sausages

I'm not sure if this post belongs here, or in the "post pictures of your food", but I chose this forum. Please move if needed.

Now, it's before Christmas here in Norway, freezing cold, colder than usual, today we're talking -4 degrees. WSM at full pelt.

Fullversjon: http://sportsfiske.nu/foto/arkiv/44632/110625.jpg

Smoking at 150 degrees.

Fullversjon: http://sportsfiske.nu/foto/arkiv/44632/110626.jpg

The pork belly is cheap, and it's the perfect time to make sausages. I'm still learning, I made three batches, two were very nice, and the third one was OK, edible, but could have been better. There is so much to learn, and so many possible mistakes to make!
Well, since I at the moment have the biggest freezer in the world right outside, it was easy to keep the grinder, bowls and meat very cold.
I used three recipes, one based on the basic "charcuterie"- book, salt, pepper and so on, and added garlic and basil. Very nice. I also used the Jacktwürst- recipe, and since I have tasted the result- that’s a keeper!


Fullversjon: http://sportsfiske.nu/foto/arkiv/44632/110627.jpg

Jacktwürst to the right.
On to the problem. I mixed the other two meats yesterday, leaving them in the fridge overnight. I realized that I had about 5 meters of spare casing, so I thawed some moose meat, bought some pork fat, and made up some moose sausages.

Salt, juniper berries, chrushed pepper, chrushed rose peppers, mustard seeds, and fresh unions.

Fullversjon: http://sportsfiske.nu/foto/arkiv/44632/110623.jpg

The taste is good, but I’m not impressed at all with the structure. I think you can see the "structure- problem in the picture. I kept the meat cold, as well as the grinder, the bowls and so on. Or so I think.



The question is- is the missing “curing-period” over night in the fridge the problem with the structure? I dried the casings in my stove, with the heat element set to “off”, the fan was on for about forty minutes, to save some time, since it was quite late.
Fullversjon: http://sportsfiske.nu/foto/arkiv/44..."curing time", or "Too short drying period".?

I'm not sure if I'm seeing it or not. Am I looking at sort of holes? Or am I looking at chopped ingredients - like onions?

Might they have cooked too much?

The 2 first dogs looks great i might have to take a trip to norway and get some advice from you Geir.

Did you grind the meat twise?

@ what temp did you pull them?

Geir,
If mistakes were made, I'd like to help you get rid of them!
They look great!

The problem with the moose sausages is not the taste, it's the structure of the sausage. The small holes is a part of it, I think. They are not as "creamy" as I would like. The white parts are chopped union. Would it help to add milk powder?

Wolgast- meat ground once, half of it with the big hole plate, and the other half with the small hole plate. Pulled at 65 degrees celcius.

By texture do you think it's too grainy? i.e. did you want chunks or a smooth even/consistent texture.

You might want consider emulsifying the sausage next time you make some. That would involve keeping a food processor bowl and blade cold and when you've mixed the sausage ingredients place some in the food processor and pulse it until you have a smooth texture. This is what's done for many sausages.

Yes, it's too grainy. I used a frozen bowl and a blade on my food processor, and kept the mixture cold. Maybe it was a bit warmer than the other two, because of shorter cooling times. I made the last mixture on the same day that I stuffed and smoked the sausages. All the sausages was smoked during the same cook.

Geir,
What I meant was that after you run everything through the meat grinder then you place it in a food processor and let it run until you have a smooth "creamy" paste. This is the emulsification process.

The reason you want to chill the food processor is so that the fat and meat blend, but the fat doesn't start to melt. If it does it's possible for the mixture to break resulting in a not so good outcome.

If you did the food processor step then you didn't do it long enough. Some people (like me) that don't have a food processor use the Mixer with paddle attachment to accomplish the same task, but the food processor is a better way to do it.

Thank you for the helpful comments.
I have read about the process, and I ran the mixer for about three minutes. I have mixed meat, fat ands salt "sticky" for many years, and I can see when the "magic" happens.

The two other mixtures were prepared in the same way.

I have read about emulification process in "Charcuterie", but did not dare to try it this time, because I had no chrushed ice, nor a IR thermometre. I just wonder why the other two mixtures came out great, and the last one quite grainy, but not so grainy as my first attempts years ago, where I had no knowledge about the importance of temperature.

What was your proportion of lean to fat? Graininess is usually a lack of fat, sometimes combined with too high a finish temp.

It's a bit hard to give a correct number, because of the meat. I do not know the fat content of the moose, but I know it's next to nothing. I had four pounds of moose meat, and 0,8 pounds of lard.

That would be 20% of fat, if the moose meat is totally free of fat, which it is not, after some googling I would estimate fat content to 5%. A bit less than I expected as a total.
It could be the answer to the grainy texture. I was thinking that the missing night in the fridge had something to do with it, but this introduces another option.

You used actual lard, i.e., rendered pork fat? Not very good for sausage.

Use regular fat trimmings, belly fat or fatback (fat from the back, under the skin). If we're dealing with a language difference and you used fresh fat (not lard) then up the percentage to 25-30%.

Btw, if moose meat is trimmed of visible fat the fat content remaining is <1%.

Sorry for the language difference, not rendered pork fat, but trimmings. I used fat trimmings, and ground them once on the coarse plate, chilled, an then dropped in a chilled bowl, and then placed outside until it was frozen half stiff. Actually I am quite aware of the fact that "cooked fat, rendered from fatty meat" is no good in sausages.
Even if I feel somewhat confident in writing english, some of the more specialized words and expressions poses a problem.

I have done some investigation on Norwegian sites, and the fat content on moose minced meat is estimated to 3-5%. But as this is not a commercially made product with regulations on fat content, it could vary quite a bit.

Most moose meat in Norway is not sold in stores, but from a friend to another friend and so on. Vets are involved in the process, taking samples and so on, but I do not think there's any regulation regarding fat content. Bacteria and hygiene, yes, fat, no limits, as the fat content is almost nothing.

It looks like the fat content could be the reason for the missing smooth texture. A bit too low.

Yes, I am thinking the same thing. Too low.

Assume the moose fat level is at the very low end and use 25-30% fat. See what happens.

Your written English is quite good. I suspected that your use of 'lard' might be different which was why I wrote what I wrote. Here, 'lard' is pork fat that has been rendered till it is liquified, strained, then chilled till firm. It is still soft even when chilled - somewhat like butter. It's used for baking, especially for pie crusts and biscuits. Lard making.