Homemade Sausage Making

Two years ago while on a cycling holiday in Holland, I tasted a fantastic liver sausage with mushrooms. I have had a hankerin' for something like that ever since. And I have freezer full of Chanterelles, so I gave it a go yesterday. Did not use any specific recipe but looked at the WD Polish site, talked to my dad and read Marianski and Kutas. I made 3.5 kg. of sausage. The taste was not like the Dutch version, but nevertheless, quite tasty. The liver flavour is mild, overall quite delicate with nothing overwhelming. Great on a slice of rye bread, but needs a condiment for a finish. I had some this morning for breakfast with a dolop German mustard and a sour pickle.

Recipe for 1kg.

300g pork liver
500g Class II pork
200g pork fat
175g chanterelle mushrooms, cleaned, sliced and dry sauteed
50 g raw white onion
18g salt
2.5g Cure #1
8g dextrose
3g white pepper
2g marjoram
2g. coriander
pinch ground cloves
pinch ginger

Soak liver for one hour in cold water, remove veins and poach for 10 min. Poach fat for 5 min. Cool and then combine with the meat and onions and run through a fine plate (I used a 3mm.) two times. Add spices and mushrooms, mix well.

Stuff into what ever you like. I used beef middles to give it that rustic look.

Poach in 80° water until IT reaches 68-70°. Cool in ice water then transfer to fridge.

I cold smoked it for 5 hours, but that is optional. I would, however, recommend it.

Absolutely beautiful. I'll be making this soon. Did you smoke these before or after the water bath? Thanks.

Red, question I have is, how long will that much last and what's the best way to preserve it for storage. Thanks in advance.

Red - NICE looking! My hat is off to you. I'll bet the flavor is out of this world. I like the beef middle approach, and will defnitely use middles next time. Tell me, how firmly did you stuff them?

I second your recommendation to cold smoke. Liver really benefits from light smoke.

Thinking of adding some canned jalapenos next time - the kind commonly sold by the Ortega brand. I've made these just once, and I added a bit of cayenne pepper, thinking of some mildly spicey scrapple I had in Maryland. The effect is very nice. Just some warmth as an afterthought, not real heat. There is a Costco south of me that caters to the local Mexican clientele, and they have a great deal on jars of the preserved peppers.

Cheers,
Jeff

That's a beautiful sausage Chris. Well planned and perfectly put together. Thanks for sharing!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Rudy, I smoked the sausage after poaching and cooling. After the ice bath I put it into the fridge for a couple of hours to make sure it cooled down properly, dried it and then smoked it. I was surprised that the colour changed very little after 5 hours in the cold smoke. It went from an off-white to a light beige colour, but the smoke flavour is quite pronounced. Overall I am very pleased with the end result but next time I will bump up the spices by about 20%.

Nuynai, I think the sausage should be OK in the fridge for a week or so. If vacuum packed and frozen should be fine for two months. We have been sampling it all day today, will take it for lunch tomorrow while on a mushroom foray and I have given away two batons. So nearly half is already gone!

Jeff, the jalapenos sound interesting. Definitely worth a try. Most offal products need something sharp to eat them with, so why not incorporate the flavour right from the start?

I'm working hard at freeing up freezer space and made another batch of liver sausage with chanterelles. This time I added more mushrooms and pepper, but cut back on the fat. Turned out quite good, but the lesser amount of fat may not have been a good idea, it's a bit dry and the texture is not as smooth. I also cold smoked it for 10 hours rather than 5, so that may have also affected the texture.

Red, That looks awfully nice and I would be happy to suffer through it even if the texture is not quite to your liking!

I have the same freezer problem. I guess it is a nice problem to have, but I don't want to admit how many freezers are humming away in my garage! They come in awfully handy, but are running up my electric bill something terrible.

I am about to make more liver sausage, after Christmas. I am thinking of trying it with belly fat, which I have a lot of both in the fridge and....elsewhere. I guess I will be moving it from fridge to frame. Anyway, this should make the sausage more spreadable. My last liver and onion sausage came out well, but got a little grainy after it was frozen. If I took it out of the casing and mashed it a bit, it made a decent pate. But with more fat, seems it should hold up better to freezing.

Cheers,
Jeff

I guess liver sausage is all about fat, and belly fat should be perfect. I used back fat, and maybe that was part of the equation. But the spreadable type is probably better if it is not cold smoked.

Looking forward to seeing a report of your end results.

Best,

Chris

redzed wrote:But the spreadable type is probably better if it is not cold smoked.

Why is that?

redzed wrote:Poach fat for 5 min.

Chris, I was looking for some answers to questions about Braunschweiger when I came across this thread. I'm hoping you can answer them.

First: What is the purpose of poaching the fat for 5 minutes?

There is a local producer that has a wonderful tasting "State Champion" Braunschweiger. I like the flavor and texture of his product, and have twice made some, intent on emulating his recipe. My first attempt used Rytec's recipe. Although he used a lot of ingredients, we thought the flavor was spot-on. Recently, I looked at the Ingredient List on his product. Two points stood out; the sell by date and the use of both Sodium Nitrite AND Sodium Nitrate.

The sell by date was January 24th, 2015.

Second: Could he possibly be using the Sodium Nitrate to extend vacuum packaged shelf life, without freezing? Is there another reason you might know of?

Thanks in advance!
Jim

Hi Jim,

Poaching the fat softens it making it easier to mix and blend in with the liver and meat during the double grind process.

And I'm actually puzzled at the "State Champion" Braunschweiger question, since nitrates these days are used only in long term cured products. And many liver sausage products don't contain any nitrites since it is a completely cooked product. On the other hand, I've seen products labelled as having "nitrites and/or nitrates", in a way to cover themselves. Probably a good question for the USDA.

Made another batch of this liver kiszka. Once again, I have have a mountain of chanterelles this autumn and this creation is a perfect marriage of my two passions: mushroom hunting and sausage making! The kiszka is cased in 40/42 hog casings and cold smoked for six hours. The rest of the recipe remains the same. I'm very pleased with the results. Will be taking it to share with my fellow mycologists at a gathering this weekend.

That looks great!! The smaller diameter is perfect for Hors d'oeuvres.

I thought kiszka was a blood sausage?

Great looking sausage!