Frankenfurter Fiasco (First sausages!)
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 20:29
I thought I would share my first experience with making sausages, or more accurately, frankfurters.
It started innocently enough, I mean how hard could it be? Read up a bit, talk to a few folks, dismiss any advice from both sources and just go with it right? It's only meat and spices...
Using a Weston #8 meat grinder I dutifully ground the meat ingredients (pork shoulder, and beef chuck roast). Once, not too bad, twice, hmmm... not as easy as the first trip through the grinder. Third trip with the pork, WOW this is getting to be work, the plate was plugging up just about as fast as I could clear it... Beef, not so much, it cooperated pretty well actually.
Now I have to emulsify the stuff, out comes the food processor, crushed ice and away she goes in small batches. I quickly gave up on the ice and used ice water, the mass of meat turned into an effective glue and nearly stalled the motor on the food processor before the ice would "disappear". I got the motor hot enough to smell on a couple of batches. Not good. Eventually I got it all emulsified. I was proud.
I mixed in the seasoning I purchased, a two part concoction consisting of the actual flavorings and another part with the maple sugar cure (among other ingredients). Did I mention the emulsion had turned to a sticky mastic paste? Have you ever tried to mix anything into such a paste? Not easy. I ended up just going in with both hands like one would with meatloaf. (note to self: remove wedding ring before doing this again, hard to find once it gets in the goo).
The hard part is over right? Just leave it sit in the fridge overnight and stuff tomorrow.
Wrong.
Early on I decided I would use natural casings as I remembered franks that my grandparents purchased having.
Not a good decision.
Natural casings are delicate and tear easily. A pain in the rear to put on the stuffing tube and even more of a pain to stuff.
Plan B: I go to the food processing supplies place and pick up a package of collagen casings, and try again the next night.
The collagen casings worked great, no tears, no rips, no cussing! Not so great was the little Weston grinder. It is an adequate grinder for my use, but it SUCKS at stuffing emulsified sausages. The "pusher/storage device" doesn't work as a pusher, not easy to hold onto with meaty hands. BUT I kept at it and eventually I had all 15lbs of meat stuffed into the casings, some air pockets hear and there, but done.
Twisting the ropes into individual portions was interesting, and I really didn't figure it out. Do you always twist the same direction? or alternately? I chose alternately. As I hung the franks in the smoker I decide that may have been a mistake. Almost every section untwisted . No big deal, but irritating.
So they get smoked, poached, iced, and stored.
I ate one last night.
I LIKED it!
All the effort was truly worth it. I wish I had given them a tad more smoke, but oh so tasty. Really very, very close to the franks I remember my grandparents buying 40 years ago.
This weekend, I am subjecting my family to the results of the Frankenfurter Fiasco. I am thinking they will enjoy the results, but maybe not appreciate the effort.
So, what have I learned?
Pork shoulder is FULL of stuff that clogs the holes in grinders.
I need a proper stuffer, the Weston sucks at that job.
I need more experience and advice before trying natural casings again.
I need to look getting a beefier food processor or another way of attaining the proper emulsion.
DO NOT attempt an emulsified sausage on your first try even if you have the proper equipment (which I didn't). It was frustrating as all get out.
73 de Allen, W1SBY
It started innocently enough, I mean how hard could it be? Read up a bit, talk to a few folks, dismiss any advice from both sources and just go with it right? It's only meat and spices...
Using a Weston #8 meat grinder I dutifully ground the meat ingredients (pork shoulder, and beef chuck roast). Once, not too bad, twice, hmmm... not as easy as the first trip through the grinder. Third trip with the pork, WOW this is getting to be work, the plate was plugging up just about as fast as I could clear it... Beef, not so much, it cooperated pretty well actually.
Now I have to emulsify the stuff, out comes the food processor, crushed ice and away she goes in small batches. I quickly gave up on the ice and used ice water, the mass of meat turned into an effective glue and nearly stalled the motor on the food processor before the ice would "disappear". I got the motor hot enough to smell on a couple of batches. Not good. Eventually I got it all emulsified. I was proud.
I mixed in the seasoning I purchased, a two part concoction consisting of the actual flavorings and another part with the maple sugar cure (among other ingredients). Did I mention the emulsion had turned to a sticky mastic paste? Have you ever tried to mix anything into such a paste? Not easy. I ended up just going in with both hands like one would with meatloaf. (note to self: remove wedding ring before doing this again, hard to find once it gets in the goo).
The hard part is over right? Just leave it sit in the fridge overnight and stuff tomorrow.
Wrong.
Early on I decided I would use natural casings as I remembered franks that my grandparents purchased having.
Not a good decision.
Natural casings are delicate and tear easily. A pain in the rear to put on the stuffing tube and even more of a pain to stuff.
Plan B: I go to the food processing supplies place and pick up a package of collagen casings, and try again the next night.
The collagen casings worked great, no tears, no rips, no cussing! Not so great was the little Weston grinder. It is an adequate grinder for my use, but it SUCKS at stuffing emulsified sausages. The "pusher/storage device" doesn't work as a pusher, not easy to hold onto with meaty hands. BUT I kept at it and eventually I had all 15lbs of meat stuffed into the casings, some air pockets hear and there, but done.
Twisting the ropes into individual portions was interesting, and I really didn't figure it out. Do you always twist the same direction? or alternately? I chose alternately. As I hung the franks in the smoker I decide that may have been a mistake. Almost every section untwisted . No big deal, but irritating.
So they get smoked, poached, iced, and stored.
I ate one last night.
I LIKED it!
All the effort was truly worth it. I wish I had given them a tad more smoke, but oh so tasty. Really very, very close to the franks I remember my grandparents buying 40 years ago.
This weekend, I am subjecting my family to the results of the Frankenfurter Fiasco. I am thinking they will enjoy the results, but maybe not appreciate the effort.
So, what have I learned?
Pork shoulder is FULL of stuff that clogs the holes in grinders.
I need a proper stuffer, the Weston sucks at that job.
I need more experience and advice before trying natural casings again.
I need to look getting a beefier food processor or another way of attaining the proper emulsion.
DO NOT attempt an emulsified sausage on your first try even if you have the proper equipment (which I didn't). It was frustrating as all get out.
73 de Allen, W1SBY