Sausage Recipe Secrets

[Seminole]

<b>Sausage Recipe Secrets</b>

    Basically sausage is meat, salt and pepper. I will never forget when I made my first Polish smoked sausage that turned out very well and I proudly gave it to my friend - professional sausage maker Waldemar to try. I have included salt, pepper, garlic, and added optional marjoram. I also added nutmeg and other spices that I liked. Well my friend's judgement was as follows:

"Great sausage but why all those perfumes?"

For him it was supposed to be the classical Polish Smoked Sausage and all it needed was salt, pepper and garlic.
   Combining meat with salt and pepper already makes a great product providing that you will follow the basic rules of sausage making. It's that simple. Like roasting a chicken, it needs only salt, pepper, rotisserie, and it always comes out perfect. If you don't cure your meats properly or screw up your smoking and cooking temperatures, all the spices in the world (saffron included) will not save your sausage.

<b>The rules (the secrets:</b>

<b>1. Fat.</b> The meat needs about 25 - 30% fat in it. The fat is the glue that holds meat particles together and gives sausages their texture. If you don't like that rule, forget about making a good sausage, go out and buy a tofu hot dog!
<b>2. Salt.</b> You need salt. The proper amount of salt in meat (tastes pleasant) is 2 – 3 %, though 1.5 –2% is a usual average acceptable level. About 3.5-5% will be the upper limit of acceptability, anything more and the product will be too salty. Almost all original sausage recipes contain 2 % of salt and if you use that figure your sausages will be great. If you want to save on salt you can not make a decent sausage, buy a tofu hot dog instead!
Get the calculator and punch in some numbers. Or if you use the metric system you don't even need the calculator: You need 2 grams of salt per 100 grams of meat. If you buy ten times more meat (1 kg) you will also need ten times more salt (20 grams). Now for the rest of your life you don't have to worry about salt in your recipes.
If you want a consistent product weigh out your salt. Estimating salt per cups or spoons can be deceiving as not all salts weigh the same per unit volume.
<b>3. Ingredients.</b> <b>Pepper</b> is less crucial. If you don't put enough you can always use a shaker, if you put too much get a beer or give it to your Mexican neighbor and he will love you for that. Normally it is about 5  - 10 % of the salt in the recipe.
You have already done the major part  that's needed to produce a good quality sausage. The rest is fine-tuning your creation.
<b>Sugar.</b> Less crucial, normally used to offset the harshness of salt. Amount used is about 10 % of the salt used in the recipe. Sugar is normally used with salt when curing meat.
<b>Spices.</b> Use freshly ground spices. Spices are very volatile and lose their aroma rapidly.
     Most sausages will include a dominant spice plus other spices and ingredients. There are some Polish blood sausages (kaszanka) that add buckwheat grouts or rice, there are English blood sausages (black pudding) that include barley, flour or oatmeal. Some great Cajun sausages like Boudain also include rice, pork, liver and a lot of onion. Most sausages are made of solid meat which is easier and faster to process, but a lot of sausages like headcheese contain different organs like tongue, heads with brains, liver, skins, and hearts. Liver of course always goes into liverwurst. There are some delicious hams where the only ingredient is salt and people say that even adding pepper distorts the natural flavor.

Let's see what goes besides salt and pepper into some well known sausages that have a recognized flavor:

This is only a part of the article, to see it all go to: http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-recipe-secrets.htm

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

Seminole,

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for the link; very interesting set of sausage receipes.

Arcs_n_Sparks

[acords]

Very good info!!!!!!!!!!  Thanks, I can't wait to try the Hot Italian.

Grab me another Stout

[Thunder Fish]

Can some one explain what Cure#1 is and what Cure#2 is? I read about it some where before but can't recall exactely what they are? ? ?? ? oh and thanks for that great link,stepping up soon to try to make sausage's

[Seminole]

Thunder Fish
Cures

For any aspiring sausage maker it is a necessity to understand and know how to apply    Instacure 1 and Instacure 2 as those two cures are used world wide though under different names and with different proportions of nitrates and salt.
What is Instacure 1
 Instacure 1 is a mixture of 1oz of  Sodium Nitrite (6.25 %) to 1 lb of salt
It MUST be used to cure all meats that will require smoking. It may be used to cure meats for fresh sausages (optional).
 What is Instacure 2
 Instacure 2 is a mixture of 1 oz of Sodium Nitrite (6.25 %) along with .64 oz od Sodium Nitrate (4 %) to 1 lb of salt. It can be compared to the time-releasing capsules used for treating colds.
It must be used with any products that do not require cooking, smoking or refrigeration and is mainly used for products that will be air cured for long time like: Country Ham, salami, peperoni, and other dry sausages.
Both Instacure 1 and Instacure 2 contain a small amount of FDA approved red coloring agent that gives them a slight pink color thus eliminating any possible confusion with common salt and that is why they are called sometimes "pink " curing salt.
They also go sometimes by the name Prague Powder 1 (Instacure 1) and Prague Powder 2 (Instacure 2).
Note : Instacure1 is not interchangeable with Instacure 2 and vice versa.
Morton Salt Cures
Morton™ Salt Company in addition to making common Table Salt also produces a number of cures like Sugar Cure mix, Smoke Flavored Sugar Cure mix, Tender Quick mix, Sausage and Meat Loaf seasoning mix. To use them properly one has to follow instructions that accompany every mix.
European cures and nitrite limits
There are different instacures in European countries and for example : in Poland a commonly used cure goes by the name "Peklosól" and contains 0.6 % of Sodium Nitrite to salt. No coloring agent is added and it is white in color. Allowable limits (150 ppm) of sodium nitrite in meats measured in ppm are somewhat lower than  the ones permitted in the USA .

Country
Cure Name
% of nitrite in salt
USA
Cure # 1
6.25 %
Poland
Peklosól
0.6 %
Germany
Pökelsalz
0.6 %
France
Sel nitrité
0.6 %
England
Nitrited salt
various
 
In European cures such a low nitrite percentage in salt is self-regulating and it is almost impossible to apply too much nitrite to meat, as the latter will taste too salty. Following a recipe you could replace salt will peklosól altogether as long as the recipe calls for 2-3% of salt in meat and the established nitrite limits will be preserved.
There is a different case with American Instacure #1, that contains much more nitrite in it (6.5%) and we have to color it pink to avoid the danger of mistakes and poisoning.
It really does not matter so much what percentage of sodium nitrite is mixed with salt as long as we properly calculate the total weight of cure mix that's added to meat. You can have a high content of nitrate in the salt but if you cure 100 lbs of meat and add 1/4 of an ounce of cure (salt and nitrite) instead of ½ pound as the recipe requires, you have almost no nitrite.
Amounts of nitrite needed to cure meat
A proportion of sodium nitrite added to salt in developing instacure was developed in such a way that if we add 4 ounces of Instacure # 1 to 100 pounds of meat, the quantity of nitrite added to meat will comfort to the legal limits permitted by the Meat Division of the United States Department of Agriculture. The legal limits specify the maximum amount of nitrate that can be added to meat, there is no lower minimum limit.
 
Copyright ©2005 WedlinyDomowe.com All rights reserved

[Seminole]

Thunder Fish - I am hoping that this will do..

How Nitrates Work
 
Curing salts are combinations of regular salt (NaCl) and nitrates. Nitrates by its nature are powerful poisons and for safety reasons are mixed with common salt (NaCl) and are known as curing salts. The most known are : Instacure #1, Instacure # 2 and some curing salts made by Morton Salt.
Only in big meat processing plants will the nitrates be added directly to salt and meat in required amounts. And that of course will be done by a trained personel under strict supervision. General public buys nitrates already premixed in safe amounts and ready to apply – Instacure # 1 and    Instacure # 2. Both cures were known before as Prague # 1 and Prague # 2.
Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3) does not cure meat directly and initially not much happens when it is added to meat. After a while micrococci and lactobacilli bacterias which are present in meat, start to react with nitrate and create Sodium Nitrite (NaNO2) that will start the curing process. This transformation is possible only by the presence and growth of bacteria from (Micrococcaceae or Achromobacter family) and if those bacterias are not present in sufficient numbers the curing process may be inhibited.

Nitrate (NO3)
bacteria
Nitrite (NO2)
Nitrate reacts with bacteria and realeases nitrite. 
 Here we have a little dilema – those bacterias are rather dormant at the recommended curing temperatures below 41º F ( 5º C) but the best conditions for the nitrate action  are at 46 – 50º F (8 – 10º C). On the other hand those higher temperatures (46 – 50º F) are an open invitation to different types of bacterias that can spoil the meat or develop toxins. For those reasons to the mixture of salt and nitrate we add a little amount of sodium nitrite so we can jump start the curing process at recommended low temperatures.
Once the sufficient amount of salt will penetrate the cured meat it will act as a barrier to the growth of bacterias and the curing temperatures could be higher – hams could be safely left hanging and air dryed as it was done in Spain and Italy for centuries. Now at those slightly higher temperatures, nitrate kicks into the action continuously releasing a fresh supply of nitrite.
The Instacure # 2 mix has a mixture of salt, nitrate and sodium nitrite because it is used for making air dryed products. This requires prolonged times and a continuous supply of fresh nitrite which is in time released by nitrate.
 Sodium Nitrite (NaNO2) in time reacts with oxygen and becomes nitric oxide (NO) which reacts with meats's natural colorant  "myoglobin"  (NO+ Mb) creating a dark red color of cured meat known as nitrosomyglobin (NOMb). When the meat is heated to 130 – 140º F  (54 – 60º C), the nitrosomyglobin is converted to a stable pigment, nitrosohemochrome light pink in color.
The Sodium Nitrite (NaNO2) is added directly to meat by using Instacure 1 mix.
Note : 50 ppm or more of nitrite is needed for the proper development of the curing color
This color is largely dependent on the amount of myoglobin that a particular meat contains. Darker meat contains more myoglobin than lighter meat and going from top to bottom :
 The amount of myoglobin in different meats is as follows :
Beef  - 250 – 350 mg/kg  
Lamb
Pork  - 130 – 189  mg/kg
Veal – 50 – 100 mg/kg 
Poultry – dark meat
Poultry – light meat
The meat that contains the most myoglobin will have a darker red color after curing.
After all myglobin has gone into reaction with NO, the color of cured meat has been determined and adding an additional amount of nitrite (Instacure 1) will not change the result. The excess nitrite will have to be eaten by a consumer. By the same token, an insufficient amount of nitrite will not cure meat properly and the color will not be right even when given enough time.
 Because nitrate first has to be converted into nitrite before the latter can start curing we can draw a logical conclusion that nitrate works slower than nitrite. That is why it is used in the production of dry sausages that need at least 4 weeks time to mature and thus will provide a continuous and slow supply of nitrite over this extended period of time. For the same reasons it is used for production of large hams.
 To make dry sausage we use Instacure 2 which is a mixture of slow acting nitrate (main ingredient) and fast acting nitrite (small percentage). That way nitrite will start curing meat immediately after mixing and after a while nitrate (by releasing nitrite) will take over and continue the process.
 Curing times for meats used in production of sausages are very short and Sodium Nitrite (Instacure1) is used as it does not rely on help from bacteria and will react with meat immediately.
 
Copyright ©2005 WedlinyDomowe.com All rights reserved

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

I think we have reached the chemistry limit for the month...[:D][:D][:D]

All good advice and information; now let's get crankin' on the sausage production and some photos!!!

Arcs_n_Sparks

[Oldman]

<b>Thunder Fish</b>

Below are three articles that respected Bradley members wrote for us. While somewhat long they are more than worth the read.

While both authors are Professionals in their fields, these articles are written for a common person such as myself. [:D]

CURING and BRINING, From JJC
FOOD POISONING AND FOOD HYGIENE PART 1, From Paul Woods
FOOD POISONING AND FOOD HYGIENE PART 2

Olds

[Thunder Fish]

Thanks for the refresher course.
Terry