Dried Italian Sausage

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 15:02

I come from a little town where Italians migrated many years ago. Unfortunately, there was always some type of seperation whether you were from the north or south region of Italy,,,,even though most of the people in the last 60 years were born here. Lol. There`s still that mentality of how the north does things different, especially when it comes to recipes. The northereners dont believe in fennel at all and their favorite sausage is all black pepper. The south prefers fennel and red pepper. I decided to grind the fennel and put a hint of it in the sausage. Guess what? The northerners love it and i will never tell them what theyre eating.

. And I added some black pepper to make them feel good.

Kijek · Post by **Kijek** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 15:22

Thanks for posting recipe Lou

Quick question: What size casing do you use for your dried sausage?

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 15:35

Use a standard casing or slightly larger for shrinkage. The brat 34-36 was too big. 28 was pretty small. Anywhere from 30-32 works well

Kijek · Post by **Kijek** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 00:52

Wow 30-32mm
The strange thing here and the reason why I asked to begin with was because I used with my last batch 42mm, and that stuff shrunk to about 1 inch when dried, and it shrunk in all kinds of weird shapes.
Why did my sausage shrink so much and in weird funny shapes?
Could it be that I put too much water in the mix to make it flow better?

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 01:25

Either way, they are edible. LOL. The only reason I can think was did you hang them long? Or did you loop them? Is it possible the weight that was pulling them down? The only water I used was the 1/4-1/2 cup of water per 11 kilos that I diluted the 007. No other liquid. No wine. But they still come out somewhat irregular, but I didn`t think too much about it..

Kijek · Post by **Kijek** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 15:32

Hmmm that's an interesting theory on the hanging, and yes I did hang them long.
I will try looping them into 4 inch links the next time.

I know the shape does come out very irregular, from making it long ago with my Italain father in-law. But my shrink down to nothing. LOL
Your look more like what I remember.

Thanks

PS, hey Lou, I bet you have a great recipe for "Fresh" Italain sausage for frying or grilling?
Wondering if you wanted mind sharing it. I make a good sausage, but I'm struggling finding the right recipe.

LOUSANTELLO · Post by **LOUSANTELLO** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 15:40

Posted: Yesterday 7:00
Correct. I use the same exact recipe for the fresh sausage. Just decrease the salt to 1.5%, delete the cure, dextrose and 007. It`s mild, if you want more heat, you can double up on the red. Oops. I use regular morton table salt for fresh, not sea salt

Post by **Bob K** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 15:45

Kjek-
Lou already posted it...at your previous request

LOUSANTELLO wrote:Correct. I use the same exact recipe for the fresh sausage. Just decrease the salt to 1.5%, delete the cure, dextrose and 007. It`s mild, if you want more heat, you can double up on the red. Oops. I use regular morton table salt for fresh, not sea salt

Kijek · Post by **Kijek** » Sun Feb 18, 2018 15:46

Excellent Lou, thank you very much.

Yah BobK I copied and pasted it to my notebook, I wasn't sure if he used the same recipe and if he mentioned that he did I didn't remember.
I'm Polish what can I say!