Homemade Sausage Making

I made chicken Hotdogs and used "The Sausage Maker Fat Replacer". After cooking and looking at the appearance of the inside of it I have decided I made a mistake adding the product before emulsifying the meat. I ended up with a whipped raw sausage that had many small air pockets in the finished sausage. The taste was like chicken sausage I had before so that was not impacted, only the texture was. It has a very soft bite.

The taste of this chicken hotdog, while better than commercial products, is not one I like. I have always preferred turkey products to chicken.

If you like chicken hotdogs the fat replacement works well but I would recommend adding it after emulsifying the meat, mixed with water to eliminate the whipped air pocket soft texture. Click on picture to see the texture up close.



Chicken Hot dogs

5 lbs. meat from chicken legs and thighs
1/2 lbs. chicken fat and skin
1 tsp Cure #1
2-1/4 tsp salt (not iodized)
3/4 Tbs white pepper
2 tsp mace
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
5 tsp Fat replacement
1/4 cup ice water

Grind the skin and fat (nearly frozen) through the small 1/8" plate. Refreeze the mixture and run it through the grinder once again. Grind the poultry meat through a 3/8" plate. Alternately, you may wish to use a food processor to emulsify the meat, fat, and skin. Combine the mixture with the remaining ingredients and develop the primary bind. Stuff 32 mm hog casings into a "rope" or twist links in the length of your choice. Smoke the links using thin smoke inside a preheated 120° F. smokehouse, raising the temperature only a few degrees every twenty minutes for the period of 3 hours. Finish the cooking process by poaching the sausages in water heated to 175° until the internal meat temperature reaches 155°F. Immediately place the sausages in ice water for a few minutes. Be sure to keep the sausages refrigerated.

I made chicken basil sausages once ... only once. Used pork fat in the recipe. Tasted good but the texture can't compete with pork. I guess I am not too keen on chicken sausages. I'm thinking chicken is best eaten as a fresh meat, not processed.

Btw, if you are going to make chicken sausages, consider using thighs. They are the dark meat like the leg and you can get them in big bags already boned.

Chicken sausage is one of the recipes that is 'in the rotation' in our house. Using chicken thighs ground with chicken fat & 'some' skin (all nearly frozen at grind time) is a very practical (cheap!) and easy protein source.
The particular recipe I use ("Thai Chicken sausage") uses cooked white rice as a binder and helps keep the sausage firm, juicy and with a pleasant soft 'bite.'

http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=5166

-Kevin

Whenever I have used chicken for sausage I have simply substituted chicken for pork and followed the recipe. I don't believe that fat replacer is justified when using chicken as the fat has a low degree of saturation.

I used to boil the skin, bones and carcass from the chicken breasts I de boned for the dogs. Now I'll save the skin, fat and juice for sausages.
How'd you get such a fine grind for hotdogs. Like to try it but my equipment isn't commercial grade. Thanks in advance.

I used a food processor in emulsifying it.

From what I've been reading on various sites, seems that it's tough on the processor. No offense, if it works. What kind of processor, as it may be in my future. Thanks.

Ive stopped emulsifying sausages in my food processor. It does the job just fine-nice, smooth texture, but I find it less-than-ideal for several reasons:

1. It's a bigger mess; more to clean up
2. It requires careful monitoring of the meat to avoid fat-smear due to over-processing
3. It requires the addition of ice/ice water during the mix to avoid the problem listed in #2
4. It usually requires multiple processing loads as most home-processors won't hold 5-10 pounds+ of meat mixture.

I prefer to use a fine (3.0) plate on my grinder for a FINAL grind and run the meat mix at least once (2x if necessary) to achieve a fine, uniform texture in the final product. Most times, one time through is enough. No additional clean-up necessary as the grinder is already in use from previous coarser grind(s).

Fine plate:


Results in a uniform texture without the processor emulsifying:


Kevin

Cooking the meat from the bones is frugal. Saving the broth and canning it is more so, saving the rendered fat for cooking is good. Dogs can easily handle the skeleton bones but not the leg and wing bones.
Swansons chicken broth sells for a dollar per quart. You need good broth to make good gravy.

NorCal Kid wrote:
Ive stopped emulsifying sausages in my food processor. It does the job just fine-nice, smooth texture, but I find it less-than-ideal for several reasons ...

I prefer to use a fine (3.0) plate on my grinder for a FINAL grind and run the meat mix at least once (2x if necessary) to achieve a fine, uniform texture in the final product. Most times, one time through is enough. No additional clean-up necessary as the grinder is already in use from previous coarser grind(s).

You mentioned this in one of your other posts. I though about it -- it made sense something mechanical was emulsifying frankfurters before food processors were invented.

Problem is finding a 3mm plate for a #10 grinder.

3.0mm plate; #10

http://www.onestopjerkyshop.com/meat-gr ... p-303.html

http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php ... 30b9fab822

NorCal Kid wrote:3.0mm plate; #10

http://www.onestopjerkyshop.com/meat-gr ... p-303.html

http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php ... 30b9fab822

Thanks. I guess mincer plates are made all the way down to 1.5mm for those desiring the ultimate emulsification. I wonder if you would jump from a first emulsify at 3mm to the ultimate emulsify at 1.5mm.

http://www.lumbeck-wolter.de/enterprise_en.html

NoCal, that looks wonderful.

Kevin mentioned that you need to add ice water to your base mix when using a food processor, however, I'd also recommend doing the same when doing a multi-grind through progresively smaller plates. Depending on the grinder heat can easily be transferred from the motor to the throat/auger also causing smear.

All you have to do is add the ice water mix with the meat during the regrind and let the machine take care of the mixing for you.

I froze these sausages to wait for other products to smoke. Today I smoked them along with cured ribs, and pastrami. What a difference! The sausage firmed up and the smoke flavor makes them quite good.