home made sausage meat to taste like shop bought.

[PurpleHeather]

I have always loved sausages, not the good quality ones or the European style frankfurter and hot dog.

I like the cheap ones 'English Breakfast' type which are the minimum of meat and probably contain things most of us would rather not know about. Rubbish is what my mother used to call them, but I love them.

Since my problem with wheat I have not been able to enjoy anything other than the odd one, now and then. BUT as I can not buy or make a decent loaf of bread which is gluten free I am accumulating a lot of gluten free bread crumbs in the freezer which I thought would be fine for coating fish or chicken. But I need to eat coated meat and fish every day for a year to use it all.

So, after reading loads of 'ingredients' on sausage pack wrappers which seem to indicate what I need. I have minced pork and can mince/ put through the blender/food processor any thing else I need and might even get a machine and skins if I can get the texture and flavour right.

I can always do skinless ones to start with.

I have found home made sausage recipes on the net but they all seem to be made by people who want the good quality ones.

There must be some one who can give me a hint about the 'seasonings' which go into the rubbish ones I like.

Any ideas?

[PurpleHeather]

[Obelixx]

Lots of E numbers and chemical flavourings.

Why not make up your basic mix of minced pork and fat and breadcrumbs then season with salt and pepper.  You may need an egg to bind it.    Take a teaspoonful and fry it till cooked then taste.  Add more salt/pepper/meat/crumbs as needed to make it taste the way you want and make a note of each addition so you can repeat the recipe in future.

Keep frying little bits and tasting till you're happy.

Other common additions to proper sausages are a variety of herbs or spices, finely chopped onion or leek or apple.   

Try looking at the ingredients list on a packet of your favourites and see if there are clues on there for which spices and herbs to add but you'll never match things like mechanically recovered meat,  hydrogenated fat and chemical flavour enhancers in a home kitchen.

[OllieC]

I completely agree with you about "good quality" sausages - far too much meat! I much prefer cheap ones too but would prefer cheap ones made from good meat. As a result I normally don't eat sausages!

It's a slightly different route, but I'm about to order a load of dried pigs blood with a view to making flat black puddings in a tray (I've found an old Highlands recipe) - good as a sausage alternative! It comes in fairly huge quantities, want me to send you some?!

Oh, 2 of the secret ingredients are fried onions & Allspice but maybe you know that? I didn't until I started making skirlie.

[Chrispy]

The main ingredient that is producing the flavour you like is fat.
If you look on the ingredients, it will normally say how much pork, but this will contain a certain amount of fat, then next on the list will be extra fat, this is in addition to the fat already in the pork.

The 'chemical' ingredients are there mainly to try and bind the ingredients together (you will need more than an egg) and add some colour. Flavour enhancer comes in the form of a load of salt.

[PurpleHeather]

I have tried to mix it myself  Obbelex and they turn out more like meat balls or burgers, perfectly edilble but not quite right.

I wont need preservatives and I do have xantham gum, soya flour and know where to get un-rendered lard.

I need to know from a sausage maker, possibly a butcher what I need to do to get the mushy sausage texture rather than the meat ball/berger texture I get.

I think the last time I tried, I did put too much meat in it, it needed more fat because it was dry. I can not say that I have ever noticed egg in the ingredients of a sausage.

Any one want to guess what connective tissue is?

[chriscross1966]

Connective tissue is cartilage, tendons and ligaments generally... for the flavour enhancing, have you thoguht of using cheap stock cubes?... if you have a look through their ingredients some of them are more or less pure MSG.... Good luck in your seach for a homemade terrible sausage BTW....

[Melbourne12]

We used to make sausages, but haven't done so for a while.  Might have another go, inspired by this thread.

We used to get our ingredients from a friendly local butcher, but I see that these guys http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/Traditional_Pork_GF_sausage_mix2.html do a gluten free mix, which contains the GF rusk and spices.

I think that with English sausages, the simpler the better.  We used white pepper and sage, and a mixture of salt and saltpetre (as a preservative, but I don't think you can readily buy it any more).  We also added ordinary sugar (ie sucrose) as a browning agent, but I see that the website recommends dextrose.

You need plenty of fat to make a good sausage, so belly pork is a good choice.

We used a Magimix to chop and mix our ingredients.  A mincer tends to press the meat too much and make it dry. We had to judge it carefully, since we were aiming at a fairly coarse texture, but if you want the finer texture of "ordinary" bangers, then it'll be much easier.

I don't think you need flavour enhancers or anything like that.

[PurpleHeather]

Thanks Melbourne, Those sausage stuffing machines look rather expensive for what they do. I wonder if we can work out a method of adapting a mastic gun to do the same job?

Need a bit of an inventor here.....

[Melbourne12]

Thanks Melbourne, Those sausage stuffing machines look rather expensive for what they do. I wonder if we can work out a method of adapting a mastic gun to do the same job?

Need a bit of an inventor here.....

I've just had a look to see if I could find our old sausage stuffing machine, which was like an oversized hypodermic syringe.  It was certainly not expensive.  Sadly, it seems to have gone to the great kitchen cupboard in the sky.

The solid barrel mastic guns, aka sausage guns, look as though they'd work.  You'd have to put a tight fitting washer into the tube, otherwise the mixture would simply flow back around the plunger, and you'd have to glue a longer piece of tubing on the end to hold the casings (which would be easy to do).

We also once tried using an icing bag.  It does work, but needs two people, one to keep pressure on the bag, the other to manipulate the sausages.   It's also almost impossible to clean!

[Melbourne12]

Found the same thing for sale on Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sausage-42cm-long-Guaranteed-quality/dp/B002XMSZNM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1269005458&sr=1-5

[.]

 
http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=25696

If you want to pump rather than just plunge your sausage

[PurpleHeather]

We are definitely getting there.  I realized that icing bags were probably not going to be workable for me I have no strength what so ever in my hands.

£14-£15 is reasonable  enough.


I did one have a biscuit maker which had a ratchet type of system for turning out the dough into perfect rounds. I have not seen it for years so think I must have given or thrown it away. That was similar, it also had icing nozzles.   Come to think of it. I bought it before I got married and the 42nd wedding anniversary is due in a few days. So may be it did die. Can't remember...Not a problem...but I hate an unsolved mystery especially when my own brain is the cause.

So, we now know where to get the gear, it is just a matter of a recipe.

Too much or too little of anything will make a difference. I have a list of herbs and spices now but have not a clue if I should add a pinch or a handfull and that will take a bit of messing with. 

I usually use the Keith Floyd method when messing with food and after the first bottle gets emptied, the details of the ingredients used is any body's' guess.

[qahtan]

 For what it's worth a friend and I made sausages once a month for a couple years,, don't know why we stopped.
It's the fat that binds the ground meat together, it's does tend to take a lot of fat. also a lot of salt, if you taste the what you think is right soon after you have made/mixed it altogether it will taste very salty, but it has to rest about 24 hours.
Some recipes call for cereal, fine Matzo crumbs or similar,  if you can get pigs skins to fill with the said meat, good, I don't recommend the man made skins. also if you do fill your skins, don't over fill and try to link them lie the butchers, and then hang them foe several hours, if you don't they will burst when you cook them.
I will try and find our recipe or maybe Audrey still has it, I know we maybe a batch of spice mix and kept it in the freezer till we needed it.

  Do you have a food mixer , or a hand cranked mincer, A sausage filling tube fits in the front of the mincer,, quite cheap, it's only plastic... qahtan,
PS Did you see the PM I sent you about sourdough

[PurpleHeather]

Yes thanks I do, qahtan, as I said in my origional post have all the equipment. Both mechanical and electrical.

I just do not have the recipe for spices in ratio to the meat/fat/filler. That is exactly what I am after.

[Jeannine]

You can still buy salt petre it is used to make the meat a rosy colour,  it can be left out but if you really want it  try small independent chemist, It will not be on show, kept in the back, as it is used in bomb making so it is the chemists discretion. I never had a problem.

I have the book The art of making sausages,pates and other charcuterie by Jane Gregson if any of you want me to look anything up .

Quick look through I see very few have eggs in.

Super recipes for pate and blood sausages etc and how use tripe,spleen,ears,heads,feet,brains,tails,
heart,lungs and even testicles.  Of course there are less "different" recipes in there too. I quite fancy the one on how to make your own chitterlings.

Take a look on the net for Bangers I am sure I found it once, also English chipolatas. I was actually looking for sausages that didn't carry the cereal and found most did.

XX Jeannine

[PurpleHeather]

Oh Jeannine, you have got me laughing here. Not from what you said. It is very useful but you know how things trigger off the memory.

It was a story about an elderly maiden lady who had led a sheltered life. She took computer lessons and decided she wanted to google for a recipe for faggots. I wont go on because I know you are ahead of me.........

I had not thought of looking up chipolatas, will do and google Jane Gregson. I am not fond of black pudding but the family is. I understand the blood is dried like instant coffee and re-sold but my stomach is certainly churning at the thought of going that far.

[Jeannine]

Chicken !! ;D ;D

[Jeannine]

Just had a thought Heather, you are getting a bit exciting in the kitchen lately..sour dough, sausages.. you will be making cheese and and gathering wild stuff next.. I do have books by the way... XX Jeannine

[PurpleHeather]

I have considered cheese making in the past, looked it all up and it is interesting then a friend who married a foreigner came back from a visit to his family in the middle of Godknowswhere, They made their own cheese, with a tale about how ill she had been after eating it and it put me off. I doubt I would ever get to making my favourite 'bite's yer back' strong chedder. It would probably turn out like snotty cottage cheese.

Made yoghurt in the past. That is easy peasy.

There is one thing I know I will never manage to make and that is filo pastry. But yes, I do have a thing about making things, just the once as often as not, to prove to myself I can do it.

I think I have worked out a recipe for sausages and might be attempting a 'do' later on today if it rains and I don't go out.

[Jeannine]

Well when you get to the point where you just have to make quail pudding like the Duchess of Duke Street,,I have the cookbook!!..I buy frozen filo but I do make choux pastry for eclairs still. Glad you have found a recipe..there are lots of sausage supplies that sell the various seasoning mixtures..did you not get that link, I can find it for you if you need it.XX Jeannine