Best practices for sausage making

[daveomak]

Don't cover the air vents to the motor....

 

[crankybuzzard]

He mentioned that, but still good advice Dave.

 

[indaswamp]

Here is another great tip. To clean small dia. grinding discs - which we all know are a royal PITA to clean -

View media item 533272
I use a Q-tip with one end cut off. Simply pass the Q-tip through the holes which pushes the plug of meat paste out, then pull the cotton end through the hole. This gets any remaining meat paste stuck to the plate.

I use SS plates, but for you guys running Carbon steel plates that can't run them through the dishwasher, this will save you a lot of headaches! You might need 3~4 Q-tips as the cotton tends to strip off after 10 or so holes once the cotton gets wet. Also depends on the size of the holes, this works perfectly on 6mm holes.

 

[chipnputt]

When i have a sausage recipe without curing salt, how mush do I reduce the kosher salt. For 5#, it calls for 2 Tbsp kosher salt. So I'm adding 1 tspn pink salt but don't want to add the full amount of Kosher.

 

[indaswamp]

When i have a sausage recipe without curing salt, how mush do I reduce the kosher salt. For 5#, it calls for 2 Tbsp kosher salt. So I'm adding 1 tspn pink salt but don't want to add the full amount of Kosher.

Cure salt is fine grained and denser. 1 tsp. of cure #1 salt will weigh more than 1 tsp. of kosher salt. So it will not be an equal exchange by volume using measuring spoons. Best way is to weigh the cure salt, then subtract that amount of kosher salt.
Cure #1 is 93.75% table salt so I will use the weight given for table salt in my reply. The weights will be very close.
1 tsp. of Kosher salt weighs about 4.8 grams while 1 tsp. of table salt weighs about 6 grams.

So, you would need to remove 1 1/4 tsps. of kosher salt for each tsp. of cure you add.

Someone else can check the math, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

 

[indaswamp]

2.Continue cooking until the internal temperature of the sausage is 152°.

point of note: when cooking meat-especially pork or fowl- below 165*F, there is a time component at which you must hold temp. in order to properly ensure the meat is sterilized and bacteria is killed. I cook sausages to 154* and hold that temperature for 12 minutes as per the USDA recommendation. I do not remember the time for 152*, but it is significantly longer than 12 minutes. Times get shorter the higher you go and once you reach 165, the time is instant.

I'll see if I can find the pasteurization charts.

 

[Old goat]

I liked that very much will try it this fall on deer meat

 

[Cj7851]

Great information looking into making smoked sausage for the first time this year. This will.be a great help.

 

[hoity toit]

AMEN Brother.

 

[daveomak]

Pasteurizing is not sterilizing.... There are still spores etc. that are alive..

Temperature Time ...... Temperature Time
°F (°C) (Minutes) ..... °F (°C) (Seconds)
130 (54.4) 112 min ...... 146 (63.3) 169 sec
131 (55.0) 89 min ...... 147 (63.9) 134 sec
132 (55.6) 71 min ...... 148 (64.4) 107 sec
133 (56.1) 56 min ..... 149 (65.0) 85 sec
134 (56.7) 45 min ...... 150 (65.6) 67 sec
135 (57.2) 36 min ...... 151 (66.1) 54 sec
136 (57.8) 28 min...... 152 (66.7) 43 sec
137 (58.4) 23 min ...... 153 (67.2) 34 sec
138 (58.9) 18 min ...... 154 (67.8) 27 sec
139 (59.5) 15 min ...... 155 (68.3) 22 sec
140 (60.0) 12 min ...... 156 (68.9) 17 sec
141 (60.6) 9 min ...... 157 (69.4) 14 sec
142 (61.1) 8 min ...... 158 (70.0) 0 sec
143 (61.7) 6 min
144 (62.2) 5 min
145 (62.8) 4 min
Table C.1: Pasteurization times for beef, corned beef, lamb, pork and cured pork (FDA, 2009, 3-401.11.B.2).

 

[indaswamp]

Pasteurizing is not sterilizing....

Good catch Dave, thanks.

 

[Biggy1]

Cure salt is fine grained and denser. 1 tsp. of cure #1 salt will weigh more than 1 tsp. of kosher salt. So it will not be an equal exchange by volume using measuring spoons. Best way is to weigh the cure salt, then subtract that amount of kosher salt.
Cure #1 is 93.75% table salt so I will use the weight given for table salt in my reply. The weights will be very close.
1 tsp. of Kosher salt weighs about 4.8 grams while 1 tsp. of table salt weighs about 6 grams.

So, you would need to remove 1 1/4 tsps. of kosher salt for each tsp. of cure you add.

Someone else can check the math, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

So for 10 lbs. I use 11.3 grams of cure # 1 and kosher salt list 80 grams then what amount should be subtracted ?

 

[daveomak]

Salt additions should be weighed to have consistency between types of salt

Salt Type ..........................................Weight of 1/4 cup (grams)

Morton’s Table Salt..................................... 76.0
Morton Pickling Salt.................................... 74.0
La Baleine Coarse Sea Salt.........................66.8
La Baleine Fine Sea Salt............................ 64.8
Morton’s Kosher Salt.................................. 62.0
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt..................... 45.2
Maldon Sea Salt......................................... 33.2

 

[indaswamp]

So, I'll add this here...
I use frozen bread to run through the grinder when I finish grinding the meat to push all the meat through the grinder and clean out the auger, Well, I was out of frozen bread last batch of sausage I made...crap! I looked around in the freezer and found some hot dog buns I threw in there and forgot about...Perfect! Matter of fact-they actually are perfect! The round shape fits perfectly into the throat of a #12 grinder!So from now on, I'll buy the cheapest hot dog buns I see and keep those in the freezer for sausage making!

 

[indaswamp]

I'll add this here as well...good read for advanced sausage production:
http://www.afdo.org/Resources/Documents/pubs/Safe-Practices-Sausage-Production_04-14.pdf

Really starts getting to the nuts and bolts about page 20...