Re: Food Thread : Fri Jan 03, 2014 1:00 pm  

Musky wrote:

Bought the Rover Cottage Meat book for £10 from TK Maxx the other day - got about a 5th of the way through it, very interesting. Also got a mincer with sausage meat stuffer attachment, going to try sausage over the weekend if the skins arrive in time and also potted dog.

Ooo. Mincers are great – I've got one that's an attachment for my mixer: never yet made sausages, though, although I keep intending to give it a go.

Let us know how it goes.

Re: Food Thread : Fri Jan 03, 2014 1:40 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Mincers are great.

No surprise that you think so.

Re: Food Thread : Fri Jan 03, 2014 1:46 pm  

Dally wrote:

No surprise that you think so.

Re: Food Thread : Mon Jan 06, 2014 12:57 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Ooo. Mincers are great – I've got one that's an attachment for my mixer: never yet made sausages, though, although I keep intending to give it a go.

Let us know how it goes.

Mixed results - machine worked very well and was easy to get the hang of the production side of things. 2kg pork trim from the farm shop with 200g fresh breadcrumbs, 300g water and some salt, white pepper and sage into hog casings. Minced twice on a medium plate - came out very dry and with a strange texture. Flavor wise they were OK, pretty plain but something to work from.

Think I need to add more breadcrumbs (or replace with rusk) and water and possibly increase the fat content a fair bit judging by how little came out from them during cooking.

Re: Food Thread : Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:22 pm  

Musky wrote:

Mixed results - machine worked very well and was easy to get the hang of the production side of things. 2kg pork trim from the farm shop with 200g fresh breadcrumbs, 300g water and some salt, white pepper and sage into hog casings. Minced twice on a medium plate - came out very dry and with a strange texture. Flavor wise they were OK, pretty plain but something to work from.

Think I need to add more breadcrumbs (or replace with rusk) and water and possibly increase the fat content a fair bit judging by how little came out from them during cooking.

What was the fat ratio?
How long did you let them set up for in the fridge before cooking?

Try mincing on a course plate and then the medium plate maybe even the medium to fine plate for half of the mixture. Add some ice when you do the final grind, it keeps the temp down at the grind plate and just use a little lest water. Also try adding a little onion when doing the final grind.

As for flavour just fry up a small amount of the mix before filling the casings, it is easy to add more seasoning that way.

Re: Food Thread : Mon Jan 06, 2014 3:07 pm  

Big Graeme wrote:

What was the fat ratio?
How long did you let them set up for in the fridge before cooking?

Try mincing on a course plate and then the medium plate maybe even the medium to fine plate for half of the mixture. Add some ice when you do the final grind, it keeps the temp down at the grind plate and just use a little lest water. Also try adding a little onion when doing the final grind.

As for flavour just fry up a small amount of the mix before filling the casings, it is easy to add more seasoning that way.

I'm finding a way to bookmark this post.

Re: Food Thread : Mon Jan 06, 2014 3:46 pm  

Its amazing what you lean from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

Re: Food Thread : Mon Jan 06, 2014 3:51 pm  

Re: Food Thread : Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:18 pm  

Big Graeme wrote:

What was the fat ratio?
How long did you let them set up for in the fridge before cooking?

Try mincing on a course plate and then the medium plate maybe even the medium to fine plate for half of the mixture. Add some ice when you do the final grind, it keeps the temp down at the grind plate and just use a little lest water. Also try adding a little onion when doing the final grind.

As for flavour just fry up a small amount of the mix before filling the casings, it is easy to add more seasoning that way.

Fat ratio was probably in the region of 40% or so as it was pork trim but thats a guess really. I didn't leave them in the fridge before cooking, but have cooked some more from the same batch tonight and they were basically the same after being in the fridge for 24 hours or so.

I didn't use ice, but the meat was chilled and the mincer itself was just about ice cold when used as it's been kept in the garage.

Bought a seasoning/rusk mixture from a butchers supplier that I will try next, I reckon the rusk may let me increase the water content will also add the ice and use the plates suggested above.

thanks

Re: Food Thread : Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:57 pm  

Musky wrote:

Fat ratio was probably in the region of 40% or so as it was pork trim but thats a guess really. I didn't leave them in the fridge before cooking, but have cooked some more from the same batch tonight and they were basically the same after being in the fridge for 24 hours or so.

I didn't use ice, but the meat was chilled and the mincer itself was just about ice cold when used as it's been kept in the garage.

Bought a seasoning/rusk mixture from a butchers supplier that I will try next, I reckon the rusk may let me increase the water content will also add the ice and use the plates suggested above.

thanks

What the ice does is keep the fat from emulsifying at the grind plate through localised heat (something like a 2:1 by weight water to rusk ratio) as would the finer grind, some put some grated onion into the final grind to add texture, sweetness and flavour.

Also it is a good idea to refrigerated them for a good few hours as this lets the fats harden up and lets the filler (rusk or breadcrumbs) set up and it gives you a better chance of keeping that moisture in until it has done its job.

Also be sure to mix the result of the last grind, you are looking for a typical sausage meat look rather than mince, half ground fine half ground courser will help this.