It usually can be purchased at a local locker plant. They must complement each other to create a satisfying product.Ĭure, an essential part of some formulations, is sodium nitrite (usually 6 percent) on a salt base. Selecting spices and seasonings and combining them in proper amounts is important. In other words, meat used in sausage production should be as safe as any meat you would prepare in your kitchen. The meat should be clean and not contaminated with bacteria or other microorganisms. Meat should be fresh, high quality, have the proper lean-to-fat ratio and have good binding qualities. The finished product is only as good as the ingredients it contains. It is not practical to consider each step separately or to assign more importance to one phase or operation, but for convenience and illustration, we can break sausage production down into four basic processes: selecting ingredients, grinding and mixing, stuffing, and thermal processing. Each step in the proper sequence is important to a successful operation.
Sausage making is a continuous sequence of events.
Smokehouses can be as simple as a tarp covering or as sophisticated as a commercial unit.
An old refrigerator converted to a smokehouse works quite well if you need to smoke the product. You can purchase a household smoker or make one. Many products do not need to be smoked, but liquid smoke can be added to give the smoky flavor desired, or you may add a small portion of a cooked, smoked product like bacon to produce the smoky flavor. If you do not have a grinder, you can purchase ground meat from the store. It only requires a grinder, a good meat thermometer and some general household items to make excellent sausage. Processing methods give sausages easily recognizable characteristics. Sausages can be classified in a variety of ways, but probably the most useful is by how they are processed (Table 1). Many sausage products are vacuum packed, freshness dated and 100% edible. Traditionally, sausage was formed into a symmetrical shape, but it now can be found in a variety of shapes and sizes to meet consumers’ needs. Sausage making has become a unique blend of old procedures and new scientific, highly-mechanized processes. Sausages are made from beef, veal, pork, lamb, poultry and wild game, or from any combination of these meats. Sausage also provides significant amounts of vitamins and minerals. Sausages are an excellent source of high quality protein, containing all the essential amino acids in appropriate amounts necessary for growth, maintenance and repair of body tissue. Sausage is a convenient food available in a great number of varieties and flavors.
Furthermore, sausages are a relatively safe product to consume because of the added effects of salt, pH, cure, drying and cooking to preserve the product and eliminate harmful bacteria. The contemporary role of sausage fits conveniently into our modern lifestyles as an elegant appetizer for entertaining as well as the main course in “quick-and-easy” meals. Today more than 250 varieties are sold, and many of these can be traced back to the town and country of origin. Sausage grew in popularity and brought fame and fortune to many sausage makers and to various cities. Any product can be made from a wide range of raw materials exposed to rather extreme conditions of temperature and time schedules and be consumer acceptable. The procedure of stuffing meat into casings remains basically the same today, but sausage recipes have been greatly refined and sausage making has become a highly respected culinary art. Today many primal parts are used in the production of sausage however, the less tender cuts, organ meats and even blood can be made delicious when ground, spiced and cased. The primary ingredients of sausage were the parts of the animal carcasses that could not be used in other ways. Early sausage makers found that a wide range of raw ingredients could be used. Good sausage makers are as discriminating about what goes into sausage as winemakers are about selecting grapes. In sausage making, quality standards are maintained while using most parts of the animal carcass. Sausage making evolved as an effort to economize and preserve meat that could not be consumed fresh at slaughter. The origin of meat processing is lost in antiquity but probably began when mankind learned that salt is an effective preservative.