If you choose to tweak the fat component in recipes, remember that it is totally relative to the lean meat component. So whatever your lean meat quantity is, the fat added to it should add up to 100%. If lean meat is 70%, the fat is automatically 30%. If lean is 85%, fat is 15%. You get the idea.
Salt
Quite possibly the most argued ratio among sausage makers. Traditional French charcutiers lean toward salt contents of 1.3–1.4%. I have settled on 1.75% for smoked and fresh sausages. I refuse to argue about this point. My ratio is set according to my preference, and when I was the owner of a retail shop, it also produced the most satisfied customers. That being said, as good sausage making provides us infinite metaphors for good living, I say to each his own. If you choose to tweak this component, I urge you to back off rather than add to that 1.75% mark. It is indeed about the highest I would urge you to go in a fresh or smoked product.
The type of salt you use is also crucial to the outcome. I tend toward either sea salt or kosher salt. Be very sure to weigh salt, and all other ingredients, rather than measuring it in a spoon. Different types and brands of salt have different weights, so the only way to ensure consistent results is to use that scale.
Liquid
Old-schoolers often just grind with ice, and this is the only liquid component in their sausage, but I find this disappointing to results, and much less fun. Flavor explodes and composition excels when a liquid component is prioritized in fresh sausage. This should not be water but wine, stock, cream, liqueur, fruit juice, kombucha, whatever. I advocate that it is dangerous to prescribe a set percentage on a sausage’s liquid content. This should be determined instead by the recipe. If you are composing a sausage with a lot of dry seasoning (which will absorb the liquid) or a particularly astringent ingredient (which will create a dry feeling on the tongue), you will want more liquid in the recipe than for a simpler sausage. Set the liquid component at 10% for recipes with minimal or uncomplicated ingredients, and expect to go up to as high as 14% for recipes that get a little more complex. Any time you create a recipe, there will always be a time to taste test, with the ability to easily adjust before you continue. You can find more info on that in the Sausage Processing section.
Spices
Oh, my spice cabinet. It is a danger to anyone who opens it. If you don’t know what a specific seed looks like, or you’re not partial to the smell of some random leaf fermenting, beware! I am obsessed with spices and herbs. I’d love to grow, cut, ferment, dry, mix and eat all of them. I trust that as you become enamored with sausage as a way to express your creative whimsy and enjoy fabulous food, you will become a spice freak too. Below is a list of the spices I most often use in sausage making. This is by no means exhaustive.
The ratio for spices is less important than the ratios for lean, fat, salt and liquid. Truly, just add the spices you think will be delicious, and don’t be afraid to experiment. I have provided, in my master recipe, a rough “maximum” on dry spices that corresponds with the rest of the ingredients. You may find, however, that you can make a delicious sausage with more than that. Be my guest. My 4% is based on currywurst recipes that are some of the spice-heaviest recipes I know of. That being said, I am a huge proponent of “simpler is better.” If you find a reason to put as much as 4% spice in anything but a currywurst, please be in touch, as I would love to hear about that. Otherwise, I’d urge you toward much simpler spice combos, as a rule.
What you put inside of a sausage to season it can vary infinitely, and as you will see in the recipes section we go from simple herbs to miso to pickles to sauces. At the very least, you will want a decent selection of spices in your cabinet, so you can be flexible when you are feeling creative. In addition to whole spice (ground spices lose their flavor quickly, so buy whole and fresh), grow some fresh herbs in pots or in a plot outside the kitchen. Below is a list of spices and herbs that are great for sausage making, and nice to have on hand. Asterisks denote items that are easy to grow yourself and have fresh within reach.
• Allspice
• Anise
• Basil*
• Bay leaf
• Black pepper
• Caraway seed
• Cardamom pods
• Cayenne pepper
• Celery seed powder
• Cinnamon
• Chinese five spice (make your own, see page 112)
• Chive*
• Cilantro*
• Cloves
• Coriander (this is just the seed from the cilantro plant)*
• Cumin
• Curry
• Dill*
• Dried peppers (ancho, arbol, cayenne, habanero, pasilla bajio, guajillo, serrano, and many more)
• Fennel seed
• Garlic
• Lavender*
• Mace
• Marjoram*
• Mustard seed
• Nutmeg
• Oregano*
• Paprika, hot, smoked, and sweet
• Parsley*
• Red pepper flake
• Rosemary*
• Sage*
• Sea salt
• Tarragon*
• Thyme*
• Vanilla
• White peppercorn
SAUSAGE PROCESSING
Preparation
Aside from getting your recipe ratios correct, there are a few other matters to be concerned with when crafting a great sausage. The first is safety and sanitation. Please refer to the Safety Section on page 9 (Chapter 1). Prepare your equipment, tools and countertops according to the sanitation recommendations found there.
If you’ve just flipped over to this page, it is important to remember that ground meat has more surface area, which means a bigger playground for bacteria. To deal with this, we start with clean equipment, clean surfaces and clean hands, and we keep everything just as cold as we can. Colder temperatures slow the activity and reproduction of bacteria.
The second factor is texture. How many of us have gazed into a meat case and seen sausages that look like liquid in their casings, or bitten into a sausage that feels like it has barely been ground at all? Alongside salt and liquid, I believe poor texture is one of the top three reasons a sausage can go wrong. So how do we ensure good texture? In fresh sausage, it is quite simple. Prepare your lean and fat trim meticulously, don’t overmix, and plan on a standard grind and half re-grind regimen. (When we get to suspensions and salamis we may get a little pickier.) This means you’ll grind the whole mix through, and then take half the mix and send it back through the same grinder plate. Easy.
Mix the seasonings into the trim before grinding.
The third issue is bind. This refers to the stickiness of the meat mixture, the good stick-togetherness that makes sausage great. It also refers to how well the seasonings have adhered within the sausage mix. How do you achieve good bind? Well, by mixing, essentially. Myosin proteins in muscle cells provide the proverbial glue for good bind, and you’ll pull them out as you mix. Careful not to mix too much, of course, as we want temperature to stay within the range that keeps fat intact and texture tuned. If you pull the ground meat mixture apart and it’s sort of stringy, then you’re assured a fine bind. Mix no more. If you leave a ground mixture, seasoned, in the fridge for 24 hours or more (as when composing a fermented salami, Chapter 5), you’ll be blown away by the bind you get. You’ll pull that grind out and it will hold together like bread dough. The best way to ensure binding of seasonings is by premixing, explained below.
The parts of the standard meat grinder. Clockwise from left: the body, the worm, the ring, the knife, and two plates, the fine and the coarse.
Pre-mixed seasonings and trim in the grinder’s food tray
Grinding, and then re-grinding, half of the mixture through the coarse plate
Ensure that your lean meat and fat are well trimmed and cut to size for your meat grinder. You can mix these components together at this point for fresh sausage recipes
. I always mix spices and salt (at minimum), and sometimes the liquid component as well, into the trim at this point, and then open-freeze the whole mess on a sheet pan for at least 30 minutes. While you’re putting things in the freezer, put the moving parts of your grinder in there, too. You want everything as cold as possible to prevent the melting of fat (“smearing”) and the proliferation of any unwanted bacteria.
Some folks like to grind and then season the ground meat, but I contend that pre-mixing results in better bind, safer temperatures throughout processing, and superior distribution of flavor throughout the sausage mix. If you’re feeling really awesome, you can leave the trim in its seasonings overnight, chilled (or you can do this after the grinding step to further increase bind). It is not necessary, however, to let the meat rest. Save for open freezing, once you get your ingredients measured out, you are ready to grind.
Grinding
If you are using an electric grinder with any amount of horsepower, work with frozen meat and fat that is pre-mixed with your recipe’s seasonings. Grind into a bowl with enough space in it for you to do additional mixing, should you decide to adjust ingredients.
Mixing the two textures together
Make up some test patties and cook them to ensure you are happy with the sausage mix and bind.
Put the grinder together according to the manufacturer’s directions, and be sure to try to freeze the shaft, worm, knife and plates for a short time before starting. For fresh sausage, I use the coarse plate. I’ll push everything through, then send half of the mixture back through the same plate. This produces a variation in the size of the ground product that improves bind and, when mixed together, produces awesome texture for the eater.
Always try to form a small, 2-inch patty of your sausage mix after grinding, and sear it in a cast iron frying pan while your meat mixture chills and you wash your grinder parts. Watch it cook. Does it crumble? Smell it as it warms. Is it burning? Is there enough fat to support good moisture? Listen to it. Is it whining or is it singing? Taste it. Is it too salty? Can you taste all the hopes you had for it, and the synergy between them all? If not, adjust as needed. If so, you’re ready to stuff.
Stuffing
Stuffing is optional. Many people sheepishly admit that this did not occur to them easily. If you want to make sausage patties for breakfast, if you don’t have time to stuff, if you’re out of casing, if you want to incorporate sausage into meatloaf and meatballs; for heaven’s sake, don’t stuff. If, however, you want a wiener on a bun, or sliced rounds for appetizers, or hanging links for smoking, read on.
Natural hog casings come packed in salt.
Photo of rinsing casings
Loading the hog casings onto the stuffing horn
See Equipment and Supplies (page 13) for a detailed discussion of casings, and Resources for a list of online providers. If you’re spot-reading, just stick to natural casings for fresh sausage. Hog casings will do fine for a standard bratwurst-sized link, and sheep casings will be your go-to for breakfast links. Rinse the casings well of their salt, until they are smooth inside and out. Soak them in tepid water at least 25–30 minutes.
A vertical stuffer is the best for home use. It is comprised of a canister, a press with an air valve, a housing with a crank handle, a ring and stuffing horns.
Get your vertical stuffer ready with the mid-sized stuffing horn, and load all the sausage mix into the hopper. You can knead the mix and slap it a bit to get air bubbles out first, if you like. Crank the handle to lower the press onto the mixture in the hopper, which will also evacuate air from the mix via the little air valve built in to the press. Now wet the stuffing horn (or use a little neutral oil on it) and load all the prepared casings onto it, just like bunching up your knee socks or your pantyhose. Don’t tie a knot yet. Continue cranking the handle until the meat is just barely coming out of the end of the horn. This will prevent you from stuffing a load of air into the first link. Now tie a double overhand knot into the end of the casing. Keep a small bowl of water, maybe just the bowl the casings were soaking in, nearby in case you need extra moisture along the way. Keep the counter or a sheet pan under the stuffing horn moist, to prevent the stuffed sausage from sticking or tearing.
Crank until just a tad of the meat mixture emerges from the horn before tying off the casing’s end.
Tie a double overhand knot.
Stuffing requires gentle but capable hands.
Keep the stuffed sausage in a coil as you work.
To link, pinch with your thumb and forefinger where you want the link to occur, and twist.
Twist in alternate directions each time you create a link, to prevent the links from unraveling.
Crank the handle to start stuffing, keeping your other hand loosely around the end of the stuffing horn to guide the sausage out, receiving it as evenly as possible. You want to stuff it so it fits the casing and isn’t saggy or baggy, but you don’t want to stuff it so tight that it starts busting when you go to make links. It should feel springy but firm in its casing. As you go, if you find it is stuffed too tight, just pull a little casing off of the horn and massage everything out to a better diameter. If you find it is too thin, jam some of the casing back onto the horn so that as you crank, you introduce more sausage into the equation. The point is, you’ll have to adjust as you go, especially as you’re learning. Eventually you’ll whiz right through this process. You may want to keep a sausage pricker or a small sharp knife on hand, to prick out air bubbles as they form, and be sure to position your receiving hand so that the sausage is angled downward slightly as it emerges from the horn. This will prevent additional air from being introduced as you stuff. It also helps to coil the sausage as it emerges, to keep it tidy and allow you to continue receiving easily as you go.
Once you’ve stuffed all the meat mix in the casings, tie a double knot at the end to seal. To form links, mark off a 6–8-inch section and pinch between your thumb and forefinger to mark the spot where the link will occur. Then, twist at this spot 2–4 times to link off the sausage. Go 6–8 inches down and pinch, then twist 2–4 times in the opposite direction. Continue alternating the direction of your twist as you move up the stuffed sausage. This will prevent the links from unraveling later.
Drying
It is always best to dry stuffed sausages for a bit before you cook them. This enables all the flavors to meld, the casing to form well around each link, and for a thin layer of proteins to develop on the outside of the casing. The protein layer is called a pellicle. The pellicle is especially important if you plan to smoke the sausages, as it will ensure that smoke adheres well to the product. You can hang the linked sausages over dowels to dry them, or simply coil them on a wide plate and keep them uncovered in the fridge overnight. Obviously, hanging ensures even drying around each link, but if it is exceedingly hot in your house or on your stoop, or there are dogs hanging out who might nip at them, or any other such obstacles, you’ll have to do what you can.
APPLE HORSERADISH SAUSAGE
INGREDIENTS
2.5 lb. pork lean trim
1 lb. pork back fat
1 oz. salt
1.5 oz. garlic
1 tart apple, diced
0.2 oz. black pepper
1 cup homemade horse-radish sauce (see page 126)
5 feet of hog casings, rinsed
I guess a lot of my sausage recipes develop because of leftover things in the fridge. I have become a bit entranced with putting ferments, sauces, pickles and other homemade items into the sausage mix. The horseradish sauce recipe here makes more than you will need for the sausage, so it’s a win-win.
Method
1. Mix all ingredients together and open-freeze on a sheet pan. Grind through the coarse plate of your meat grinder, and then re-grind half of the mix. Combine the mix thoroughly and test. Adjust seasonings if necessary before stuffing into the prepared hog casings.
2. This is a versatile sausage, fitting for breakfast or beyond. I think it would fi
t nicely stuffed into homemade ravioli, accented with fresh fennel and a zingy marinara.
MISO & PICKLED GINGER SAUSAGE
INGREDIENTS
2.5 lb. pork lean meat
1 lb. pork back fat
1.5 oz. garlic
½ cup pickled ginger, minced (to make your own, see page 127)
1 oz. salt
0.3 oz. black pepper
¾ cup miso sauce (see page 126)
5 feet natural hog casings, rinsed
If you are going far enough as to grow your own koji (see page 98), you can make homemade miso for this recipe. I used a light, sweet rice miso for this recipe, but you can use any kind.
Method
1. To make the sausage, mix all ingredients together and open-freeze on a sheet pan. Grind through the coarse plate of your meat grinder, and then re-grind half of the mix. Combine the mix thoroughly and test. Adjust seasonings if necessary before stuffing into the prepared hog casings.
Pure Charcuterie: The Craft & Poetry of Curing Meat at Home Page 3
