the same issue now, and I let my links hang about an hour before putting them in the fridge. In winter, I put them in a cool garage (50s or so) for 4-5 hours.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:20:37 +0000

What is usually the inside temp when you hang your fresh sausages? My house this time of year is usually mid 70″s when I would be hanging the links prior to putting in fridge. Can I do this for an hour (two?) without worrying about food borne illness if they are subsequently cooked thoroughly? Suggestions

By: hank

hank — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:29:54 +0000

Frank: I made no mention of the percentage of meat to fat, although it needs to be at least 20 percent fat. What I mean is they did not bind well when you mixed them after grinding — you did mix after grinding, right? If not, then that’s your problem right there…

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:27:10 +0000

Hank,
When you say the meat to fat mixture. Does that mean that I don’t have enough fat or that I have too much? Thanks for the help

By: hank

hank — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:26:10 +0000

Frank: It means you did not get a proper bind in your meat-fat mixture. This could be one of three things: Most likely is that your mixture was too warm; you want the mixture to be close to freezing (34-36 degrees).

The other likely culprits could be either not enough mixing before stuffing — or too much. I generally have good results with 90-120 seconds of mixing in a Kitchenaid set on its lowest level.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:11:56 +0000

Hank,
Great article! I was wondering if you could help me. I am new to the whole sausage making game. My stuffed sausages crumble apart after they have been cooked and cut. They still have that ground meat texture. Any ideas on how to prevent this from happening?