Homemade Sausage Making

When I peruse the sausage goods at the local markets I see brands like Saag's, Idells and Henry's with a bunch of different concoctions that they advertise as 'fully cooked & ready to eat". There's smoked chicken-apple or turkey-artichoke stating that there's no nitrites, no MSG. These sausages look softer than what usually comes out of the smoker, not dense and hardened. Could it be that they are smoking the meat first and then grinding and mixing with the other ingredients and spices, then stuffing into casings? How could they have smoked sausage with no nitrites? This could be the answer to my pineapple sausage quest! Your thoughts and advice will be appreciated. RAY

I think its just a trick, they use natural sources of Nitrate like celery juice. Nitrate/nitrite is the same weither its from a plant source or refined fron a salt source. 1/2 truths they didn't add nitrates per say but they added celery juice which is naturally high in nitrates.

Often the claim is something like, "No added nitrites." They add celery juice powder instead. Some people are very happy that nitrites from celery are "natural." But where does the celery get its nitrite? From the fertilizer, from those "unnatural" sources.

A lot of that stuff is smoke "flavoured", ,eaning that they use liquid smoke.

Thanks guys, your combined input now makes me realize how they get away with lying about all this crap. I was at Costco a few weeks back and Idell's had a big booth set-up with three guys cooking and handing out samples, talking about no preservatives of any kind. I started quizzing two of them and it turned out they didn't even know what was printed on the back of their own package, seemed I knew more than they did, and I don't know all that much. I guess "Truth in Advertising" went the way of the dodo bird! I'll find the key to my pineapple quest right here on this site, it doesn't get any better than this. Thanks again. RAY

Yup this is a good read if you did not already

http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/

Devo wrote:Yup this is a good read if you did not already

http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/

Thanks, that was a sweet read. I've watched every episode of Anthony Bourdains "No Reservations" (he's my hero) and he and Ruhlman seem to be quite close friends. Last year I read a few parts of his book "Charcuterie" when I swappeed my Rytec Kutas bible for a few weeks with my local pharmacist. I noticed a lot of his recipes called for about double the amount of salt as Rytecs recipes, and my pharmacist stated that his stuff was coming out too salty for their tastes. When we exchanged back to our own books we swapped a couple packs of sausage. He raved about my Italian mild, the Boudan (sp) he gave us never got a second bite by me, my wife, or father-in-law, right into the garbage.

Hi,
Personally I think that cure #1 and 2 are a must for a long and healthy life. A few years ago in Adelaide, South Australia, several people died from eating salami from a well known charcuterie factory that actually forgot to add cure to their ingredients.
Enough said.
Regards,
Jan.