The older generation understands well how industrial sausages differ from home-made sausages made from pork and beef or other meat products, because they remember the taste of Doktorskaya, 2.20 rubles / kg, made without soy and other not quite meat and not quite food additives.
In those "soviet", for many nostalgic times, sometimes very long lines in the gastronomic departments were built behind sausage. Yes, its quantity and relatively small assortment often became a topic of discontent expressed in every Soviet cuisine, but no one was ever indignant about the quality.
Cooking sausage at home is very simple. This is the surest way to gain confidence in a product meeting its own evaluation criteria.
Any product lying on the counter is made by the hands of the same people, but on an industrial scale, on the conveyor. The habit of buying finished products in the store from people appeared relatively recently, in the era of universal urbanization, when grocery supermarkets began to grow in residential areas, like mushrooms after the rain. Our very short ancestors themselves grew raw materials, and they themselves processed it into fresh natural products, in the most primitive, by our standards, living conditions.
The answer to the eternal question of what to do is obvious: do not trust the manufacturer - choose another, or start home-made sausage production. We’ll talk about how to do this now.
Home-made pork and beef sausage - basic technological principles
Any sausage consists of minced meat and shell. Making minced meat with a household meat grinder, blender or combine harvester is not a problem at all. As for the shell, you can buy it in any specialized online store, along with some ingredients for the production of home-made sausages or in the market, along with fresh meat.
Preparing natural animal casings is an extremely tedious task, although, of course, the sausages in them are obtained only in the highest quality. If you do not want to independently clean and prepare the intestines of animals for filling with minced meat, buy collagen or polyamide ones. For cooked sausages and sausages, they are quite suitable. But for dry-cured and uncooked smoked, it is still better to go through this very laborious and not very pleasant process of producing home-made sausages from pork and beef - that's why it is sausage of the highest grade.
Briefly on the essence of the process of preparing pork or beef skew
Guts - a natural shell for sausages. They are cleaned to full transparency and remove a specific unpleasant odor, so as not to spoil the taste of sausage. First washed under a strong stream of cold running water. Then, using soda and vinegar solution, the remaining mucus on the inner walls is removed. To do this, after washing, the intestines are turned inside out, soaked in a strong soda solution, so that the mucus begins to peel off easily. Then it is scraped off with the back, blunt side of the knife blade. After the intestines are washed again and soaked in acetic solution, to remove odor and residual impurities. The result should be a transparent film, absolutely odorless, and preferably without tears. Salt for cleaning the intestines is not desirable, since it dries (dehydrates) the protein tissue, makes it inelastic. Baking soda disinfects the film well without squeezing it.
After this procedure, you can start cooking any minced meat and filling it with a prepared shell. The places of gaps in the intestines, when stuffed with minced meat, are tied with twine so that during further heat treatment the minced meat does not go outside.
The artificial shell is more durable than natural, does not require long preparation for use.
It is important to take into account one more detail: the natural shell is not filled very densely, and artificial films are stuffed to the required density. The intestines during cooking, drying and any heat treatment are compressed, like any protein of animal origin, which can cause a rupture of the stick or sausage stick. Artificial casings retain their shapes and sizes at high temperatures.
It is undesirable to use artificial casings for smoking and drying. This variety of sausages reaches readiness during the drying process, and the artificial shell will not shrink and dry together with the sausage meat, which will result in a "non-marketable" appearance of the sausage, violation of sanitary standards during ripening and storage.
Minced meat
The consistency of minced meat, the taste of sausage and the variety of assortment depend on the degree of grinding of meat. In everyday life, meat mincers with nets of various diameters are used for minced meat sausage. The minced meat is grinded first using a grid for medium grinding. After this, the minced meat is salted out, sodium nitrite is added (for dried sausages, additionally, sodium phosphate) to activate fermentation, regulate the taste, and the acidity level of the future sausage. After sausage stuffing is left in a closed container for ripening at a temperature of from 0C to + 4C. The ripening time of the minced meat depends on the use of additives, sausage variety.
Sodium nitrite helps to obtain the necessary density and texture of sausage meat, increases the shelf life of sausages, maintains the original color of the meat after heat treatment. It can also be purchased, along with a casing for sausages, at specialized points of sale. Estimated usage rates are indicated on the packages.
You can, of course, do without fermentation in the home-made sausages, limiting yourself to salting and making spices, but in order for the sausage taste to match your favorite variety and become recognizable, you need to adhere to the recipes of your favorite Cervelat, Moscow, Salami and other types of sausages. Dry white wine or brandy can be used as a preservative for dried sausages, but keep in mind that these ingredients give sausages a different taste.
It is clear that meat must meet the highest requirements of sanitary standards for the preparation of any dishes. But for the production of sausages, you need to use only fresh chilled meat. In addition to the fact that this requirement also affects the taste of the product, it must be taken into account: thawed meat is not amenable to any fermentation, since when it is frozen, and even more so when it is re-frozen, it absolutely loses the necessary biological properties.
To get smaller sausage meat, it is allowed to freeze meat to a temperature of -1-2 C. With this cooling, the meat is better crushed to a pasty consistency.
Further processing of minced meat takes place in accordance with a specific recipe and method of heat treatment. For sausages with bacon, chopped lard is added to the main forcemeat. The sizes of slices of bacon in sausage meat, their proportions, the ratio of pork and beef, offal are also regulated by the recipe.
After filling the sausage casing with minced meat, the semi-finished products are aged for up to six hours, for full maturation, they are checked for casing ruptures, the formation of unwanted air bubbles. Bubbles are removed by piercing the membrane with a needle. The places of shell ruptures are bandaged so that the shape is preserved during the heat treatment. The sausage is suspended in the refrigeration equipment by the twine so that the stuffing is compacted to the required consistency under its own weight. Semi-finished products, like minced meat, are produced in refrigerators. At home, sausage can be hung in an ordinary refrigerator, on the top shelf.
It is not allowed to heat the meat above 12 ° C during the preparation of sausages, with the exception of the technology for the preparation of dry-cured sausages, where the semi-finished products are kept at a higher temperature (18-20 ° C) for the first day to improve fermentation.
After that, you can proceed to the heat treatment, according to the recipe.
According to the method of heat treatment, sausages are:
- Boiled;
- Smoked and boiled;
- Semi-smoked;
- Raw smoked and dry-cured;
- Sausages of their offal (brawn, blood, liver, liver).
At home you can cook any of these types of sausages, but for smoking you need to have the appropriate equipment, supplies (sawdust) and conditions (a city apartment for the production of home-made sausages will not work). Household smoking apparatus can be quite easily purchased or assembled from improvised materials in the country. The costs and troubles associated with the purchase of equipment quickly pay off, given the cost of raw smoked sausages, meat products, fish and even prunes, or other fruits and vegetables.
Tip: if you want to cook uncooked smoked sausage or other products with a smoked aroma, use ready-made smoked lard in the minced meat, as the additive, the desired flavor will surely be transferred to the finished product.
1. Home-made sausage made of pork and beef - "Beer" boiled
Raw Material:
Minced pork, finely ground (semi-fat pork, shoulder) 2/3 parts
Ham pork chopped 1/3 part
Ground nutmeg, ground 2g / 1 kg
Black pepper 2.5 g / 1 kg
Refined sugar 3 g / 1 kg
Collagen membrane (80 mm)
Cooking Technology:
For the “Beer” sausage, prepare two types of pork: semi-fat - for small minced meat, crushed to a pasty state, and ham, which must be chopped with a knife (1x1 cm cubes).
Combine the minced meat with minced meat, beat off, add spices and mix until smooth. Wet the casing in warm water, cutting it into strips of 20-25 cm. Soak it in water for half an hour to become elastic.
If there is no sausage syringe, then fill the casing with a meat grinder. Try to fill up tightly. Tie the filled shells with twine on both sides.
Hold the formed meat loaves for half an hour on the table, so that the minced meat is better saturated with spices at room temperature, then put it in the cold for two hours: the minced meat should be compressed, at this time air bubbles will come to the surface. Then they can be noticed and deleted. Then proceed to the heat treatment: steam or in the oven with a combi steamer, at 80 ° C, until the temperature reaches 70 ° C inside the loaves.
It is convenient to cook boiled sausages in a slow cooker, setting the required mode, or - in an oven equipped with a combi steamer.
2. Home-made sausage made from pork and beef - Munich sausages
Raw Material:
Pork, bold (shoulder) and veal - one each
Water - 100 ml / 1 kg of minced meat (t 25C)
The composition of spices for sausages "Munich" 6 g / 1 kg of minced meat
Salt 20 g / 1 kg
Optionally, for a home recipe, you can include:
Dry mustard, honey
Lemon juice
Natural casing (pork belly) - 2 m per 1 kg of minced meat
Cooking Technology:
Grind the meat by passing it through a wire rack with a hole diameter of 3-4 mm. Refrigerate the minced meat to 0 C. Add seasoning to it: use a prepared sausage mixture purchased in a specialty store, or prepare a mixture of ground spices yourself, including in equal proportions ground nutmeg, black pepper, dried parsley, and also small a pinch of cardamom, lemon zest. Also add the rest of the spices to taste. Stuff the minced meat in a blender bowl, pour warm water and beat to a homogeneous pasty consistency. The forcemeat temperature should not be higher than 12 C. Transfer the prepared forcemeat to a sausage syringe or use a meat grinder with a nozzle (ᴓ15 mm). Pre-soak the casing in warm water, put it on the syringe tube and fill it with minced meat. Divide the filled semi-finished products into 8 cm lengths to form sausages like sausages. Fold finished products in rings. In a saucepan, heat the water 90 C. Immerse the sausages, and cook them until the temperature reaches 70 C inside the sausages.
3. Homemade pork and beef sausage “Cognac” dried
Raw Material:
Veal 700 g
Chilled pork, non-greasy (ham, shoulder, neck) 2.1 kg
Bacon, unsalted (hard) 1.4 kg
Cognac 100 ml
For seasoning:
Table salt 75 g
Ground Cardamom 10 g
Black pepper 25 g
Cloves 10 g
Hot red pepper to taste
Paprika, sweet 40 g
Nitrite salt 1 g
Sage to taste
Granulated Garlic 20 g
Nutmeg, ground 15 g
Collagen membrane (40 mm) 3.5-4 m
Cooking Technology:
Meat must be stripped of the film and internal, soft fat. Chop veal and bacon with a knife: meat - with slices of 0.5-0.8 cm, bacon - 1x1 cm. Grind pork in a combine or meat grinder with the smallest grate. Combine the meat and mix until smooth. After kneading, forcemeat carefully beat off so that collagen is released and the forcemeat particles become sticky. Pour cognac into the minced meat, mix well again. Wrap the container with foil and put it in the cold for 10 - 12 hours.
Spices must be mixed, ground in a blender or coffee grinder to a powder state.
Add seasoning to the minced meat and mix very carefully. Keep the prepared meat in a closed container in the cold so that the meat is saturated with seasonings. 10 hours after the ripening of minced meat, cut the collagen shell into segments of 35-40 cm, soak in warm water, to give elasticity: remove excess water, since the sausage will dry in a cold manner, without heat treatment, and it does not need moisture. Fill the shell tightly with minced meat, trying to prevent air bubbles from forming. Tie the edges with knots or pull with twine. Puncture the sausage casing with a needle so that during drying it freely leaves the inside.
Hang meat loaves by the twine on the crossbar so that they do not touch each other. Dry at 0 + 4 ° C in a dry, ventilated area. In the conditions of a city apartment, sausage can be dried in the refrigerator, ensuring the required temperature, without harm to other products: just do not forget that within 3-4 weeks, until the sausage ripens, you need to carefully monitor compliance with sanitary standards - all products must be sealed. Well, if the refrigerator is equipped with a fan - it must be turned on daily, morning and evening, for a couple of hours.
The preparedness of dry-cured sausage is determined by the final mass of the product, which should be reduced due to moisture loss by half.
4. Homemade sausage made from pork and beef - Sausage "Dairy"
Raw materials for cooking:
Bold pork (shoulder, neck) 700 g
Veal 300 g
Milk 50 ml
Garlic 9 g
Salt 25 g
Sugar 2 g
Ground coriander and black pepper - 1 g each
Sodium nitrite 0.5 g
Shell, collagen (15 mm) 3 m
Cooking method:
Grind the meat until it is very finely ground. You can pass it through a meat grinder with a fine wire rack, along with garlic, and then additionally beat with a blender. Add spices, milk and mix. Be sure to beat the minced meat for sausages: this will help to achieve a dense and bound texture, without air bubbles inside. Cover the container with minced meat and put in the cold for an hour to ripen.
Prepare the casing, keeping it in warm water to an elastic state, and proceed with stuffing. As the shell is densely filled with minced meat, divide it into equal segments of 5-6 cm, scrolling the tape around its own axis.Pierce the filled semi-finished products with a needle, hang them on the crossbar and stand for compaction of minced meat at 0 С, in the refrigerator.
Cook sausages at t 90-95 C, in a pan, not allowing the water to boil. Cooking time - 30-40 minutes. But it is better to use a metal thermal probe to comply with the temperature regime.
Sausages can be prepared without nitrite salt, but in this case their color will change after cooking.
5. Homemade sausage from pork and beef "Doctor"
Products:
Lean Beef 250 g
Pork, semi-fat 750 g
Sodium Phosphate 3 g
Water purified 200 ml
Spice mix for Doctoral sausage:
Nutmeg (2 g), sodium nitrite (10 g), black pepper (1 g), sugar (2 g), salt, table 10 g, cardamom (0.5 g) - calculation for 1 kg of minced meat
Collagen membrane (ᴓ 80 mm) 2x40 cm
Cooking:
A mixture of spices can be used ready-made, or make it yourself from the listed ingredients.
Pass the pork and beef through a meat grinder, freeze the minced meat in the freezer at t -2 C, then again pass through the meat grinder, setting a finer grill, to a pasty consistency. When freezing minced meat, be sure to seal it in sealed bags so that moisture from the freezer does not get into the meat and that the meat juice remains in the minced meat.
Grind minced meat separately. In less fat beef, when chopping, add a little water, sodium phosphate, to form a protein bundle. Then, leaner pork is added to the lean meat. The taste and consistency of sausage depends on the sequence of grinding and mixing the minced meat.
Stuff the prepared shell, check the quality of the packing. Tie the ends of the shell in a knot, hang the sausage by the twine in the cold. Cook, as well as dairy sausages.
6. Home-made pork and beef sausage - liver egg
Ingredients for making 1 kg of sausage:
Spice Blend:
Coriander, caraway seeds, pepper, glucose (sugar) - in equal parts; per 1 kg of minced meat - 8 g of seasoning
Table salt 20 g
Egg 1 pc.
Onion, 15 g
Milk, whole pasteurized 100 ml
Pork shoulder 300 g
Breast 350 g (pork)
Beef liver 350 g (net)
Beef casing (or polyamide) ᴓ 60 mm - 1.2 m
Cooking Technology:
Dice the meat ingredients and cook in boiling unsalted water for 15 minutes.
Transfer them to a blender, add peeled onions, milk and spices. Kill the mass. Add the eggs to the mincemeat when it has cooled to room temperature.
Fill the prepared shell, dress it, dividing into three segments of the same length, twisting the shell. Puncture the film along its entire length with a needle to release air. Hang semi-finished products to seal. The cooking method is classic: in the oven with steam at t 80 C, until 70 C inside the sausages.
Home-made pork and beef sausage - useful tips and tricks
- It is possible to fill the casing with sausage stuffing, in the absence of special accessories for the meat grinder, in the old "old-fashioned" way: take any tube of plastic, rubber or metal (stainless) of suitable diameter, pull the end of the casing through it, and turn it inside out, putting it on the tube. As the shell is filled with minced meat, push it in the opposite direction with your free hand, distributing the minced meat evenly over the entire length.
- When filling the shell with minced meat, it is important to prevent the formation of air bubbles in the semi-finished product. In order to remove them from the sausage, after filling, in places where bubbles form, pierce the shell with a needle. Do not rush to cook or dry the sausage. Hang it by the twine and hold it in suspension for several hours. It is advisable to hold the exposure in the refrigerator. For 5-6 hours, the sausage semi-finished products are condensed to the desired consistency, fermentation is completed and the meat is soaked with spices added during the preparation of minced meat.
- Cooking sausage is also necessary in limbo. This is convenient to do in a high pan, hanging the meat loafs on the crossbar so that they retain their shape. Another convenient cooking method is an oven with a combi steamer. If the oven is not equipped with the latest technology, try to hang the sausage anyway, and put a water tray below. Add water as necessary until the end of cooking.
- The preparedness of the sausage can be determined by taste, but if you don’t want to cut the loaf during the cooking process, purchase a special probe. The temperature of 70C inside the cooked sausage means that it can be eaten. For smoked sausages, this figure is 26-28C.
