Author Topic: Sausages: where do I start??  (Read 13425 times)

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #15 on: April 30, 2012, 01:51:38 AM »
Snags are an Aussie term for sausages. I believe usually cooked on the bar-be. I have several Aussies on my forum.

Crystal - You can substite any meat for the most part in any of my recipes. I jusr use a lot of chicken and pork becasue it's the cheapest here. Many of my recipes were originally designed for beef but worked equally as well with porl and chicken so I do. I was drooling at some lamb just the other day. I piece just bigger than my fist was $27! I got pork butt AGAIN! LOL

As for as nitrates they are in the ground and in higher concentrations in root vegetables. You could get more nitrates from eating celery than a sausage. In fact they found that you can actually puverize, dry and turn celery into a power and use it's "natural nitrates" in curing meats - it's what the "All Natural - Nitrate free" sausages are made from. Kind of deceptive they are still using nitrates but from celery instead of extracted from the ground directly or produced in a lab. I don't understand why the govt lets them lie that way.

Our bodies even produce nitrates to some degree. It's just the level of nitrate we absorb that can be harmful. Nitrates are also used for treating heart problems like angina. If you want to find out for sure if you are nitrate sensitive eat a several stalks of celery and see if you get a headache.

For fresh sausages you do NOT need to add nitrates. It is only if they are cold smoked, or dry cured you have to worry about it. So if it is in fact nitrates you don't have to worry. They also use nitrates in the commercial product because of color. It turns the meat pink.

Karen

- for corned beef go here:

dthelmers

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #16 on: April 30, 2012, 03:00:20 AM »
As for the headaches, maybe it's the alcohol that's causing them.  But you never know.  If you drink scotch and soda and it gives you a headache, and you drink gin and soda and the same thing happens, then you try rum and soda, bourbon and soda, rye and soda, and so forth, and they all have the same effect, I suppose it is possible the culprit could be the soda.   ;)
This sounds like a fascinating line of research; I'll give it a try and let you know the results...

Crystal

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #17 on: April 30, 2012, 07:51:17 AM »
Rotflmfao!!!!!!

Caseus your a crack up!! Snags are sausages... guess its an aussie thing to call them snags...? And, ive tried plenty of alcohol, its not the soda... champagne always gives a migrane. Southern comfort im allergic to. And im talking half a glass and im sick (tomer) so the water isnt an issue ;-) guess ill never know, i do think it may be a hormonal thkng combined with an ingredient. Since its wirse when im pregnant. Or it could just b that im weird hey..? All i know for sure is bought fresh beef sausages give me a headache! And as an australian its very 'Un-Australian' to go to a bbq or any school or sporting function and NOT have a sausage sandwhich!

Tomer1

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #18 on: April 30, 2012, 10:32:36 AM »
Almost all sold prepered meats contain them, people no longer use to seeing gray looking sausage or cooked\smoked sandwich meats.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #19 on: April 30, 2012, 06:01:57 PM »
Sounds very much like it could be the nitrates. Just don't use them in your homemade sausages. Now that being said do not make dry cured or fermented sausages they NEED nitrates. Only make the fresh sausages and if it says add nitrates don't. My recipes are generally made by people that smoke all their meats so it's often listed as an ingredient.

Crystal

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #20 on: April 30, 2012, 08:54:20 PM »
Alrighty! Ill not be eating celery!! I actually didnt see a few replies here, they were posted while i was posting and i missed them till now! So, i will avoid nitrates in my sausages! But whats that mean for salami? Pepperoni, etc? Do they nees nitrates? Or can i make them without?

Tomer1

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #21 on: April 30, 2012, 09:00:06 PM »
No, its unsafe to make dry cured meats without them.   

You should stick with cooked sausages.  I made some fantasic bratwurst (both coarse and emulsified) last week.
Precooked in water and then BBQ along side some romaninan mititei (skinless emulsified sausages with lots of garlic) and pork neck.

Crystal

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #22 on: April 30, 2012, 09:22:57 PM »
Ok, well i reckon that as i dont eat so much of them, and thy hav never been a problem it should be fine to make them properly and just not eat so much?

Thank you everyone for all your help on this! It really is a huge problem for me to not be able to eat sausages,y DH and the kids adore sausage sandwhiches but i usually go hungry or have to eat one quick before the headache kicks in! Atleast i know now that if i make my own i wont have that problem and i will he able to enjoy them! Guess dh will be making more sausages than he thought... my grinder is manual ;-)

Caseus

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #23 on: April 30, 2012, 10:02:21 PM »
A lot of sausages contain monosodium glutamate (MSG) as a flavor enhancer.  I see it in homemade sausage recipes too.  Accent is one brand of MSG that is very common in the stores here in the US.

Some people believe that MSG is the cause of their severe headaches, so you might want to check labels to see if the foods you are sensitive to contain MSG.   Some other ingredients that I have seen listed as sources of monosodium glutamate are Hydrolyzed protein,Sodium caseinate, Yeast extract, Maltodextrin, Autolyzed yeast, Textured protein, Calcium caseinate, Yeast food, Hydrolyzed oat flour, and Spice Extractives.  I can't vouch for any of that, mind you.  I just googled it. 

Glutamate is found naturally in protein-containing foods such as meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables and milk.  It's said to be partly responsible for the umami taste, one of the five basic tastes. 

Modern scientific studies that I found on the net (yeah, I know this is not reliable) do not find any link between MSG and headaches, but you never know. 

Crystal

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #24 on: April 30, 2012, 10:15:29 PM »
Yeah, id heard a lot about msg. Im not 100% sure if its allowed in some foods in australia. I guess i should check it out. I really think the only way to avoid food additives is to avoid packaged food!! I can ask at my supermarket about what they do to the food. Atleast so i cqn get an idea of what to avoid... its so hard. Why can food just be good for you??

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #25 on: May 01, 2012, 02:19:14 AM »
Crystal you can eat salami? Is it a small mouth watering salami or it it a big soft salami? There are cooked salamis that are usually large in size and cured salamis that are small and cured. Peperoni is almost always dry cured so if you can eat that it's something else not the nitrates. Commercial sausage also often add Sodium erythorbate for color and fast curing. They also use potasium sulfate as a preservative to prevent mold. Maybe it's not the nitrates ...

Crystal

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #26 on: May 01, 2012, 07:22:37 AM »
I can eat soft salami an the small snack sticks, we call em twiggy stix. I jusy assumed that because you dont eat as much that they didnt cause headaches!? Now i have no idea what the problem is... maybe it is just me? But i do know a few other women with the same issue. And its always with plain fried beef snags. I can eat them cooked in something, like i make a rice an sausage thing and baked sticky sausages, thejr fine, no headache. I suppose it doesnt really matter what causes it in the end. I just wondered if it was just something in the snags that i could avoid by making my own. Guess we will find out next week when i make the plain beef ones hey! Ill also ask my shop what they put in, just out of curiosity...

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #27 on: May 02, 2012, 02:44:09 AM »
Odd it appears you can eat nitrates (salami and twiggys) but not fried sausages. When you fry them do you cut them down the middle or keep them whole? And when you cook them in something do you slice them or leave them whole? I m wondering if it is the gases that build up under the casings maybe or some used to process the casings that stays inside when fried?

Maybe for your first beef sausage you should make patties and not use casings and see how that works? Now I am thinking something in the casings.

Crystal

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #28 on: May 02, 2012, 07:57:54 AM »
Hmm, some times they are cut and fried, but ive never paid too much attention if one way is worse. Ill experiment on that. And same for in other dishes. One i fry them then slice and mix with rice and stock and cook again. No headache there. The other way i bake them whole in pineapple juice and tom and bbq sauce, again, no headache from that. Im going to assume that most my bought snags would use collagen casings?? So i can test some next week with fried whole and some cut...

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Sausages: where do I start??
« Reply #29 on: May 03, 2012, 12:59:09 AM »
Snags fresh here are generally hogs casings and twiggys collegen I really don't know for sure about there but I know my frineds in Queensland and Victoria also use hogs casings.