Homemade Sausage Making

Thanks! Definitely on my next to make list! I did know about the fat content. I get pork butt trimmings from a local butcher for nothing! I take them some snack sticks or summer sausage in return! The last trimmings I got were as good as a regular butt! I used them to make some franks!

"Powder Keg Pepperoni"
Type #1. Semi-Dry Pepperoni (fast fermented sausage using Bactoferm™ FLC)

7.0 lbs. pork butt
3.0 lbs. lean beef
105.00 g. salt
11.00 g. cure #1
118.30 g. ice water
45.50 g. powdered dextrose
150.00 g. soy protein concentrate
45.50 g. sugar
15.00 g. black pepper (coarse)
30.00 g. Hungarian paprika
14.50 g. fennel seeds
9.0 g. cayenne pepper (or 14 gr. for very hot!)
1.14 g. Bactoferm™ FLC culture

Place the grinder knife and plate into the freezer while you separate the fat from the lean meat using a sharp knife. Cut the meat into 1" cubes to keep long strands of sinew from wrapping around the auger behind the plate as the meat is ground. Grind the meat using a 3/8" plate then use a sharp knife to hand-dice the fat into the size cubes of your choice or grind it through a 3/16" plate. Place the fat into the freezer while you mix the Cure #1 with a little water (for uniform distribution) and add it to the meat. Work with small batches, refrigerating the meat at every opportunity. Next, mix the meat with all the remaining ingredients (except the frozen fat), kneading the mixture to develop the proteins myosin and actin, creating a "sticky meat paste" (primary bind). Finally, fold in the frozen fat and distribute it equally throughout the mixture. The sausage should be immediately stuffed into casings to avoid smearing (while the fat remains frozen), using 1-1/2" (38mm) synthetic fibrous casings or beef middles up to 60 mm. Next, choose one of the following options:

(a.) Hang them in a fermenting chamber at 100° F. (38° C.) in 90% humidity for 24 hours,

OR...

(b.) "Warm smoke" them at only 110° F. (43°C.) for eight hours in 70% humidity. (You may have to use a pan of water on a warm hotplate in your smoke house).

Raise the smokehouse temperature to 160°F. (71°C.), then gradually, only a couple of degrees at twenty minute intervals, raise the smokehouse temperature until the internal meat temperature (IMT) registers 145°F. (63°C.). This procedure must be done slowly to avoid breaking the collagen. Remove the sausages, showering them with cold water until the IMT drops to less than 90°F. (32°C.). This semi-dry-cured sausage remains perishable and must be refrigerated. Do not enclose them in a jar or plastic. Paper sacks are ideal for storing this type pepperoni.


After step "a" above is the product ready for consumption or does it still need to to be cooked until an internal temp of 145F ?

Thanks
Bob

Hello.
After Step A it is fine to eat. A dryer meat stick that takes a bit of chewing is what you get. though I would think it needs a bit of time to dry out at this stage. It would be too "raw" in mouth feel right away.
If you cook it then you get the nice softer style meat stick but its not a necessary step.
The only extra step I would take before this to eat as a uncooked product is to have frozen then meat for 5-7 days before processing.
Oh and that amount of hot stuff in 10 lbs would blow my head off. wow

Thank You YYC !!

That's kind of what I thought but being new to Fermenting I was not sure.

The only extra step I would take before this to eat as a uncooked product is to have frozen then meat for 5-7 days before processing.

Yea I had caught that but I think the US guidelines are around 20 days for home freezers.

Oh and that amount of hot stuff in 10 lbs would blow my head off. wow


Yes that what I thought I used the recipe on the Home (Marianski's) site

Chuckwagon wrote:*Fermento is not a fermentative culture. It is a dairy-based, tangy flavoring product made by The Sausagemaker™.

Is it still necesarry to include the fermentation step since this is not a "live culture"? I prefer the taste of FLC but I have a tub of Fermento that I would like to use

Goatster,
Fermento will give your product a nice start to what we would call tang. But remember, it is an added flavor. If you want an authentic "tang" from fermentation, you'll have to use the culture. We Americans have now become accustomed to the stronger bite.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

On the recipe, do you use whole fennel seeds or do you grind them? Sometimes I see recipe's specify "whole" and sometimes I see "ground" but sometimes it just says the spice. I usually grind it if I'm not sure.

Chuckwagon wrote:Goatster,
Fermento will give your product a nice start to what we would call tang. But remember, it is an added flavor. If you want an authentic "tang" from fermentation, you'll have to use the culture. We Americans have now become accustomed to the stronger bite.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

I prefer the taste of a fermented culture as well. But if I choose to use Fermento, do I need to use the fermentation step as stated in the "Poker Face " recipe? It doesn't seem necessary but I wanted to run it by the pros first

It's questionnable whether Fermento actually ferments the meat. In order to do that it would have to have active cultures. And I doubt that the highly processed buttermilk powder (the primary ingredient of Fermento), has any life in it. But it probably would not hurt to add it to the meat and cure and condition it for a day or two in your fridge before stuffing. That is what Rytek recommended, so take a look at his recipes that use Fermento.

I´ll sign up for the assumption that

redzed wrote:It's questionnable whether Fermento actually ferments the meat

´cause my best five cents on this topic is that unless Fermento contains either GdL, citric acid or some extremely sturdy freeze dried starter culture bacteria, then it doesn´t actually ferment but is dependant on the natural bacteria and therefore serves primarely as nutrition for the (hopefully) good lactic acid bacteria there may be around.

But then again, as Chuck recently pointed out: Lactose is NOT an ideal fermentable sugar source because some of the most popular lactic bacteria in the starter cultures simply don´t metabolize lactose. This goes for both Pediococcus pentosaceus, Lactobacillus Curvatus and Lactobacillus sakei.

Unless there happens to be seizable presence of Lactobacillus Plantarum (which actually does metabolize lactose) then the Fermento will at least provide plenty of nutrition for especially Staphylococcus Xylosus (thrives on it ) and to a lesser degree Staphylococcus Carnosus (who nevertheless will jump on Miss Lactoza if there is nothing more nutricious to be found in the ball room ).

So could it be that Fermento is aimed to support the curing & taste formation phase rather than the pH drop itself? (I´m unaware if there´s any other fermentable sugars present in this mix )

I wonder if there are folks out there who want to comment on their experiences with Fermento used as the sole fermenting aid (no cultures added) ?

Igor, we had a earlier discussion about Fermento here: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... t=fermento

Fermento is not a substitute for active cultures although unfortunately it comes across as such in some of the sales listings. It is simply a flavouring additive for smoked semi-dry products. I have used it with summer sausages made partially with strong tasting game meats, (esp. wild goose) and I believe it helped to improve the taste. It's not as bad as some make it out to be and it's made out of natural products that are not harmful in any way.

Hey, hey, Graygoat... ooops... I somehow missed your question. I apologize for not getting back to you. I'm getting old I guess. Anyway, the answer is yes, do it.

Hang the sausages in your smoke house but "Warm smoke" them only - at just 110° F. (43°C.) for eight hours in 70% humidity. (You may have to use a pan of water on a warm hotplate in your smoke house).

Sorry I didn't see your question. Shucks, I can't even blame it on El DuckO! Go for it pal. And good luck with your project.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Thanks Igor, Red, and CW

For this recipe are the Fennel seeds supposed to be ground or not?

Cfred

The recipe calls for seeds.......I coarsely grind them.