Sausage

[Ducth]

Hey to all!!! I'm a first time poster but have been using the form since the day I recived my Bradley. My sausage question is this. I have made around 500lbs of sausage and every time I make it the meat shrinks away from the casing. It always taste great and is never dry. I use Hi-Mountian sausage kit with venison and pork. I leave very little fat in the mix because I don't need the grease in the gut. I follow the derections to a T as far as smoking and cooking. Everyone loves it but I would think it looks more appetizing without the rinkles. Any help would be great!

[Tiny Tim]

Hi.  First off, welcome to the world of posting.

I haven't made any sausage yet, but intend to do some Summer Sausage sometime soon.  The place I've read for guidance says to prevent wrinkles, you should give the sausages a cold shower for 5 minutes when removed from the smoker.  I didn't see you mention doing that, and I guess I haven't read Hi Mountain's instructions, so I don't know if they say that as well.

Hope this helps...if not, I tried. :D

[Ducth]

I guess I for got to metion that. I always cold shower.

[Tiny Tim]

Okay.  Then I don't know what to tell ya. I'm sure somebody here will be able to help ya out though.

[Mr Walleye]

I haven't done much with sausage either but here is a link on sausage and they definately say it's cased buy not cold showering enough. I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable with sausage will chime in soon.

http://www.3men.com/allyou.htm#Smoking%20Sausage

Mike

[winemakers]

Some more details may help.  (First a question: five hundred pounds? wow, thats alotta critter!)

what type of meat, eg: pork butt, mixed red meat, venison, top round, etc.  All leads to initial fat content of your sausage mix.

In conjunction with that, at what temperature are you smoking?  Greater than about 152 and you will render fat from the meat, leading to the dreaded shrinkage.

Do you use any kind of binder, soy, dried milk etc.  These are proported to reduce shrinkage, although I have never side by side experimented.

[Wildcat]

Welcome to the forum Ducth!

[acords]

Some more details may help.

Yep, what he said.  I've found that sausage smokes best if you start around 110 degrees, and step up the temp by 10 degrees as your internal temp rises.  For me, 152 is the absolute highest internal temp on finished product.  Post some photos of your finished product as well as your smoking procedure and I'm sure someone can help you out.  Good luck, and keep on trying.

[iceman]

winemakers and acords are on the spot IMO. I might add that you do have to keep the fat content up a bit or no matter what you do you'll end up with a wrinkled link. I don't recall reading anything in the healh food section of the store about the benifits of a good polish! :D Commercial outfits do add soy extenders which are for retaining moisture. Nothing wrong with it for the most part. They also usally smoke cook the sausage in a steam injected smoker with liquid smoke atomized to get the color and flavor then ice shower it for a bit before letting it hang to blume in a refer unit then into the vac seal. The quality of casing also matters. I've gotten some that was almost impossible to work with and others that worked like a dream. Make sure the casing is properly soaked and rinsed before stuffing so it can shrink around the meat while hanging to dry before smoking. Then right out of the smoker to the shower. Humidity is important too while in the fridge to hang and cool. I think I have the best results around 25/30 percent but can't swear to that cause I usually have a few cold ones by that time of day :D ;D :o ;) Heck as long as it tastes good you're on the right track. Have fun no matter what the case.

[Habanero Smoker]

If you are looking to cut down on the fat in your sausage, sometimes I make a low fat Italian sausage using lean pork and adding cooked rice to replace the fat. The cooked rice aids in retaining moisture, and as a flavor carrier. So you may be able to add cooked rice to your current recipe to maintain some of the moisture. The recipe I use calls for 4 pounds of lean pork (pork loin), but you may be able to adjust the amount of rice into your current recipe to suit your own taste.

Preheat oven to 375°F. In an oven proof pot combine 1 cup of Carolina Rice with 2 cups of water. Bring water to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. Spread rice out on a cookie sheet, and into a refrigerator until cool. Combine the cooked rice with the meat, other seasonings and mix well before grinding. I believe this amount of rice is about the same as one pound of pork fat in a sausage recipe. If using pork butt, you may not want to use as much rice.

Don't ask why you should cook the rice in an oven. That's the way the chef taught the class how to do it, and I didn't get a chance to ask him why in the oven and not on the stove top?

[coyote]

Hey Dutch , Good to have you in the gang. The Ice water shower is important. Sometimes you need to
do it longer than other times to get the internal temps down fast enough.
    Another thing to watch is to make sure to keep your casing good and tight while your filling it. It really
makes a difference. Keeping it tight will put more product in the casing , stretching it a little for an extra
tight fit. Love that high speed beef. 8)
                                                                    Smoke on,
                                                                            Coyote
                                             

[Gizmo]

Hey, I did cold showers in the Navy.  No hot water heater after leaving port from San Diego to Hawaii on West Pac.  Was sure glad that the water was warmer the closer we got to Hawaii.  But I got to tell ya, the cold water didn't STOP SHRINKAGE (or wrinkling).  For reference check out Seinfeld's episode when George came out of the pool. :o

Guess the sausage has something special.

[acords]

Hey, I did cold showers in the Navy.  No hot water heater after leaving port from San Diego to Hawaii on West Pac.  Was sure glad that the water was warmer the closer we got to Hawaii.  But I got to tell ya, the cold water didn't STOP SHRINKAGE (or wrinkling).  For reference check out Seinfeld's episode when George came out of the pool. :o

Guess the sausage has something special.

;D ;D ;D ;D

[coyote]

It shrinks ???....."I don't know how you guys walk around with those things " Says Elaine :D :D :D

[West Coast Kansan]

  :D  ;D  :D