Pork Sausage Question

Mark_B_Good

Hey guys, I'm making fresh pork sausages tomorrow.

I'm getting mixed information on the fat content we need in the sausage.

Last time we made them, I found they were a little dry after grilling them. We want to make sure they are moist.

What fat content do you guys aim for to get them nice and moist?

Any other suggestions to make them moist? Some guys apparently add some wine.

Thanks.

ColtsFan

Paging @lkapigian

fishlessman

i like to simmer them in a castiron with about a quarter inch of water til bloated and ill looking, then onto a hotter grill to finish quickly. cover when simmering, then burn them

Foghorn

When I make sausages with @The Cen-Tex Smoker, @20stone, and @caliking, we usually aim for 28-30% fat.  Some recipes also call for some added moisture - water (best added as chipped ice or an ice slurry), beer, or wine.  These make for great fresh sausages that need to be fully cooked when they are prepared (as opposed to smoked sausages that are already "cooked").  When cooking a fresh sausage, the key is to cook it to about 150 degrees and no more.  After that they tend to start popping holes in the casing and losing all the juice.  

What recipe are you using?

lkapigian

Mark_B_Good said:

Hey guys, I'm making fresh pork sausages tomorrow.

I'm getting mixed information on the fat content we need in the sausage.

Last time we made them, I found they were a little dry after grilling them. We want to make sure they are moist.

What fat content do you guys aim for to get them nice and moist?

Any other suggestions to make them moist? Some guys apparently add some wine.

Thanks.

I shoot for 30 % myself ( most Boston butt is spot on, and just eyeball it ), but the moist aspect will come from your bind and cooking ( to many cook a fresh sausage hot and fast )…also add 5% moisture in the form of beer wine etc, ….non fat dry powdered milk will help bind and keep the sausage “ moist”  ( about 1-2%) try and get high heat treated non fat dry powdered milk, much of the shelf stuff is cold treated, it will work but not as well 

all of what @foghorn said

fishlessman

theres also cheating, when i make a sausage pepper sub i saute down the onion, green peppers, red peppers, long italian peppers, then dowse it with italian dressing and soak it. then at the end add things like pepperoncini, banana pepper, pepperdew etc to give it some crunch and bring back some flavor to make it pop. the italian dressing is the key, i use kens steakhouse but any well herbed italian will do, its adding flavor and fat afterwards

this is the difference between a ballpark sausage stand and a great italian deli shop. good sausage and peppers

Mark_B_Good

Foghorn said:

When I make sausages with @The Cen-Tex Smoker, @20stone, and @caliking, we usually aim for 28-30% fat.  Some recipes also call for some added moisture - water (best added as chipped ice or an ice slurry), beer, or wine.  These make for great fresh sausages that need to be fully cooked when they are prepared (as opposed to smoked sausages that are already "cooked").  When cooking a fresh sausage, the key is to cook it to about 150 degrees and no more.  After that they tend to start popping holes in the casing and losing all the juice.  

What recipe are you using?

I'm using a traditional Italian recipe ... nothing complicated. My dad lost his recipe, looked something online and seems to think what he found sounds right:

1.5 teaspoon of salt per lb of meat
0.5 teaspoon of black pepper per lb of meat

For half the meat, I'll add red chili pepper flake ... we like it hot, so I'll eye ball that, but probably 0.5 teaspoon of chili per lb of meat.

I'm still trying to figure out if I need to add some wine ... so 5%??  That's about 25 mL (just shy of an ounce) per lb. If I use wine, red or white? Or is it more about what I want to drink from what is left over?? LOL

lkapigian

Mark_B_Good said:

Foghorn said:

When I make sausages with @The Cen-Tex Smoker, @20stone, and @caliking, we usually aim for 28-30% fat.  Some recipes also call for some added moisture - water (best added as chipped ice or an ice slurry), beer, or wine.  These make for great fresh sausages that need to be fully cooked when they are prepared (as opposed to smoked sausages that are already "cooked").  When cooking a fresh sausage, the key is to cook it to about 150 degrees and no more.  After that they tend to start popping holes in the casing and losing all the juice.  

What recipe are you using?

I'm using a traditional Italian recipe ... nothing complicated. My dad lost his recipe, looked something online and seems to think what he found sounds right:

1.5 teaspoon of salt per lb of meat
0.5 teaspoon of black pepper per lb of meat

For half the meat, I'll add red chili pepper flake ... we like it hot, so I'll eye ball that, but probably 0.5 teaspoon of chili per lb of meat.

I'm still trying to figure out if I need to add some wine ... so 5%??  That's about 25 mL (just shy of an ounce) per lb. If I use wine, red or white? Or is it more about what I want to drink from what is left over?? LOL

wine you would drink , red or white, the red will color it more ( i use a dry wine)  --pro tip, put garlic cloves in your wine overnight, you will add a nice flavor to the sausage ( toss the garlic cloves ) 

your imperial measurements are pretty close, but metric is much easier down the road, salt should be 1.5-2% , that is the only must for sausage making, everything else is just seasoning ....up to .6 for your dominate spice .1-.3 for others 

BUFFALOMOOSE

@Mark_B_Good here is a sausage thread link.  Lots of good stuff there.

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1210397/sausage-recipe-thread-post-em-here#latest

Mark_B_Good

BUFFALOMOOSE said:

@Mark_B_Good here is a sausage thread link.  Lots of good stuff there.

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1210397/sausage-recipe-thread-post-em-here#latest

Whoa, lots of good info here! Thanks.

Mark_B_Good

All done! I used 2 pork shoulders, starting at 21 kg (bone in). Added 1.5 kg of fat per shoulder ... to get to about 30% fat content. That gave me about 22 kg of deboned meat/fat. Got about 1100" of sausages out, made half mild and half hot. Packed as 4 x 8" sausages, got 34 packs in total, or 136 sausages. They turned out great!! Like amazing.

The idea to drop some garlic in the wine overnight really worked!!

Mark_B_Good

So what should the dome temp be to cook sausages? 375F?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Mark_B_Good said:

So what should the dome temp be to cook sausages? 375F?

Low and slow. Like 250 max. I cook them at 175-200 until they hit internal temp of 155. You don’t  want to burst the casings and you don't want all the fat to render out before they are ready. I actually prefer to cook them
sous vide for an hour at 155 then chill and quick
sear 

lkapigian

Bombdiggity and what @The Cen-Tex Smoker said for cooking 

Griffin

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Mark_B_Good said:

So what should the dome temp be to cook sausages? 375F?

Low and slow. Like 250 max. I cook them at 175-200 until they hit internal temp of 155. You don’t  want to burst the casings and you don't want all the fat to render out before they are ready. I actually prefer to cook them
sous vide for an hour at 155 then chill and quick
sear 

I made some bratwurst this weekend and tried this method of Sous Vide at 155 (I let mine go longer as I wasn't sure what time we were eating, but read anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours was good.) They came out really good. This will be my sausage cooking method from here on out. It's a no brainer. 

Foghorn

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Mark_B_Good said:

So what should the dome temp be to cook sausages? 375F?

Low and slow. Like 250 max. I cook them at 175-200 until they hit internal temp of 155. You don’t  want to burst the casings and you don't want all the fat to render out before they are ready. I actually prefer to cook them
sous vide for an hour at 155 then chill and quick
sear 

Obviously he's right.  With that said, I like to brown the outside a little so when they get to about 130 internal I expose them to some direct heat (on the edge of the grate between the legs of the platesetter) and open the vents some to get them browned.

Mark_B_Good

Sopressatta is ready. 5 weeks and ready!

JohnInCarolina

You’re asking how to make your sausage moist, do I have that right?

johnmitchell

Nice @Mark_B_Good

lkapigian

Excellent!!