Sausage Spice Blend Question

[Bud J]

I just started making my own sausages and had a question. Many recipes call for mixing your ground meat and spices and let sit overnight so everything can meld.. THEN, stuff the next day.

But, if you stuff the same day and let completed sausages sit overnight, isn’t that the same thing?

 

[crazymoon]

B, IMHO the spices permeate the mix better by sitting in the fridge overnight. The only set back is the mix stiffens up. Water maybe needed to be added in to make the mix flow better for stuffing, especially with small stuffing tubes for snack sticks. I have mixed and stuffed the same day also if time is short.

 

[Winterrider]

I just started making my own sausages and had a question. Many recipes call for mixing your ground meat and spices and let sit overnight so everything can meld.. THEN, stuff the next day.

But, if you stuff the same day and let completed sausages sit overnight, isn’t that the same thing?

I do this often, does the same thing.

 

[tropics]

Tried it both ways and I couldn't tell the difference in taste, just a little tighter stuffing
Richie

 

[chopsaw]

I've done it both ways . Always better after sitting , but I think it blends better unstuffed . I do mine over 3 days most of the time now . De-bone , trim and cube 1st day . Grind season and mix day 2 . Then stuff on day three .

 

[zwiller]

Very debateable IMO but I think as long as you don't go from grinding to cooking same day you should be fine. I do what is convenient and similar to chopsaw but do another good mix right before stuffing to loosen it up a bit.

 

[SmokinAl]

I like Chopsaws method, never tried it that way. I always just do a double grind mixing in the spices in the second grind, then stuff & refrigerate overnight. It always has good flavor, but I’m very willing to give a different method a try. As said above especially if your using smaller casings you probably will want to add some water before stuffing or your gonna get a bunch of blowouts.
Al

 

[chopsaw]

I base mine on a couple things . Meat pack date / sell date , and clean up . I clean completely after each step . If the meat is close to the sell date , I want to get the seasoning on it the first day . Even if I don't grind , I season the strips / cubes . Then grind the seasoned meat the next day . I really like the outcome of that .

 

[sawhorseray]

I always do 25-30 pound batches, and used to pull the whole affair off in a single day. Like chopsaw I like to clean up after every step, and I no longer even try to get everything done in a day. I think grinding and mixing then letting the meat sit overnight in the fridge before stuffing does let the flavors tend to marry up a bit, and it's a lot easier on my old bones. RAY

 

[tallbm]

I mostly do like 60-100 pounds of sausage at a time so by the shear nature of my operation I end up grinding, mixing, stuffing, linking all in one day and into the fridge.
The next day I cut links and vacuum seal and grill anything I plan to eat (even grill the cured sausages cause I dont have time to smoke).

Now I have done all of that in a single day with a small batch and smoked them in the same day and flavor was fine.

So for me everything is driven by time and size of the operation. Most of the time I don't have the luxury of extra days and it all has to be done in the allotted time I have for the job. Lot's of planning for me.

You should be fine either way you go :)

 

[pebble5]

As a similar question, when is the right time to spice?

I have seen people frequently doing cube, chill, grind, (chill again?) then spice (and maybe grind again?) and mix. But the method I first tried following called to cube, chill, spice, grind, chill, add liquid, mix.

I've been tossing my spices with the cubes before grinding with the theory that will spread them out better. But I'm a super newb at sausage (2nd time making cased ones tonight!). Does it make little difference and is just personal preference? Volume processing at a time? Or am I missing something where one is at least semi-objectively better?

 

[bill ace 350]

As a similar question, when is the right time to spice?

I have seen people frequently doing cube, chill, grind, (chill again?) then spice (and maybe grind again?) and mix. But the method I first tried following called to cube, chill, spice, grind, chill, add liquid, mix.

I've been tossing my spices with the cubes before grinding with the theory that will spread them out better. But I'm a super newb at sausage (2nd time making cased ones tonight!). Does it make little difference and is just personal preference? Volume processing at a time? Or am I missing something where one is at least semi-objectively better?

Personal preference, as long as it gets mixed evenly, in my opinion.

 

[zwiller]

+1. I think the emphasis on steps are really to remind guys to keep it cold for safety and quality. Real easy to forget on large batches.

 

[chopsaw]

Took some pictures awhile back . In this case I did season the meat chunks before grinding , because it was bought on the sell by date . So I wanted to get the salt and seasoning on it right away . Then it went into a 36 degree fridge overnight .

Next morning I took the meat temp right out of the fridge
before grinding

Then again as soon as the grind was finished .
That's a # 12 - 2/3 HP grinder . Only took a minute to grind that 5 lbs.

All mixed in . You can see the change in texture .

I only took the temps for the sake of getting the pictures , but you see the temp rises pretty quick . I don't usually season then grind either . I just do that if the meat is close to date and it might sit a day or 2 before I grind it .

 

[daveomak]

2 Guys and a cooler, on U-Tube, have some awesome videos... and they know what they are doing.. They follow good "safe food" practices....
Personally, I don't care for "hot dog" texture in my sausage, so, what I do to overcome that...
Grind all the "almost frozen" fat first through the medium plate then the smallest plate and put back in the freezer... You want fat really cold or frozen so it does not smear....
Grind all the meat through a medium plate so the meat has some texture... about an 8-12 mm plate... Then I take 1/2 the ground meat and grind through a smaller hole plate...
The meat and fat and spices go in my meat mixer and mix until it gets "sticky", and stuff...
Doing this, when you bite into a sausage, it is a homogeneous mix with flavors distributed very well and there is some "to the tooth" texture from the larger grind of meat...
Adjust hole sizes and % amount of meat, in the different grinds, to suit your taste...

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Damn

I been doing it wrong all these years.
D'OH

 

[tallbm]

As a similar question, when is the right time to spice?

I have seen people frequently doing cube, chill, grind, (chill again?) then spice (and maybe grind again?) and mix. But the method I first tried following called to cube, chill, spice, grind, chill, add liquid, mix.

I've been tossing my spices with the cubes before grinding with the theory that will spread them out better. But I'm a super newb at sausage (2nd time making cased ones tonight!). Does it make little difference and is just personal preference? Volume processing at a time? Or am I missing something where one is at least semi-objectively better?

I think you can do it either way as the guys are noting.

I personally don't season before grinding. Again I am also working with some pretty large volumes (large for 1-2 man operation in 2 days).
I also don't grind twice because I find my mixing has always broke it down even more so never had the need. This also saves a TON of time.

Now I season after because I use a bucket or a cooler with the meat in it. I mix the seasoning in using a 10amp drill and a long mud mixer paddle to do like 20 pounds at a time hahaha.
When doing this much of my seasoning gets mixed with water/liquid AND it is easy to measure out the amount of seasoning and cure.
Finally I know FOR SURE that the cure is getting mixed in well since I season and mix at this point. This also allows me to move fast to where I can even smoke that same day but that only happens if i do like a small 5-10 pound batch of sausage. Most times the meat sits in fridge overnight and stuffing happens the next day.

This gives you some more options so you can figure out how best to work with your setup, time tables, and volumes :)