SC - jerky documentation?

[Serian]

Some of you might be aware that Jasmine and I have been working on some 
sausage recipes. Thanks goes to Baroness Gwyneth for lending her accessories 
to us to use with the Kitchen Aid. I purchased the stuffer attachment so it 
is available to others if needed.

The recipe we worked on first was the Lucanian Sausage recipe. Following 
Platinas instruction resulted in an unedibly salty sausage. We doubled the 
meat to reduce the concentration and were much happier with the results. The 
8 hour smoking process also mellowed the sharpness of the salt. The result 
was a pepperette style sausage sans red pepper.

Here is our recipe,

#23
Lucanian Sausage
If you want good Lucanian sausages, cut the lean and fat meat from the pig at 
the same time, after all the fibers and sinews have been removed. If the 
piece of meat is ten pounds, mix in a pound of salt, two ounces of 
well-cleaned fennel, the same amount of half-ground pepper, rub in a leave 
for a day on a little table. The next day, stuff into a well-cleaned 
intestine and thus hang up in smoke.

Final Recipe
22 lbs pork shoulder chopped and ground coarsely
1 lb or so of 32mm pork casings
1.125 cups sea salt
.125 cups curing salt
3 oz fennel
3 oz cracked black pepper

We redacted this recipe per the original instructions above
10 lb. pork butt (shoulder)
1 lb. salt made up of 3.6 oz curing salt (sodium nitrite added) and 12.4 oz 
sea salt total volume 1.25 cups
2 oz whole fennel seed
2 oz cracked black pepper

The salt level of this combination was literally unpalatable. In order to 
accommodate the salt that was already in the stuffing we amended the recipe 
by adding 6 lb. of ground pork, 1oz fennel seed and 1 oz of cracked black 
pepper.  Eventually we added another 6 lbs of pork as even this combinatin 
was still too salty.

We then made a test sausage in the pork casing and boiled it to reproduce a 
period cooking method for preserved meat. It was our belief that the sausage 
would need to be cooked, even after it was salted and smoke cured. Examples 
in period of preparing salted foods (i.e. salt fish, hams etc.) call for them 
to be boiled,, sometimes repeatedly using fresh water each time. This process 
would remove a great deal of salt and rehydrate the product. This did leach 
out some of the salt but further addition of meat was necessary to bring the 
meat mixture to a level of saltiness that we felt would be accommodating to a 
feast

Instructions

Meat was chopped into 2” cubes then ground in a food processor (we attempted 
it with a Kitchen Aid grinder, but had a great deal of trouble getting the 
meat through the grinding plate, this could have been due to the cut of pork, 
the size of the meat or size of the grinding plate or simple our lack of 
experience using said grinder)

Meat was continuously returned to the refrigerator to reduce the possibility 
of food contamination. Spices and salt were added  and the mixture was 
blended in a mixing bowl of the Kitchen Aid.

A Trial Sausage

We prepared a section of sausage casing by cutting a piece from the salted 
container. Water was then run through the length of the intestine, then it 
was kept in a bowl of warm water till ready to use.

We did not have a sausage stuffing attachment so we attempted to substitute  
using an empty ketchup bottle. We cut the bottom off and removed the top and 
cleaned it thoroughly. Suffice to say, the experiment was not very successful 
as it required two people to perform. One person had to hold the casing onto 
the bottle, the other forcing the sausage through the opening. 

The next attempt at stuffing the casing was done using an additional 6lbs of 
pork shoulder. This resulted in a much more reasonable salt content and so 
the final step was taken next.

Stuffing the Sausage- The casings were prepared by removing them from the 
salted container and rinsed. Holding both ends of the casing, I filled it 
with water till it reached the other end and then let the water drain out. Be 
careful not to let the casing slip down the drain. The rinsed casings were 
kept in a bowl of water until used in order to keep them from drying out.

Having the prepared sausage meat kept in the freezer during all the 
preparation work reduced any possibility of food contamination. Once the 
casings were ready, they were slipped onto the stuffing attachment and the 
end was tied off  by knotting the sausage onto itself. I began to stuff them 
by putting the meat through the meat grinding attachment and sausage stuffing 
piece added on.  The job was only a bit laborious, as I was required to move 
the stuffing along as well as force the meat into the tube. However, once I 
got the hang of it it was easier going.  This was best done if the casing was 
slid about 1-2 inches from the end of the tube, otherwise it was too snug and 
caused the casing to burst as it over filled it. 

The sausages  were brought to a smoke shop (butchers often keep smokehouses 
that they will let you smoke your meat in for a reasonable price per pound) 
and had the sausage smoked for 8 hours at 140-180 degrees. The temperature is 
important, as food contamination is more likely between 40 and 140 degrees 
farenheit especially during this extended period of time. 

The smoking process greatly enhanced the flavour of the sausage and mellowed 
the saltiness to some degree. I would advocate reducing the salt content 
regardless of the period recipe. In this case it was just too overpowering. 
We have peripheral information that there are varying recipes for Lucanian 
sausage that denote smaller quantities of salt and that the salt may have 
been less pure in some instances and as such less concentrated. These avenues 
need to be researched further.

Hauviette