SC - Re: Fats for sausages and other questions

[ChannonM at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/17/00 9:26:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org writes:

> Fats for sausages and other questions
>  
>  Okay....the majority of the recipes I've seen (with the exception of the
>  Lucanian recipe, which called for bacon, IIRC) for sausages just say
>  "add fat."  This holds true also for the little booklet of suggested
>  recipes that came with my food grinder/sausage maker.  What kind of fat
>  are we talking about? Commercially rendered lard or something? are there
>  alternatives? I need to make some quantity of a beef sausage w/out pork,
>  for people at my feast who won't be able to eat pork--any suggestions?

>From the recipes I have seen, they normally call for pork fat, probably 
because it is in abundance, but you have dietary restrictions to consider. 
Maybe someone who is kosher or has worked with koser dishes can help you out 
here. I would think that regular vegetable shortening would be too soft to 
work well in a sausage since it has to be forced into the casing, but maybe 
it would work. Requires a trial! The percentages of fat are usually 80/20 
meaning 80 % meat, 20 percent fat. Or you could try medium or lean ground 
beef which would solve both the fat issue and the work of grinding.
>  Secondly, what should I do if I have no access to any sort of smoking
>  facilities? (still investigating)  Could they be made ahead of time and
>  refrigerated or frozen, and then cooked "fresh" the day of the event? I
>  plan on boiling them for a bit, and then finishing them on a grill.

All of these things are possible. As for smoking, I brought my sausage to a 
buthcer who smoked them for 40 cents/lb (thats about 25 cents a pound for you 
Yanks ! ;)). I have made a fresh sausage that I am freezing and will parboil 
then grill. Even the smoked sausage will be boiled to remove some of the salt 
(maybe, I still think it's good salty). If you make the sausage ahead of time 
you can keep them longer (especially if you are only refridgerating)if you 
use a curing salt (has nitrites in it). Other wise about 4 days in the fridge 
or several weeks in the freezer. Just make sure that if you do fresh sausage 
that you don't use prefrozen meat and then refreeze.
>  Also, if you're making link-style sausages (about the size, say of
>  bratwurst), how do you keep the blobs of sausage stuff separate from
>  each other inside the casing? Do you have to tie them off with string as
>  you're making them or something?
>  
You can tie off the sausages at intervals, twist them (alternate the 
direction of the twist) or just make one continuous ring (obviously this will 
make it harder to boil, but if you are doing a smoked sausage, I think it 
looks so cool). Once you get your hands on casings (btw, what type of casings 
are you getting?) you'll find it's alot easier than it sounds.

best of luck with your sausage.

Hauviette