Tips on making sausages for the grill

[VertigoBE]

Hi culinary inclined members of AH,

I just purchased an industrial grinder for the production of minced meat (for bolognaise sauces) and sausages. But I have actually never produced either up until now. Obviously I purchased some dried intestines as well, to be able to produce the sausages with, as well as some bratwurst seasoning for the meat.

My goal is to produce fresh sausages that I can then freeze and put on the bbq grill or cook in a flat pan, as we usually do here in Belgium. For the moment I mainly have access to wild boar meat, so that will be my primary ingredient.

Does anyone want to share their tips, suggestions and prep ideas, so this will be a success from the start for me? (and for my fiancee, who otherwise will put an early stop to this experimenting )

Thanks and cheers!

V.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

Never made Bratwurst but a fair amount of our Boerewors. Boerewors is minced a lot coarser than Bratwurst. If you can get your hand on some Boerewors spice from our Crown National company , I would gladly assist you with that.
Generally if I mince, I cut up my meat and fat in blocks and spice it in a big mixing container and leave it overnight that the spices can pull into the meat. And then I mince the pre spiced meat with the mincer. And off it goes in the sausage stuffer which is a 2 man job.
The intestines you need to soak in luke warm water before use. Then you take the one end of the sausage casing, open it up with your fingers and drag it through the water with the open end so that water can enter the inside of the nozzle. This help to push the casing over the sausage stuffer casing.
Be careful not to stuff to fast, otherwise the casing can/will rupture

 

[Boyd Brooks]

The only tip I could give is fry a small patty of meat, and taste it, before you stuff a bunch of casings. This gives you a chance to adjust the flavour to make sure you like it.

 

[BourbonTrail]

Sausage Making I - Ingredients

Sausage Making I - Ingredients by @browningbbr There are so many types of sausages in the world and so many ways to make them, I'll need to limit my posts to the most common types and the basic information for making them. Because time is a constraint for me most days, I'm also going to have to...

www.africahunting.com

Sausage Making II - Basic Procedures

Sausage Making II - Basic Procedures by @browningbbr As noted in my last post, the basic procedures will focus on the most popular types of sausage and will be pretty general in nature. Before I can go into the 'how' of making the products, it's worth spending a few minutes on what we are...

www.africahunting.com

Sausage Making III - Casings & Stuffing

Sausage Making III - Casings & Stuffing by @browningbbr The last post dealt with making sausage blends. If we've done that correctly, now we need to stuff them into something... a casing! There are a number of casing types available, but each is specific to a type of sausage and its intended...

www.africahunting.com

Sausage Making IV - Fermenting & Smoking

Sausage Making IV - Fermenting & Smoking by @browningbbr Just a recap from earlier posts to provide some references for this one: There are 3 major classes of fully-cooked sausages: COOKED SAUSAGES These products require refrigeration and are fully-cooked, ready-to-eat. Generally they are not...

www.africahunting.com

 

[VertigoBE]

Never made Bratwurst but a fair amount of our Boerewors. Boerewors is minced a lot coarser than Bratwurst. If you can get your hand on some Boerewors spice from our Crown National company , I would gladly assist you with that.
Generally if I mince, I cut up my meat and fat in blocks and spice it in a big mixing container and leave it overnight that the spices can pull into the meat. And then I mince the pre spiced meat with the mincer. And off it goes in the sausage stuffer which is a 2 man job.
The intestines you need to soak in luke warm water before use. Then you take the one end of the sausage casing, open it up with your fingers and drag it through the water with the open end so that water can enter the inside of the nozzle. This help to push the casing over the sausage stuffer casing.
Be careful not to stuff to fast, otherwise the casing can/will rupture

Thanks Jörg, indeed I would rather make Boerewors (what we call boerenworst over here), I just did not know that there was a difference between the two in the coarseness of the grinding.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Zambezi]

After making HUNDREDS of kilos of borewors while in Zambia, one tip I have is to have the meat slightly frozen when working with it. It helps to prevent the clogging of the mincer.

 

[VertigoBE]

Sausage Making I - Ingredients

Sausage Making I - Ingredients by @browningbbr There are so many types of sausages in the world and so many ways to make them, I'll need to limit my posts to the most common types and the basic information for making them. Because time is a constraint for me most days, I'm also going to have to...

www.africahunting.com

Sausage Making II - Basic Procedures

Sausage Making II - Basic Procedures by @browningbbr As noted in my last post, the basic procedures will focus on the most popular types of sausage and will be pretty general in nature. Before I can go into the 'how' of making the products, it's worth spending a few minutes on what we are...

www.africahunting.com

Sausage Making III - Casings & Stuffing

Sausage Making III - Casings & Stuffing by @browningbbr The last post dealt with making sausage blends. If we've done that correctly, now we need to stuff them into something... a casing! There are a number of casing types available, but each is specific to a type of sausage and its intended...

www.africahunting.com

Sausage Making IV - Fermenting & Smoking

Sausage Making IV - Fermenting & Smoking by @browningbbr Just a recap from earlier posts to provide some references for this one: There are 3 major classes of fully-cooked sausages: COOKED SAUSAGES These products require refrigeration and are fully-cooked, ready-to-eat. Generally they are not...

www.africahunting.com

Thanks @BourbonTrail, I had read those, but still had a lot of questions

Specifically on how to make fresh sausage, that I'll be able to put into the freezer, for grilling or frying in a pan later on.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

What @Zambezi said is absolutely correct.
Bratwurst is very fine. The fat that gets used in Boerewors does not need to be fine as it melts from the heat of the fire. If Boerenworst and Boerewors is the same, I cannot say. A lot of people use sheep's tail fat but that is not cheap. I use Brisket fat from cattle.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

Thanks @BourbonTrail, I had read those, but still had a lot of questions

Specifically on how to make fresh sausage, that I'll be able to put into the freezer, for grilling or frying in a pan later on.

Fat gets rancid after a while even, in the deepfreeze . I do not freeze sausage for longer than 4-6 months. In my opinion it looses quality as well. I rather make batches that last me that long and use that up, and then rather make a new batch. What I well do, is cut my meat up in blocks before hand and put it in freezer bags with the weight of the packet of meat tagged on it. Then when you make a new batch you know the weight of the meat and buy fresh fat to mix in with the amount of meat you want to use.
If you want to store sausages for longer in the deep freeze, I would invest in a quality vacuum pack sealer. It stays fresh a lot longer that way.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

I would love to hear the recipe for Leberkäse from you

 

[Frederik]

Enjoy making your Wild Boar Boerewors !!

 

[IvW]

Once only through the mincer course is better than fine.
Ice cubes together with the meat chunks before mincing
20% sheep fat
20% pork
No artificial casings
Let it rest 24 hrs before going to the freezer
Spices to your own taste

 

[BourbonTrail]

CDC - Trichinellosis - Prevention & Control

A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and gets its food from or at the expense of its host. Parasites can cause disease in humans.

www.cdc.gov

@VertigoBE - CDC recommends freezing below -15C for at least 5 days before using as cured pork, etc.

 

[CBH Australia]

Looks like a lot of good advice here.
I made sausages once, I know a lot in theory from interest.

Tried Boerwors in SA, .

Keeping it cold is important. In Australia our Sausage is finely minced meat with probably about 20-30% pork fat. The Sausage meal binds the meat with cold water. It's like adding breadcrumb and spice etc.

I prefer Natural casings.

Some places do a Continental Sausage. It's Coarse ground Pork with a % of fat. Probably that 20-30% again.
The continental sausages don't use the sausage meal but just salt, pepper and spice. I think a little garlic and Fennel are common.

I think experienced butchers can judge the meat/fat ratio visually.

I like the idea of small batches or at least variety because you only eat so many sausages.

Italian type Salami can be cured in cool weather. Haven't done it but a curing mix is available for home use. It's a good use of pork

Maybe do o some with a mate share the sausage and the cost so you get more turnover.

On Australia we can buy small bags of meal in flavour varieties.

Look at eBay for sausage meal and smallgoods seasonings.

Good luck.