More Columbian Santarosano Chorizo (St. Rose Sausage)

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The last time I attempted to follow I I-am-Chorizo 's recipe, I minced the meat a bit too much. So I wanted to try a batch that really has chunks of meat in it. I also wanted to experiment on a lot of other things:
  1. How a dice of half the meat impacts this recipe
  2. Fine-T collagen casings. I'm hosting a sausage party and I'm considering using a hot-dog roller to have a lot of sausage readily available. The idea being to make a fine-quality sausage but put into a straight casing so it can work on the roller. I ordered 30mm Fine-T casings to test this out. I want to see how the compare against natural, and will split into cohorts and cook differently to try out. .
  3. Leveraging granulated garlic instead of roasted garlic.
  4. Increasing spice amounts (generally following D Dave in AZ 's recipe except for the wine and cherry tart powder for my antioxidant).

Here's how it goes:
1718079859730.png


The above is the pre-grind chunks and the diced meat. I did try to show a preference to dicing lean out of habit and because it simply felt like the right thing to do for "show meat."

This is from pork shoulder butt, but it looked a tad lean so I supplemented with 70g of pork back fat for a total of 1000g meat (was 1070, but I lost 70 in the grinder, which worked out fine for me).

1718079997747.png


Here's how it looks after the grind (500g dice, 500g ground), with the ingredients and prepped casing.

The amounts per 1000kg I used were:
  • 15g salt
  • 1.5g black pepper
  • 2.3g paprika
  • 4.4g granulated garlic
  • 15g green onions
  • 7g cilantro
  • 2.5g cure #1
  • 0.5g sodium erythorbate
  • 0.4g cherry tart powder (subbing for ascorbic acid from D Dave in AZ recipe translation)
  • 30g water (subbing for Wine from D Dave in AZ recipe translation)
1718080292347.png


Normally when I add minced meat, I add a bit of binder, but since it's not in this recipe, I didn't use it and paid extra care with protein extraction.

1718080316139.png


The paddle mixer didn't do as well as it normally did. Possibly because less water than usual at 30g or possibly because of large chunks. I added another 10g of water to no avail, so I got in there with my hands to finish the job. Looks extracted.

1718080421674.png


I then stuffed into the natural casing and Fine-T casing (since I was going to experiment more with Fine-T, that's why I did more of that one).

1718080488313.png


Here's the obligatory post-stuffing patty burger:

1718080525335.png


Since I had more fat in the dice than I usually allow for, I was worried at this point that I would bit into some unappetizing gristle or whatever but it was delicious as usual. The chunks of meat added a bit of extra texture that I liked and felt appropriate. I think the dice worked!!

However, I did find that the garlic flavor was a bit more muted than last time. I think I'll go back to the roasted garlic. As for the increased spice amounts, I think as the spices stand out more, the cilantro / green onions stand out less. I think this is slightly less ideal, as I really liked the "pop" of the fresh ingredients. That being said, they also get more muted anyways as the sausage ages, so I'm on the fence. I think there's a sort of beauty with this recipe with the fresh ingredients on one side contrasting with a typical well-flavored sausage -- I love the duality there, so I sort of want the fresh ingredients to remain strong (which is why I skip the wine). That being said, I think it's in the realm of preference. Either way, with more or less spice it's still really good.

Letting them rest overnight in casings and will smoke em tomorrow.
 
The last time I attempted to follow I I-am-Chorizo 's recipe, I minced the meat a bit too much. So I wanted to try a batch that really has chunks of meat in it. I also wanted to experiment on a lot of other things:
  1. How a dice of half the meat impacts this recipe
  2. Fine-T collagen casings. I'm hosting a sausage party and I'm considering using a hot-dog roller to have a lot of sausage readily available. The idea being to make a fine-quality sausage but put into a straight casing so it can work on the roller. I ordered 30mm Fine-T casings to test this out. I want to see how the compare against natural, and will split into cohorts and cook differently to try out. .
  3. Leveraging granulated garlic instead of roasted garlic.
  4. Increasing spice amounts (generally following D Dave in AZ 's recipe except for the wine and cherry tart powder for my antioxidant).

Here's how it goes:
View attachment 698705

The above is the pre-grind chunks and the diced meat. I did try to show a preference to dicing lean out of habit and because it simply felt like the right thing to do for "show meat."

This is from pork shoulder butt, but it looked a tad lean so I supplemented with 70g of pork back fat for a total of 1000g meat (was 1070, but I lost 70 in the grinder, which worked out fine for me).

View attachment 698706

Here's how it looks after the grind (500g dice, 500g ground), with the ingredients and prepped casing.

The amounts per 1000kg I used were:
  • 15g salt
  • 1.5g black pepper
  • 2.3g paprika
  • 4.4g granulated garlic
  • 15g green onions
  • 7g cilantro
  • 2.5g cure #1
  • 0.5g sodium erythorbate
  • 0.4g cherry tart powder (subbing for ascorbic acid from D Dave in AZ recipe translation)
  • 30g water (subbing for Wine from D Dave in AZ recipe translation)
View attachment 698707

Normally when I add minced meat, I add a bit of binder, but since it's not in this recipe, I didn't use it and paid extra care with protein extraction.

View attachment 698708

The paddle mixer didn't do as well as it normally did. Possibly because less water than usual at 30g or possibly because of large chunks. I added another 10g of water to no avail, so I got in there with my hands to finish the job. Looks extracted.

View attachment 698709

I then stuffed into the natural casing and Fine-T casing (since I was going to experiment more with Fine-T, that's why I did more of that one).

View attachment 698710

Here's the obligatory post-stuffing patty burger:

View attachment 698711

Since I had more fat in the dice than I usually allow for, I was worried at this point that I would bit into some unappetizing gristle or whatever but it was delicious as usual. The chunks of meat added a bit of extra texture that I liked and felt appropriate. I think the dice worked!!

However, I did find that the garlic flavor was a bit more muted than last time. I think I'll go back to the roasted garlic. As for the increased spice amounts, I think as the spices stand out more, the cilantro / green onions stand out less. I think this is slightly less ideal, as I really liked the "pop" of the fresh ingredients. That being said, they also get more muted anyways as the sausage ages, so I'm on the fence. I think there's a sort of beauty with this recipe with the fresh ingredients on one side contrasting with a typical well-flavored sausage -- I love the duality there, so I sort of want the fresh ingredients to remain strong (which is why I skip the wine). That being said, I think it's in the realm of preference. Either way, with more or less spice it's still really good.

Letting them rest overnight in casings and will smoke em tomorrow.
OMG...this is gonna be good! Really wanna see that cut-shot
 
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My prior batch of snack sticks took a while longer to finish than I had thought, so I didn't start smoking these guys until about 10PM. After 1AM or so, I took them out, gave them a sous vide for 30 mins at 153, cooled in ice water for 10mins and let rest for 30mins at room temp.

Here's how they looked during resting:

1718184553040.png


Then I thought to myself: "It's 2:10AM, I suppose I can finish these tomorrow..." and then I thought better of it and got to searing.

To sear, I've been putting a little oil in a pan and setting temp to Medium-Low with a bacon press resting on the link. It facilitates browning and helps prevent splitting, especially on collagen casings. The Fine-T casing didn't sear as well visually as a natural casing, but it developed a nice crispy skin (possibly because I seared it a bit too much).

Here's the cut pics:
1718183995012.png


You can actually see the chunks of diced meat in there! They appear as the more purple spots. What's interesting is that in the pre-smoked test, the chunks had a more noticeable mouthfeel. Now, they're still noticeable, but also much more consistent. I think I preferred it more when it was more pronounced, but it's definitely still an improvement to 100% ground. I sort of look forward to noticing the chunks when eating it.

1718184019266.png


Also unlike my pre-smoked test, I noticed the garlic and fresh ingredients were as pronounced as they were in my last batch. So I take back what I said earlier about increased spices and granulated garlic -- I think they're just fine in this recipe and don't result in muting the fresh ingredients. So possibly I just had an odd link, or more likely, the flavors took a bit of time to disperse properly. To be honest, I couldn't really tell much difference between this batch and the last, flavorwise (but texturally, this one is better).

Will do a few more tests on cooking the Fine-T casings. So far, I'm cautiously optimistic since I managed to get a good snap on them and they didn't split (or even separate during cooking, which is just terrible. There's *nothing* worse than an unbound collagen casing: somehow tough and chewy at the same time. eww.).

Next time I make this, I think I'll try to reduce the salt amount. That's about the only adjustment I can think of for next time.

OK, back to sleep :)
 
Last edited:
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Respected Sir...In my regionally biased opinion (and those heretical collagen casings aside)...this is the Real Deal, this is Royalty! :emoji_laughing: I am glad that you could notice the texture vs all ground version. I hope more fellows embrace the conservative St.Rose sausage doctrine:emoji_joy:.
Haha, I love that you called the collagen casings "heretical." I was literally thinking the same thing as I made these. At least I made a couple links with natural casings... ;)

And yes, I think you can say I officially embrace the conservative St. Rose sausage doctrine. :)
 
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Reactions: I-am-Chorizo
I I-am-Chorizo What does the doctrine say about cooking method? How do you like to cook your St. Rose sausages?
It is curious because before getting to know the virtues of the smoking process I used to cook my chorizos in a charcoal grill (Being this the traditional method descended from heaven that most street vendors use) but after understanding smoking, I just toss them in a hot pan or my "plancha" for a few minutes...so, heresy has also pervaded the sacred way of the St.Rose sausage here.
 
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