Pork Playtime
Oct. 21st, 2021 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormAlright, mom & brother are coming up tomorrow sometime. They are bringing an order of fun sausage casings: I currently have a very practical set of hog casings sized for what most people think of as "normal" sausage, sort of hot dog to smoky size.
I've been wanting to make some nduja and some larger diameter sausages, maybe a mortadella or a bologna (yes, I know that's not necessarily the best size to start at for an emulsified sausage) and some more standard coarse fermented dried sausages like that. So I've picked up some sizes of beef middles and caps, as well as some artificial collagen middles and a round of umai snack-stick sizes for some fully dry sausage (I've had trouble with oxidization on these before so I'll be smoking them I think).
Also got some starter culture and external mold culture since my current stuff is Very Old and I'm wanting more certainty than just adding a bit of sauerkraut water to the sausage for lactobacteria.
Now I need to look up some recipes. I have lots of pork belly to use up especially, but I'd like to do a long low pasteurization on it if that's possible without breaking the fat. Easy on an emulsified sausage, I'm not so sure about a spreadable sausage. It will be exciting to use up my hoarded jar of calabrian peppers. It would be nice to do a sausage that contains some of my tomatillo/pepper ferment too, maybe the dried snack sticks.
I wish I hadn't packed my sausage book. It's unhelpful not to be able to get at it. Anyhow, methods needed for:
Emulsified sausage for cold cuts: grind then food processor method with crushed ice, smoking, sous vide poaching (what temp, and do I poach before or after coldsmoking). How much liquid? Do I need a binder? I know everything needs to stay painfully cold. What are typical mortadella spices? Do I bloom it after poaching? Do I want to see if I can find an all-pork hotdog recipe while I'm at it?
Spreadable sausage: multigrind, do I use a food processor? Ferment during and after smoking, at what temp? Can I pasteurize in the sous vide, and what's the lowest temp I can do that at for trich, and for how long? Does playing with casing size matter? What's the difference between belly and backfat on the finished product, and what's the difference between 50 and 70% fat content?
Dry-cured sausage: These are pretty straightforward, I need to max out the antioxidant ingredients. Maybe a pepperoni, something with sichuan peppercorn, and a fennel? Smoke everything for the antioxidant properties, then put into umai bags.
Snack sticks: What grind and meat to fat ratio is optimal? What % of fermented solids? Do these need a ferment before drying? Can I dry them in a cool room, will they go fast enough, or do I need to fridge them?
It might be fun to try a composed sausage, like a capicolla, but I won't do that this round.
I also tried a round of soap with cranberry seeds (bought) rather than ground apricot pits; they're a much larger size and rounder, so we'll see how comfortable they are in the final soap. If they work I'd like to use them; while apricot is a lesser allergen than walnut shells, I believe cranberry seeds are likely to be even less so. They do take more volume for the same effect though. This soap also contains my newly acquired "muscle and joint" essential oil mix, which smells very eucalyptus/menthol-y (not birch/wintergreeny). I should make myself some lotion with that oil mix too, I am very achy this fall, especially my fingers.
I've been wanting to make some nduja and some larger diameter sausages, maybe a mortadella or a bologna (yes, I know that's not necessarily the best size to start at for an emulsified sausage) and some more standard coarse fermented dried sausages like that. So I've picked up some sizes of beef middles and caps, as well as some artificial collagen middles and a round of umai snack-stick sizes for some fully dry sausage (I've had trouble with oxidization on these before so I'll be smoking them I think).
Also got some starter culture and external mold culture since my current stuff is Very Old and I'm wanting more certainty than just adding a bit of sauerkraut water to the sausage for lactobacteria.
Now I need to look up some recipes. I have lots of pork belly to use up especially, but I'd like to do a long low pasteurization on it if that's possible without breaking the fat. Easy on an emulsified sausage, I'm not so sure about a spreadable sausage. It will be exciting to use up my hoarded jar of calabrian peppers. It would be nice to do a sausage that contains some of my tomatillo/pepper ferment too, maybe the dried snack sticks.
I wish I hadn't packed my sausage book. It's unhelpful not to be able to get at it. Anyhow, methods needed for:
Emulsified sausage for cold cuts: grind then food processor method with crushed ice, smoking, sous vide poaching (what temp, and do I poach before or after coldsmoking). How much liquid? Do I need a binder? I know everything needs to stay painfully cold. What are typical mortadella spices? Do I bloom it after poaching? Do I want to see if I can find an all-pork hotdog recipe while I'm at it?
Spreadable sausage: multigrind, do I use a food processor? Ferment during and after smoking, at what temp? Can I pasteurize in the sous vide, and what's the lowest temp I can do that at for trich, and for how long? Does playing with casing size matter? What's the difference between belly and backfat on the finished product, and what's the difference between 50 and 70% fat content?
Dry-cured sausage: These are pretty straightforward, I need to max out the antioxidant ingredients. Maybe a pepperoni, something with sichuan peppercorn, and a fennel? Smoke everything for the antioxidant properties, then put into umai bags.
Snack sticks: What grind and meat to fat ratio is optimal? What % of fermented solids? Do these need a ferment before drying? Can I dry them in a cool room, will they go fast enough, or do I need to fridge them?
It might be fun to try a composed sausage, like a capicolla, but I won't do that this round.
I also tried a round of soap with cranberry seeds (bought) rather than ground apricot pits; they're a much larger size and rounder, so we'll see how comfortable they are in the final soap. If they work I'd like to use them; while apricot is a lesser allergen than walnut shells, I believe cranberry seeds are likely to be even less so. They do take more volume for the same effect though. This soap also contains my newly acquired "muscle and joint" essential oil mix, which smells very eucalyptus/menthol-y (not birch/wintergreeny). I should make myself some lotion with that oil mix too, I am very achy this fall, especially my fingers.
