Sausage Making 101: Stuffing
Sausage Making 101: Step 3 - Stuffing
Editor’s note: This is the third of a four-part series taking you through the basics of sausage making.
Check out the other installments:
Now that you’ve mixed the meat, salt, water, and seasonings, it’s time to stuff the completed sausage stuffing into the casing. You’ll know it’s time to do this when the sausage filling can be formed into balls sticky enough to adhere to your palm a bit as you form them.
While all sausage stuffing really involves is loading the filling into sausage casings using a stuffer, knowing about the different types of casings, and some of the techniques goes a long way in making perfectly-filled sausage, every time.
Stuffing sausage properly is all about using the right casing and the correct amount of filling to achieve the correct shape, and prevent blowouts.
Stuffing Your Own Sausage: What Do You Need?
Here’s everything you need to stuff any kind of sausage properly:
Mixed sausage filling (See our previous article on “Sausage Mixing” for more information)
Food Grade Gloves
Sausage Stuffer (Some sausage grinders include a built-in stuffer, but usually they are separate appliances)
Sausage Casings (Natural hog and sheep casings are the most popular, but collagen casings may be the best choice for beginners)
Sausage Pricker (For preventing air bubbles that lead to bursting)
Soaking and Choosing the Right Sausage Casing
Before the filling is stuffed inside them, it’s always a good idea to let the sausage casings soak in water for at least 8 hours. This is likely something you’ll want to do the night before, but certain casings don’t require soaking at all.
To improve the pliability of natural sausage casings even further, add about a ½ teaspoon of baking soda per cup of water. Baking soda makes the sausage casing more malleable and helps manage their smell by increasing the Ph of the water.
Natural hog and sheep casings are the most popular types to use because of their snappy consistency, which results in a more satisfying bite. If you’re using either, you’ll need to soak them so they’re more tender, elastic, and less prone to blowing out when you start stuffing.
Collagen casings are a solid choice for beginners or sausage-makers with limited time, since they don’t need to be soaked before stuffing. Vegetarian casing options, such as casings made from plant glycerin, also don’t need to be soaked.
Stuffing the Sausage
With your filling prepared, and your casing selected and thoroughly soaked, it’s finally time to stuff!
Sausage stuffers consist of a canister where the filling is loaded, a press that pushes down onto the filling, and a nozzle where the filling ejects out of, into the casing.
Start by attaching your casing to the nozzle, setting it in place to receive the sausage filling. Before the casing is filled, make a small hole in the far end with a sausage pricker.
As you tie the sausage nice and tight during shaping, the hole will allow some air to escape. The goal is to have as little air in the sausage as possible to prevent air bubbles; air bubbles can cause the sausage to tear or burst open during cooking.
Next, pack the filling into the canister. On an electric stuffer, a flick of a switch is all that’s needed to lower the press, but conventional stuffers involve pressing down on a lever to manually eject the filling from the nozzle.
As the filling exits the stuffer, and begins to take up space in the casing, it’s good practice to only fill the casing about 75% of the way. Overfilling the sausage could cause tears and blowouts during cooking, so be mindful of how densely it’s packed.
Now it’s time for the final step; shape the sausage into links, and it’s ready to be cooked and enjoyed.
The Sausage Maker - Everything You Need to Make Great Sausage
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