First sausage - Too Salty - Leggs Blend 29

[lazymlazyk]

Last night I started making my first batch of sausage. 1:5 ratio of venison/pork butt. Would have liked to have more venison in the mix, but due to time restrictions, this is all I had trimmed up. Used Leggs Blend 29 added to the 25 pounds of ground meat. Meat was ground course, then ground fine. After fine grind, seasoning was sprinkled on the meat, then mixed in really well by hand. REALLY well - my fingers were freezing. Plan on packaging half as bulk and half into hog casings for fresh sausages for the grill. Didn't get to that last night because I ran short on time, but did fry up a couple patties in the pan to test the flavor. To me it tasted alot like what you would expect sausage on a breakfast pizza to taste like - not bad to me.

Here's my problem:

I don't usually care for a ton of salt with my meats, and this was very salty to me. Is there any way to dumb-down the saltiness? Would like to do this (if possible) before packaging for the freezer.

 

[daveomak]

I wrote AC Leggs awhile back... Asked for the amounts of stuff in their Hot Italian seasoning.... I got this back..
8 oz. = 227 grams of seasoning... at 73% salt, that's 166 grams of salt...
25#'s = 11,350 grams of meat...
166 / 11350 = 1.5% salt....
The salt should NOT have been noticeable unless you are hyper sensitive to salt...
Did you add any other things to the meat ???
You could have not got it mixed thoroughly enough or found a "salt" pocket in the mix..

Next batch, may I suggest you add the seasonings to the cubed meat and run it through the grinder per normal... That will insure a good homogenized mix...

For now, grind more meat and add it to the mixed stuff... Maybe 1 0 - 15#'s more meat.... Too salty is bad....

 

[lazymlazyk]

I wrote AC Leggs awhile back... Asked for the amounts of stuff in their Hot Italian seasoning.... I got this back..
8 oz. = 227 grams of seasoning... at 73% salt, that's 166 grams of salt...
25#'s = 11,350 grams of meat...
166 / 11350 = 1.5% salt....
The salt should NOT have been noticeable unless you are hyper sensitive to salt...
Did you add any other things to the meat ???
You could have not got it mixed thoroughly enough or found a "salt" pocket in the mix..

Next batch, may I suggest you add the seasonings to the cubed meat and run it through the grinder per normal... That will insure a good homogenized mix...

For now, grind more meat and add it to the mixed stuff... Maybe 1 0 - 15#'s more meat.... Too salty is bad....


View attachment 379881

Thanks Dave. It's strange, I usually add a ton of salt to my other foods (I know, not the best for my health, but it is what it is). I wouldn't say I'm hyper sensitive to salt. I suppose it could be that it's not mixed as well as I thought it may be. This is my first time making sausage solo. The only other time I've made it was last year at a friend's house, but he handled all of the ingredients, working from a family recipe. I just ran the grinder and stuffer. Anyway, I fried four patties last night and they all tasted the same to me.

I haven't added anything else to the meat other than the Leggs Blend 29 mix. I'll try just adding a few more pounds of meat tonight and see if that helps. Next time I will definitely add the mix between the two grinds, that's a great idea! Would it be a bad idea to run this all through the grinder plate with the kidney shaped holes? Working with a new LEM #8 Big Bite. Sorry for all the annoying questions, I'm just trying to learn!

 

[daveomak]

I add the stuff to the chunked meat... then grind....
Twice through the kidney plate... that would leave you with some chunks that would give the sausage some tooth texture.. Personally, I like that over a hot dog grind...
For the fat, I grind it through a small plate so the fat is distributed throughout the meat really good..
You can also try adding a bit of sugar to compensate for the salt... I would avoid adding more than 1% sugar... maybe try 1/2% sugar and see where that gets you..
Here are some handy charts.... click on them to enlarge...

 

[crazymoon]

LML, It is funny as I always thought that Leggs seasonings were too salty for my taste also.

 

[daveomak]

Leggs could have screwed up their calculations... Cut the seasoning in half, next time, and add some herbs and spices you like... Be sure to weigh the packet of spices to make sure their "automatic" weighing - packaging machine wasn't on the fritz...

 

[BGKYSmoker]

What pork butt did you use? Smithfield butts are injected. You can add soy protein, potato starch and even some buttermilk powder (fermento) or Sako in the baking section in the store.

 

[lazymlazyk]

What pork butt did you use? Smithfield butts are injected. You can add soy protein, potato starch and even some buttermilk powder (fermento) or Sako in the baking section in the store.

Hi Nepas! The pork butts I used are packaged at my local grocery store, nothing fancy. No injections or anything, just straight up pork. I ended up adding another 8.4 lbs of venison last night and it tasted way better to my wife and I. Total meat came out to 20 lbs. pork and 13.4 lbs of venison - 33.4 lbs of meat, using a seasoning packet made for 25 lbs. Will be stuffing and packaging down tonight. Will add some pictures after deer hunting this weekend! Rifle opener is this Friday at noon!