Adding water to sausage

[Chris1234]

Rookie question...I see in just about every recipe for brats, or just about every other kind of sausage, you’re supposed to add water/beer or some sort of liquid. What does that do? Is it supposed to make it easier to mix all your spices? Easier to grind/case? Add moisture? Thanks!

 

[Gwanger]

Rookie question...I see in just about every recipe for brats, or just about every other kind of sausage, you’re supposed to add water/beer or some sort of liquid. What does that do? Is it supposed to make it easier to mix all your spices? Easier to grind/case? Add moisture? Thanks!

some sausage makers use cold ice water to make a slurry with spices when adding to meat and others chunk up meat and add spices and add ice water later. It is to add moisture to stiff meat making it easier to stuff into casings and keeping meat cold,important to keep meat cold as possible

 

[daveomak]

Add all your stuff to the meat... and mix by hand or mixer... add the water and mix again, then stuff.... then rest in the refer overnight... If you don't stuff, the meat will stiffen up and make stuffing difficult... You want the meat mixed to the point, the proteins start to break down and form a "glue"... helps to make a sausage that is NOT crumbly and poor texture...

 

[jimmyinsd]

i mix my seasonings into the water and then pour over the ground meat and mix by hand, you will know when to quit mixing because the color becomes uniform and the consistency gets very tacky like daves picture above. I think I use about 1 cup of ice water (not just cold, but ice cold) to every 5# of meat, maybe a bit more if I am making snack sticks because they are pretty stiff to be pushing out the little stuffer tube.

 

[SmokyMose]

I usually do the mix the day before with no water and let it sit covered overnight in the fridge before stuffing the next day, adding a bit of water the next day depending on how stiff the mix is (wetter definitely makes it easier to run through the tube, especially with stix). You're going to add water if you use NFDM or ECA anyway right before stuffing. I'll use a slurry if I'm mixing and stuffing the same day, just to get the cure mixed better because it doesn't have a night to work.
Like said, the mix is right if it's so tacky it wants to pull the gloves off your hands.
Bottom line? Follow the directions in the recipe for now. After a while you'll find your own groove.
Welcome to Sausagemaking :-)

 

[Chris1234]

You guys are awesome. I’ve been making it for a few months now but have always skipped that step (laziness I guess). I guess I was hoping it was for moisture purposes. Every time I make it, it comes out dryer than I’m looking for. I always do 3 lbs meat/1 lb fat ratio. I surely don’t need to go any higher than that on the fat do I? Sometimes I’ll smoke it and do the 100 degrees for the first hour, then slowly bump it up each hour. Other times I’ll just simply grill it and still the same results.

 

[crazymoon]

C1234, IMHO a 3-1 mixture would be sufficient,are your smoker temps too high resulting in fat out? I never go above 170* and I have tested my smoker to make sure the temps are accurate.

 

[tx smoker]

"Rookie question...I see in just about every recipe for brats, or just about every other kind of sausage, you’re supposed to add water/beer or some sort of liquid. "

Chris....if you don't ask the questions, you'll forever be a rookie :-) I've always believed, and enforced with people that I've been a manager for over the years, that the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

Prior to starting my hobby of sausage making, I read reams of information, from here and from several of the country's top sausage makers. The common thread among all of the information sources is that there are three primary ingredients in sausage: meat, fat, and liquid. From there it's a matter of which meat(s) you use and your spices. I add liquid (beer, ice water, etc) a little at a time while mixing until the meat starts to slurry, as stated by Dave above. The meat has the correct moisture content when you can take a gob of it, stick it to the palm of your hand, turn your hand over, and the meat sticks. You can reach this point without adding moisture but it'll mean mixing the meat until it's completely emulsified...in essence turned into pate'. At this point, you have "broken" the farce and lost all textural integrity. Some meats (like bologna) are meant to be prepared this way but not most of your mainstream sausages. Keep asking the questions and you'll learn more here than you ever imagined possible....and be prepared to expand into many other avenues of home prepared meats. Once you get comfortable with sausage making you'll gain confidence to start into other things, any of which you can find the methodology for here in SMF. This is a great place to call home :-)

Hoping to help a bit,
Robert