Homemade Sausage Making

Gulyas, those are some nice pictures of what I'm sure is an excellent product. I'm sure its the real deal. When I was at the meat market yesterday, it was early in the morning so I had the chance to pick the butchers brain. He said because here in Michigan they were not allowed to add blood to sausage. Instead he adds "Kitchen Bouquet" to his Kizska in order to give it that dark blood color. He claimed it doesn't change the taste, but I wonder about that.

Now Gulyas, I did pickup some Headcheese for my lunch next week and spent some time examining it. It does indeed have some nice square chunks of meat. My experience with making headcheese from years ago resulted in cooking the head until it was more or less falling apart. Once cooled, it could be handled and the meat separated from the bone and other waste. One thing I did remember very distinctly, is cooking the head for that long made the meat come off the head more or less in strands and not firm chunks. Thus we ended up with something that resembled exactly like bbq pulled pork. We then put it into bread pans to firm up at which time the meat all seemed to settle to the bottom of the pan. Thus my remarks in one of my posts above on how to ensure equal suspension of the meat throughout the mold or pan. Next week I do plan on using a beef bung and not the loaf molds.

I think you're going to tell me my first experience with making headcheese resulted in an "over cooked" head? How do you gauge to doneness of the head in order to keep the firm chunk and avoid the shredded meat???

Rick.

Yes, my opinion is, that you over cooked the meat, at first time. We call it pre-cooked. Like the steak, the meat has degrees, rare/medium/well done.
We have to keep in mind, that it's cooked twice. You do not want it well done, before you cook it second time, when you're combining the flavors. Go by internal temp.

So before it starts to "fall-off-the-bone", you're done with face one, separate the meat from bones, even if you have to use a knife.
Remember you want to make something that has a bite, instead of mushy.
Also the "the butchers brain" is one man's opinion, talk to couple more. What he said is based on whatever his taste was/is.

And my friend, maraschino cherries are (food)colored too.......

Kitchen bouquet is good stuff The taste straight from the bottle is of carmelized carrots if you taste carefully. Just a little goes a long way for coloring.

My kiszka is in the refrigerator, because I'm going to bake them soon for lunch.

Rick.

May I mention the fact, that the cooking liquid is "normally" dumped out, instead of freezing/saving it for a goooood bean soup ?

Gulyas,
I agree that the cooking liquid would make for a great bean soup. My wife saves all different drippings and grease to use down the road for a pot of chili or some soup. But before I discard or freeze the cooking liquid,especially from cooking my hogs head, I'd sure want to put it into the fridge and let that layer of gelatin form and solidify so I could skim it off to warm up and combine with the meat before stuffing.

Now after I obtained my pints of pork blood yesterday, I forgot to ask if pork is okay or is beef the preferred blood for Kiszka and Tongue Blood sausage?

As I came home yesterday with all those exotic cuts of meat and blood, the wife kind of shook her head with a grin. I probably will not ask for her help in making the sausage as I believe that will lessen the chance that she would NOT want to sample the final product!

As far as know, pork blood is first choice if available, beef is fine too for second best.

And of course food coloring is for the pigs...... ...leave it out.

Hey Rick.

I just remember I have blocks of head cheese in my freezer.
They are some of the best, made from all tongues.

If you'd like, next time I'll have chance, I'll make picture for you to see.

That'd be great as a picture is worth a 1000 words!

Hi Rick.

I defrosted some headcheese today. I made pictures, but inside the flash was ng., so I made some outside too.

In one piece.



And slices.







Joe the sausage lover.

My mouth is drooling.

Ohhhh...Mr. Butterbean.

I wish you were closer, so I could give it to you. It's made somewhere in the middle of Wisconsin. I buy it near my home, a German butcher is selling it.

There's some good eating right there my friends! A good seeded rye with some hot mustard, WOW!

Joe, that is outstanding. It looks delicious.

Makes me want to try my hand at making a Polish style salceson. Don't have access to pigs stomachs, will probably have to use a large artificial casing.