- Oct 30, 2020
- 10
- 4
As an accomplished cook I dove into my first sausage making attempt (all beef kielbasa) with great confidence... oops. It's mealy as heck. Can this be fixed or do I write off the whole batch? What is stuffed in done and will be used for chili. There is another 15# all mixed in my freezer waiting to be stuffed.
I've read several posts here and am putting in the effort to learn well. I built my own recipe, love the flavor but the low salt content may be part of the problem, only 2 teaspoons per 5#. I am not using cure.
Lean to fat ration is a solid 70/30. I chopped my meat into 1-1/2" cubes, chilled them to semi frozen, tossed with mixed spice and ran thru a fine grind. Added 1/2 cup red wine vinegar and 1 cup water (the water and vinegar were not chilled, a mistake. I thought the meat was too cold/firm to stuff and needed to warm a little). I hand mixed quite a bit but the mixture was not creamy/sticky at all, rather crumbly in the pan (my inexperience). The liquid wanted to pool in the low spots.
My best guess is I need to add more salt, chill my liquid before adding and mix the heck out of the meat until it gets sticky. My question is, at this point can anything be done to salvage the the other half of my batch that is in the freezer? Can I add another teaspoon of salt to another cup of cold water and mix again? Once the proteins and fats have "broken" can they be mended?
I've read several posts here and am putting in the effort to learn well. I built my own recipe, love the flavor but the low salt content may be part of the problem, only 2 teaspoons per 5#. I am not using cure.
Lean to fat ration is a solid 70/30. I chopped my meat into 1-1/2" cubes, chilled them to semi frozen, tossed with mixed spice and ran thru a fine grind. Added 1/2 cup red wine vinegar and 1 cup water (the water and vinegar were not chilled, a mistake. I thought the meat was too cold/firm to stuff and needed to warm a little). I hand mixed quite a bit but the mixture was not creamy/sticky at all, rather crumbly in the pan (my inexperience). The liquid wanted to pool in the low spots.
My best guess is I need to add more salt, chill my liquid before adding and mix the heck out of the meat until it gets sticky. My question is, at this point can anything be done to salvage the the other half of my batch that is in the freezer? Can I add another teaspoon of salt to another cup of cold water and mix again? Once the proteins and fats have "broken" can they be mended?