[Sca-cooks] Sausage Stuffers

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Nov 2, 2006, at 5:37 PM, Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote:

>> I'm completely unclear as to what was supposed to be dangerous about
>> this. Horn is basically collagen, which some artificial sausage
>> casings are made of anyway. The "dangerous" stuff in a horn is
>> basically bits of dried cow and dirt, which you scrape away, washing
>> and scalding away the residue. While I can see a desire to render
>> this horn food-grade, what I can't see is where it wouldn't be.
>>
>> Did I miss the big condemnation thread?
>
> Probably not here, but there's a strong and peculiar tradition in
> certain places that making and stuffing one's own sausages is  
> considered
> for some reason dangerous. I've heard several food professionals (not
> Laurels) say that one should never try to make sausage at home for a
> feast.
>
> The only thing I can think of is a fear that it will take so long that
> one gets beyond the safety margin for keeping meat between 40 and 140
> degrees F.

After a little thought on that and re-reading your post, the short  
answer is, I agree. It's not necessarily a totally unfounded fear,  
but if a non-professional _knows_ they don't have a lot of experience  
with this stuff and completely follows instructions, and does things  
like splitting the ingredients and rotating between refrigerated and  
unrefrigerated mixtures while working, they're probably safer than a  
lot of professionals who know what they're supposed to be doing, but  
don't always do it.

>
> I remember cooking the sausages served at Mistress Brighid's feast and
> having someone standing over me insisting that I test each link with a
> meat thermometer.

What did you do after you handed the meat thermometer to this person  
and walked away? I hope it was something fun. Let me guess: they also  
wanted you to be sure the internal temperature was like 190 or  
something?

Hey, for something large, like individual chickens, I'll do the test- 
each-one, or if one area of sausage on a pan looks significantly less  
done, brown, unshrunken, or otherwise indicative of something like  
being partially frozen, it'll get special attention, but generally,  
testing every link is silly, if for no other reason than that it  
damages the links unnecessarily.

> (For once I was on the Phlip side. Once the meat in a
> pork sausage turns white white white, and it tastes done, it's done.

Generally, yes. Look for cool spots on your griddle or in your oven,  
test there. Trichinosis and e. coli are both killed at temperatures  
which leave you with rare meat.

> But
> I'm a country girl with a German background and I was cooking in New
> Jersey. I just gave in and did it. I suffer from peculiar  
> superstitions
> about New Jersey foodways anyway.)

You gotta problem wid a whole, glazed, 6-pound Taylor Pork Roll with  
pineapple slices?

Adamantius