sausage texture

ursula · Post by **ursula** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 07:46

Hi all,
Just wondering.
Today I fried up the most wonderful Italian sausage I have ever tasted. It was plump, juicy and delicious.
Why is this sausage (fresh ) so juicy, while those I cold smoke and poach to the required IT so dry?
I stick to the required fat content.
Must be something else I should try. Any suggestions?
Regards Ursula

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 08:13

Ursula would you provide more details. What was the recipe you used for the Italian sausage? Was it "fresh" style Italian sausage? Also, could you provide some exact details about your "cold smoking". By cold-smoking, are you making a semi-dry cured product by prep-cooking it? Need some more details sweetie! How are your folks doing?

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 14:04

I had similar results with a batch of sausage that I smoked in a cold smoker for 4 hours and then poached to 150°F. The fat broke and accumulated inside the casings as streaks. I believe that I raised the temperature too slowly and that allowed the fat time to render.

ursula · Post by **ursula** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 01:07

Hi CW,
I followed the Marianski recipe to the letter with my Italian sausages, adding some aniseed to the mixture as well. They were sensational, and definitely will be repeated many times. Half the batch was sweet;the other half hot. Very tasty!
With regards the frankfurters, I can only cold smoke.With my first lot I didn't do any prep cooking at all, merely cold-smoked them for three days, a few hours at a time (probably far too much), never exceeding 70 odd degrees. That probably dried them out a bit too.
The last lot were better - I only smoked them for a couple of hours, but the texture was still too grainy.
In both cases I also poached them after cold smoking in water to reach the internal IT required, but perhaps, as Ross suggested, I did it too slowly, as the IT took quite a while to be reached. I am questioning whether I should have bothered to poach them at all, since they were cured; perhaps they would have retained more moisture and texture if I had simply frozen them, since, after all, they will be cooked to eat anyway>
Regards Ursula

ursula · Post by **ursula** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 01:10

And thank you CW,
My parents are doing fine, although my poor mum, who has had a bad stroke, was crying yesterday when she dropped her nearly completed jigsaw puzzle.
Makes your heart melt.
Ursula

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 02:24

Hi Ursula,
You wrote,

"I can only cold smoke. With my first lot I didn't do any prep cooking at all, merely cold-smoked them for three days, a few hours at a time (probably far too much), never exceeding 70 odd degrees. That probably dried them out a bit too."

Cold smoking is usually used on air-dried sausages because of the moisture loss. In the semi-dry and dry-curing, the moisture loss is desired. However, when you are making a cured-cooked-smoked sausage, more retention of moisture is desirable. This is when hot-smoke is used and cooking becomes part of the smoking process. Less moisture is lost and the process is very much shorter, usually only an hour or two.

You also wrote:

I am questioning whether I should have bothered to poach them at all, since they were cured;

Okay sweet lady, remember that curing (with sodium nitrite) destroys cl.botulinum et.al (bacteria). The reason these same sausages are cooked is to destroy the possible infection of trichinella spiralis - a living, nematode worm microorganism. Cooking also destroys other undesirable microorganisms in meat as well, so never omit the prep-cooking process and always make sure the temperature exceeds 138 degrees Fahrenheit (59°C.).

Tell your sweet mum to get a hammer and nail down each piece of the puzzle as soon as they snap in place. Then it doesn`t matter if the puzzle gets dropped!

Keep up the good work kid!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

ursula · Post by **ursula** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 04:02

Thanks CW,
That makes good sense. So next time I try franks I will prep-cook first, then smoke briefly. I'll also use a bit more ice water, and emulsify longer.
I'll be interested in how they turn out.
Regards Ursula

Post by **redzed** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 07:16

I did the same thing this summer. Made some Hungarian style sausage which was to be cold smoked and then cooked on the grill. Well I loaded up my A-Mazen smoker tray and went to bed. The sausages cold smoked for 11 or 12 hours. They ended up way too dry and did not grill well. Live and learn.