what went wrong?!

[netspyder]

so, my brother's birthday rolled around, and i stuffed 25lbs of brats and made 30lbs of pulled pork. the pulled pork was on point, and it's a good thing too. the brats were all beef with pork back fat added. they were awful - not only did they sit in the warmer too long and get all dried out, the casings popped and curled, making them kinda weird to eat. i'm racking my brain trying to figure out what went wrong. any ideas from folks with more experience than me?

 

[indaswamp]

over cooked at too high a temp. would be my guess....could also be the meat and fat was not below 32*F when you put it though the grinder...

 

[tallbm]

so, my brother's birthday rolled around, and i stuffed 25lbs of brats and made 30lbs of pulled pork. the pulled pork was on point, and it's a good thing too. the brats were all beef with pork back fat added. they were awful - not only did they sit in the warmer too long and get all dried out, the casings popped and curled, making them kinda weird to eat. i'm racking my brain trying to figure out what went wrong. any ideas from folks with more experience than me?

All the fat melted out.

The question is, did all the fat melt out when you cooked them or did it melt out when they were sitting in the warmer. No matter the case, this sounds like the classic example of losing all the fat.

 

[bmudd14474]

Can you give us the exact process you used to make them including ratios and ingredients. This will help identify the issue and give recommendations.

 

[Coreymacc]

Agreed, if you made them as fresh (no cure) or with cure makes a lot of difference how cook them. Fresh sausage with natural hog casing doesn't like low and slow. It makes the casing chewy and rubbery, then you mentioned dry out, that may have been the icing on the cake. Dried out rubbery casing.

More information is needed.

Corey

 

[mneeley490]

That happened to me the first time I tried making brats. The fat cooked out, and the insides were dry and mealy.

 

[netspyder]

Can you give us the exact process you used to make them including ratios and ingredients. This will help identify the issue and give recommendations.

yep - 20# lean ground beef. unsure of the ratio of that, it's the grind from the steer i bought. when i pan cook it there's no fat to drain off, so i'm thinking 5% or less fat. 5# pork back fat sent through the small die then mixed with the ground beef using a hand crank mixer. seasoning from LEM added, and 10% water by weight. mixed until tacky, then stuffed into collagen casings, cut into links, and popped into the fridge to cook the next day.

no cure added. fresh sausage. cooked over direct heat charcoal. i know why they dried out... but every single casing split and curled, giving a weird mouth feel. the casings split and curled the same way when i braised a couple brats as well

 

[SmokinEdge]

out... but every single casing split and curled, giving a weird mouth feel. the casings split and curled the same way when i braised a couple brats as well

Split casing is to high internal temp. Manage your temps and gain better sausages

 

[chopsaw]

popped into the fridge to cook the next day.

Did you cover them in the fridge ?

 

[hoity toit]

pricking with a toothpick of sausage pricker keeps them from splitting