Homemade Sausage Making

Hi everybody,
I am an Australian living in Thailand, most of my Expat mates that live here are from England and as normal with everyone they miss some of the comfort food from home after an extended stay overseas. I started making Cumberland Sausages for them years back they are now a favorite of mine as well. I had no idea of what a Cumberland Sausage tasted like or the texture it should have but I hit the nail on the head with the recipe I came up with after months of research. While waiting on my 7kg Stainless Steel Sausage Stuffer to come in from China. I started collecting the spices of which some are almost impossible to get here it took months to find some and I had friends bring some from Australia as I could not find them here. I think I read almost every recipe I found on the net for making them over that long wait, but finally the Sausage Stuffer arrived 45 days after payment and I had most of the spices. After taking the quantities of meat, rusk/breadcrumbs etc. into account from the recipes I had read I began blending all the spices I could come up with and then adding my own blend of spices that may not be traditional but is what I came up with for my own unique Cumberland Sausage recipe. I had no idea how they would taste but knowing the spices I used and their flavours and quality of the meat I had a good idea of the outcome. They turned out to be a big hit with everyone, with the rating from the guys and girls as better than from back home. The taste reminded me of the Sausages I would drive 300klm round trip to purchase in bulk from a small country butcher in Benalla Victoria sadly as it goes he closed due to the large supermarkets opening in the town. Now I have many people who want these sausages and are willing to wait until the next batch is made and pay for the quality that I make. I have been offered a permanent ongoing large quantity order from a restaurant near by for my Cumberland and Bratwurst Sausages but to date have declined as Sausage making to me is a hobby not a business.

Well the next saga has raised its head, Richmond Sausages my English mates favourite sausages they can't stop raving about them and how good they are they say they are crap but they love them anyway. They say they grill them in the oven and eat them with fresh bread rolls and fried onions and mustard, and also make Toad in the Whole another mystery to me as I have no idea what that is. Once again I have no idea what a Richmond sausage taste like or anything about them. From what I have read they are just the lowest end of sausages, mushy with 42% meat and fat and a lot of crap to fill them, most probably like what is in an Australian Banger/BBQ sausage that started being produced early 1900's due to lack of meat during the first world war and filled with rusk/bread, or other fillers to make them go further. Has anyone got a recipe as there is nothing I can find on the actual ingredients and spices used? It is quite unusual there is nothing about them on the net other than how bad they are and reports of their lack of meat.

I never heard of them as I am in Canada but some searching I would say they are a very cheap breakfsat sausage type of texture. I know I would never even feed this to my dog
That being said This is all the info I could find on the sausage. Yuuck


Richmond sausages contain less meat than most.
I found a site where there was an analysis of the additives used.

Richmond sausages contain the following additives:

? E450 - You wouldn`t expect sausages to contain added water but these low-meat (51%) sausages are practically dripping with it. The water is held in place by E450, a chemical which `solidifies` the mixture

? E412 - an emulsifier which helps to hold fat and water together (the meat in these sausages is almost half fat); ? E300 and E307 - antioxidant vitamins which stop the fat content turning rancid. This givesthe product a long shelf life before it becomes unpalatable;

? E223 - a sulphite preservative which keeps the sausages safe to eat and prolongs their shelf life. Some people find that sulphites provoke shortness of breath and asthma;

? E128 - to disguise the low meat content these sausages have
been coloured with a synthetic chemical Azo Dye called Red 2G.

I did find this post where a sausage close to the Richmond Sausage was mentioned. I might be close but I really don't know for sure.


"So, the girls thought it had a bit too much mace, and a bit too much marjoram for the sage, but they said the texture was spot on. I made my own rusk using the Economy Rusk recipe, and it made nice crumbs in the food processor. I had no rind available, nor back fat for this batch, so I substituted more shoulder. Not as fatty as might otherwise be the case. Here is my first attempt at this sausage. Next time I will reduce the marjoram, mace, and possibly the nutmeg. The girls were very excited and enjoyed the making and eating of the batch. They said the texture and flavor got closer and closer to their memory over the next two days.

1205 g pork shoulder
109 g back fat
540 g Water
29.6 g Kosher Salt
358 g rusk
2.9 g white pepper
6.0 g black pepper
4.1 g nutmeg
2.4 g mace
2.9 g ginger
4.8 g marjoram
6.4 g sage

I used a 1/2" plate for primary grind, added rusk, seasoning and water, and finished with a 1/4" plate. The smallest casing I had was 29/32 mm hog, so I used that.



Recipe for an economy rusk follows

Rusk (Economy)

Ingredients
1 lb (450 g) plain/all purpose flour or bread flour/strong flour
(pinch) of salt
5 tspns (25 ml) DOUBLE ACTING baking powder (see note below)
6 1/2 - 8 3/4 fl oz (185 -250 ml) water

Note: 1 tspn (5 ml) baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and 2 1/4 tspns (111/4 ml) cream of tartar may be substituted for the baking powder.

Method
Preheat oven to 450 °F (230 °C)
Sieve the flour, salt and DOUBLE ACTION baking powder together.
DO NOT ADD ALL OF THE WATER but just enough to make a smooth, pliable dough (all flours vary)
Roll out lightly to approximately 1/2" (12 mm) thick then place on a lightly greased tray
Place in oven on the middle shelf and bake for 10 minutes at 450 °F (230 °C)
Remove from the oven and using the tines of a fork split in half along its thickness
Place back on tray with the opened faces upwards
Return to oven
Reduce the heat to 375 °F (190 °C) and bake for a further 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
When cool using the large holes of a grater reduce to 1/8" (3 mm) particles.
Store in airtight container and use as required "

I am not the greatest fan of mace and nutmeg in sausages. I could not eat that with that volume of nutmeg and mace. There is also a lot of rusk, water (taking into account the amount of rusk, which I think can take up to one and a half times its weight of water) and salt

I do not know if this is all true. Richmond sausages are not a traditional British sausage. They sound like they are a supermarket created sausage made from mechanically recovered meat high in additives and preservatives and use lots of herbs etc to cover the lack of flavour from the small amount of meat used. They use rusk to give the sausage texture. One site claims they contain about 54% meat.

Ya heard its as low as 41% which is even worse. Like I said I would not even feed this to my dog. Maybe my ex wife but not my dog

Barry, thanks for bringing the subject of Richmond sausages up for discussion. Richmond sausages are not a distinct type of sausage like "Cumberland" or other British or heritage sausages. Richmond is the name of the manufacturer who concocted their own version of a British sausage. And in looking at the ingredients posted on their website, http://richmondsausages.co.uk/sausage-range/12-thin/ this product is precisely why Wedliny Domowe (Homemade Charcuterie) came to exist. We are a community of hobbyists not only working on learning and honing the craft of sausage making, but also rediscovering or discovering the taste of sausages the way they used to be made. And before the big profit driven outfits started making sausages, traditional charcuterie did not include the phosphates, sulphites, vegetable proteins, colourants, pink slime, mechanically separated poultry, etc.

We have the same excuse for sausages sold in North America, check out the thread and links provided here: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=7259

Everytime I'm at a supermarket and I spend a lot of time reading the ingredients on sausage labels (drives my wife crazy), and I shake my head. And, yes I know people eat this stuff and actually like it!

So Barry, why not start making some traditional British sausages, rather than trying to imitate that chemical potpourri? Devo's recipe actually does not contain the additives that the commercial variety does, so you might want to give it a shot.)Markjass will give you a hand since he is studying this subject and British sausages are under represented here. Once your pals discover sausage the way it's supposed to taste, they will never pine for Richmond again!