I like sausages. I grew up with all types of sausages, some better than others. But none were ever home-made and over the last few years, I have been wondering more and more about the content of those commercially produced sausages? So, these week, when we made sausages from scratch at culinary school, I was very exited and couldn't wait to get started. The 3 main ingredients are lean meat, fat and salt. In addition to that one can add spices, herbs and other cooked or uncooked flavorings. We decided to produce two types; a sweet and spicy Italian sausage and a maple flavored Breakfast sausage.
We started off with 11 lbs of pork shoulder that had to be separated into lean meat and fat. The reason the fat and lean meat is separated is that one can weigh each precisely. We prepared sausages with the most common ratio of 70% lean meat and 30% fat. There are products out there who will have a lower ratio of lean meat vs fat (up to 50% : 50%) and there are low-fat products that may have only 10-20% fat. The interesting thing I learned about those, is that the missing fat percentage is replaced with cereal-based fillers such as rice, barley, bread crumbs etc which will obviously not only change the taste of a sausage but also it's nutritional value.
Once we had created the right lean meat - fat ratio, we mixed in spices and a curing agent. That mix was chilled in the refrigerator until we were ready to grind it. When making sausages it is important to continuously keep the meat AND the grinding equipment chilled. If the mixture gets too warm, the risk is that the fat becomes soft and starts to lose it's structure. Which in turn means it may melt more easily during the cooking process, creating a dry, shriveled sausage.
After the meat had been ground and mixed further, we returned it to the refrigerator and let it cool overnight. The next morning we set up the sausage feeder and prepared the natural casings for the sausages. Natural casings are made from animal intestines and in our case we used pig casings. They are supplied packed in salt which is acting as a preservative and hence need to be rinsed and flushed through. Trust me it sounds worse than it is.
When that was all done we started filling the casings which is quite an art in itself. They cannot be filled too much otherwise they split but also shouldn't have too much air in them because it will make the sausages 'spit' and burst when cooking. We eventually became quite skilled at the process and produced a number of different shapes as you can see in the pictures. It turned out to be good fun and it is quite satisfying seeing one's work taking shape; literally.
We decided to poach the sausages before putting them on the grill so we would know that they were cooked all the way through without being too charred on the outside. We were advised by our Chef Instructor to inspect the sausages and pierce any air pockets we could find. That worked out very well. None of the sausages burst during the poaching process. The poaching liquid included a bay leaf, a clove of garlic and a quarter onion which gave it just a little bit of flavor. It takes about 10 mins or so (depending on their thickness) for the sausages to cook all the way through without overcooking them, in which case there is a danger that they will become dry.
Now it was time to switch on the grill and give the sausages a bit of color. Don't they look tasty!?!?!
One other way to use sausage meat is obviously to turn the mixture into patties or as in my case into sausage gravy. I had decided to prepare biscuits to go with the sausages but had no experience with sausage gravy. It is a classic Southern breakfast dish and I needed help. So, under the guidance of my Chef Instructor, I prepared the sausage gravy, which is basically a white Bechamel sauce with minced sausage meat. A very foreign concept to me, but after a few tastes I started to see why one could be fond of it. The final gravy certainly received the thumbs up from people who where more familiar with it than I am.
And so we had a very happy breakfast with lots of tasty sausages, sausage gravy, yummy biscuits, and satisfied students and teachers. As I said, who doesn't like a home-made sausage?
One more thought. The added bonus of a
Communal Breakfast Day is that the students from the 'Baking&Pastry' track are usually very grateful to get some food and reciprocate by sharing some of their goodies.
On mornings like these, life can hardly get better.
Have a great week and happy eating.
Once we had created the right lean meat - fat ratio, we mixed in spices and a curing agent. That mix was chilled in the refrigerator until we were ready to grind it. When making sausages it is important to continuously keep the meat AND the grinding equipment chilled. If the mixture gets too warm, the risk is that the fat becomes soft and starts to lose it's structure. Which in turn means it may melt more easily during the cooking process, creating a dry, shriveled sausage.
After the meat had been ground and mixed further, we returned it to the refrigerator and let it cool overnight. The next morning we set up the sausage feeder and prepared the natural casings for the sausages. Natural casings are made from animal intestines and in our case we used pig casings. They are supplied packed in salt which is acting as a preservative and hence need to be rinsed and flushed through. Trust me it sounds worse than it is.
When that was all done we started filling the casings which is quite an art in itself. They cannot be filled too much otherwise they split but also shouldn't have too much air in them because it will make the sausages 'spit' and burst when cooking. We eventually became quite skilled at the process and produced a number of different shapes as you can see in the pictures. It turned out to be good fun and it is quite satisfying seeing one's work taking shape; literally.
We decided to poach the sausages before putting them on the grill so we would know that they were cooked all the way through without being too charred on the outside. We were advised by our Chef Instructor to inspect the sausages and pierce any air pockets we could find. That worked out very well. None of the sausages burst during the poaching process. The poaching liquid included a bay leaf, a clove of garlic and a quarter onion which gave it just a little bit of flavor. It takes about 10 mins or so (depending on their thickness) for the sausages to cook all the way through without overcooking them, in which case there is a danger that they will become dry.
