Restocking freezer - Sausage

[rgreenberg2000]

While I'm waiting to eat some cheese from my new hobby, I made up some bulk sausage to restock the freezer.  Broke down a bone in pork butt today, ground it up, and made up three different sausages: Breakfast (Rytek Kutas), Spanish Chorizo (OurDailyBrine.com), and Sweet Italian (Ruhlman.)  After all the grinding, re-grinding, seasoning and mixing, my in-house taste tester (my youngest -- 14 years old) gave all three a thumbs up, with the Chorizo taking the top spot.  I have not made Spanish Chorizo before, so wanted to try this as a fresh sausage first, to give me some basis for diving into a dry cured version.  This turned out great, with the paprika (Chiquilin dulce) and garlic really popping.  The other two I've made many times before, and just love to have them in the freezer for when the need strikes.

Great return on the invested effort, and, the best part, I don't have to wait several weeks or months to eat it!

Mixed and waiting on the tasters to green light the seasoning level:



Packaged up and ready for the deep freeze:



Thanks for looking, and happy to share any details on the recipes if needed!

Rich

[mikekchar]

A sausage for you! :-)

Lately I've been interested in making dry cured sausage.  What kind of setup do you have for drying.  My wife is skeptical because we don't actually have room for a grinder and sausage stuffer in the apartment...  I'm thinking, "Why does she need so many clothes?"  I'm sure she'll be able to see the logic of my persuasive argument!  (Which is code for: I'll dream about this until I stop traveling all over the place for work and we finally buy a house).

I think making fresh sausage without casings is reasonable for me, though, since I'm quite handy with my knife in the kitchen.  Maybe that will convince the wife...

[rgreenberg2000]

What kind of setup do you have for drying.

The only attempts at salumi that I've done before have been pancetta, and I just hung those in a "relatively" humid location.  I have a set of Umai bags that I'm going to use, which allows you to make dry cured meats in your regular fridge.  The cheese cave actually has pretty decent conditions for dry curing, but it's pretty small as it is, so I'm not sure that I'll put it into double duty.

You should be able to make some good bulk sausage with you killer knife skills!

Rich

[pastpawn]

A sausage for you! :-)

Lately I've been interested in making dry cured sausage.  What kind of setup do you have for drying.  My wife is skeptical because we don't actually have room for a grinder and sausage stuffer in the apartment...  I'm thinking, "Why does she need so many clothes?"  I'm sure she'll be able to see the logic of my persuasive argument!  (Which is code for: I'll dream about this until I stop traveling all over the place for work and we finally buy a house).

I think making fresh sausage without casings is reasonable for me, though, since I'm quite handy with my knife in the kitchen.  Maybe that will convince the wife...

I've made loads of sausage.  I do have a grinder and a vertical stuffer.  I've used the same to even make caseless hot dogs, which came out pretty awesome. 

A couple of weeks ago, I stuffed 20# of Ruhlman's Tuscan Salami.  I have them hanging in a chest freezer with an external temperature controller, a humidifier, and a dehumidifier, and a humidistat to control it all.  Pic below.  The idea is to first raise the temperature and humidity to 95F and 95% RH to encourage the bacterial culture to lower the pH to under 5 (mine went to 4.7).  That takes a couple of days.  Then, lower the temperature 50F and 75% RH, and wait a month or so for the weight of the sausage to decrease about 40%.

I have done this successfully before (see last pic).



(from older batch of salami..)

[mikekchar]

That is completely awesome!  I really need to do that...  My main problem is that "and now we can eat sausage and cheese every day!" doesn't have quite the same resounding impact on my wife as it does with me.  She's Japanese and not yet comfortable with the idea of these things being staple foods.  She's completely comfortable with the idea that for the 2 or 3 times in a year that she feels like eating that kind of food she can go to Tokyo and spend the equivalent of $30 for classic imported stuff...  But she has converted me with fish (especially dried fish... OMG... amazing...), so I have a sacred duty to help her see the light of European culture 

[5ittingduck]

If you want to do salami style sausage, look into dry bag tubes (Like UMAI or Banquet Bags).
You can ferment at room temperature and dry in a conventional fridge and avoid all the nasties
Gives an excellent result, though not the cheapest option.

[rgreenberg2000]

I've made loads of sausage.  I do have a grinder and a vertical stuffer.  I've used the same to even make caseless hot dogs, which came out pretty awesome......

Looking good there, Andrew!  I've got all the accoutrements since I make plenty of fresh, cooked and smoked sausages, just need to get set up to ferment and cure properly.

What kind of casings are those in your stuffing pic?  Collagen?  Other?

R

[pastpawn]

I've made loads of sausage.  I do have a grinder and a vertical stuffer.  I've used the same to even make caseless hot dogs, which came out pretty awesome......

Looking good there, Andrew!  I've got all the accoutrements since I make plenty of fresh, cooked and smoked sausages, just need to get set up to ferment and cure properly.

What kind of casings are those in your stuffing pic?  Collagen?  Other?

R

Yea, 47mm x 24" collagen casings (sorry for mixing units that way!).  Each holds about 2 pounds of meat.  I bought the ones that have one end already tied with a hanging loop.  From here:  https://www.sausagemaker.com/47mm-1-7-8-x-24-Collagen-Casings10tied-p/17-1711.htm

[awakephd]

Very cool. Fortunately, my wife detests cheese - fortunately, since that means more for me. But unfortunately, that means I'm already pushing the limits with the cheese-making, especially when I make a blue. I've brought up the idea of making sausages a time or two, but ... the only thing she detests more than cheese is sausage!

[mikekchar]

I had a kind of surprise last night.  I asked my wonderful wife what we're going to have for dinner (she cooks on the weekdays) and she said "Cheese and sausage"!  (Is she spying on me?)  We had some sausages in the freezer using up space.  I also had a no-rennet blue and my rennet fresh cheese that I made as well as about 4 other cheeses that I happened to pick up when they were half price at the super market.  Cheese in Japan is crazy expensive: $8 for 90 of imported Stilton.  But nobody buys the stuff and once it approaches the "best before" date it goes on sale for half price.  What's this "best before" date for vac packed cheese in a refrigerated display?  "Thank you for ageing my cheese" is what I say ;-)  Anyway, it was a great meal :-)

I will probably look into those bags.  Cured sausages are just as expensive here as cheese and are even harder to find (I have to go to the big city).  So I'll be paying 2-3x normal price plus $25 for the bus ride to the city.  No matter what I do, it will be dramatically cheaper to make it.