So this last weekend, I smoked some sausage again. I've done it a couple times now, and this time, the texture was a bit...hot-dog-like. Don't get me wrong, I love a good hot dog from time to time, but I don't want my sausage to be of hot dog consistency (hard, yet, easy to mush with your fingers, know what I mean?). The first couple batches I'm pretty sure I did the same thing as this one. I mixed and mixed and mixed my meat until it felt super sticky, then I mixed a little bit more, adding about 8 oz of water to 10 lb of sausage total. (8 lb of meat, 2 lb of fat, and about 8 oz of water, not to mention the 90g of seasoning).
I realize there could be millions of things that could cause different textures, etc., but can anyone point me in the right direction of understanding how this batch came out with such a firm texture? I like my smoked sausage to have a bit of "crumble" to it... You bit in, and the bite looks a bit jagged-ish, or you can break it in half and it doesn't look perfectly uniform. This sausage, when you bite into it, it leaves a trail of your teeth down the meat. Hard to explain without pictures, but hopefully you get what I'm saying haha..
I realize there could be millions of things that could cause different textures, etc., but can anyone point me in the right direction of understanding how this batch came out with such a firm texture? I like my smoked sausage to have a bit of "crumble" to it... You bit in, and the bite looks a bit jagged-ish, or you can break it in half and it doesn't look perfectly uniform. This sausage, when you bite into it, it leaves a trail of your teeth down the meat. Hard to explain without pictures, but hopefully you get what I'm saying haha..