Bacon in sausage

[mr.twister]

Just curious about putting bacon into a sausage, as it has already been cured and smoked. then adding more cure to the sausage mix then smoking them is that bad. Or should I just mix the bacon into fresh sausage. Just curious

 

[DougE]

I do some sausages with included bacon. Just base your cure amount on the weight of the uncured meat.

 

[mr.twister]

That’s what I was hopeing and the cure doesn’t affect the bacon tast or anything

 

[SmokinAl]

If you cure the sausage & add bacon as an ingredient, I don’t see any problem there.
Al

 

[thirdeye]

Really be mindful of getting a good bind, especially if the chunks of bacon are large. The link in the foreground is a German sausage with bacon.

 

[mr.twister]

Man thirdeye them sausages look good I did a practice run and made some hamburger paddy’s with some bacon ground in and high temp cheddar and home cured bacon next will be some bacon cheddar dogs

 

[Fueling Around]

Always good questions.
Best result is what you like for taste and texture.
Your burgers looked good but the texture was very coarse. I've had the same problem.
I don't use high temp cheese in burgers. I want the cheese to melt out.
In smaller sausage size high temp cheese is very chunky. I prefer to crumble it out.
When adding bacon, I dice pretty fine to make the mix better

 

[mr.twister]

Yea I agree on the coarseness might send it threw twice next time but still a fun and tasty learning experience

 

[DougE]

What bacon sausages I make, I combine the rest of the pork with the bacon and grind it together. I use trim from bacon I've made and cube it up to grind. I occasionally just run some bacon trim through a medium plate by itself and add it in meatloaf.

 

[Nefarious]

What bacon sausages I make, I combine the rest of the pork with the bacon and grind it together. I use trim from bacon I've made and cube it up to grind. I occasionally just run some bacon trim through a medium plate by itself and add it in meatloaf.

Awesome idea, meatloaf will be my next bacon recipticle. Then I have to increase my production.

 

[DougE]

Awesome idea, meatloaf will be my next bacon recipticle. Then I have to increase my production.

Well, the first time I had cured and smoked a hunk of bacon for Taylor ham and had more than I needed, so I figured why not grind the rest and add it to my meatloaf mix? It's delicious.

 

[JckDanls 07]

I would suggest mixing seasoning and curing the meat first.. and then mix bacon (and cheese, if any) in right before stuffing... Not sure what would happen to bacon under a second cure...

 

[DougE]

I would suggest mixing seasoning and curing the meat first.. and then mix bacon (and cheese, if any) in right before stuffing... Not sure what would happen to bacon under a second cure...

Nothing, from my experience. I don't know of a taylor ham recipe that calls for separating the bacon and adding it in later. There may be one, but I haven't seen it. I just grind the bacon and pork together and use only enough cure#1 for the uncured weight. It comes out tasting like the taylor ham from the store.

 

[JckDanls 07]

I don't know of a taylor ham recipe that calls for separating the bacon and adding it in later.

My Bad.. I didnt know the OP was referring to Taylor ham... I thought he was just asking about putting bacon in sausage in general ...

 

[DougE]

My Bad.. I didnt know the OP was referring to Taylor ham... I thought he was just asking about putting bacon in sausage in general ...

Taylor ham is a sausage.

 

[zachyweezer]

I've used bacon in a pinch to up my fat content. It works, but it's an awfully expensive way of supplementing the percentage. The last time I did it, I had run out of pork fat and had just a little too much lean going in a summer sausage I was making. I didn't factor in the bacon when I was doing the math for my salt and cure, but did include it when figuring amounts for things like garlic, paprika, etc.

 

[DougE]

I've used bacon in a pinch to up my fat content. It works, but it's an awfully expensive way of supplementing the percentage. The last time I did it, I had run out of pork fat and had just a little too much lean going in a summer sausage I was making. I didn't factor in the bacon when I was doing the math for my salt and cure, but did include it when figuring amounts for things like garlic, paprika, etc.

The only sausages I make with bacon are ones that I want bacon in. Never use it for the fat content.

 

[DougE]

That’s what I was hopeing and the cure doesn’t affect the bacon tast or anything

I wouldn't expect the cure added to the rest of the meat in the sausage to have any effect on the bacon. The bacon already has a higher salt content than the rest, so the salt isn't going to move into those meat particles unless you were to use a higher salt content than the bacon had to start with.

 

[zachyweezer]

The only sausages I make with bacon are ones that I want bacon in. Never use it for the fat content.

The bacon ends and pieces needed to be used, and I had no fat, pork or otherwise, in the freezer. But hey, at over five bucks per pound for the cheaper brands (compared to like $.90 for pork fat), I agree that going out of your way to use bacon solely as a means of upping your fat content is pretty silly.

 

[DougE]

Nothing wrong with using what you have. I usually use bacon trim to flavor beans, and stuff like that but yeah, if I needed the fat for some sausage and that's all I had on hand. Ground bacon trim makes a nice addition to meatloaf too.