Has anyone made their own minced meat?

Mr_Proctalgia

Angel Delight,

Shin does mince well if a) you take the membranes and sinew off first and b) If your knife and plate is sharp. As it is so muscular I find the absolute best for flavour but like all cheap cuts it benefits from being cooked slowly.

bektoria

sorry to change the topic slightly but how do you make your sausages ? I am interested in doing this but the kits I haves seen are quite expensive, £100+

Many thanks,
Bek

Mr_Proctalgia

Bektoria,

You do not need to spend that much, I think you have been looking at sites like sausagemaking.org etc, I started there too and their forum is great but they are expensive.

You do need a decent mincer and a sausage stuffing tube and at first two pairs of hands, ebay is the cheapest place for mincers and having made a fair few bangers now I would recommend an electric mincer. The Kenwood one seems OK the KitchenAid one is pants, I got a german one for about £40.

By all means order the casings from the net (Hog casings to start) you will have enough to make miles of bangers!!!!! Stuff like the seasoning and rusk can be made at home, remember that you are looking at about 10% rusk and 2.5% seasoning, rusk can be breadcrumbs (the worst) or cream crackers or matzos crackers, just dry and mince first.

I strongly suggest that at first you buy some of the supermarket chubbs of sausage meat and get the feel of it, then chuck it away, they are also good for practicing linking!!!!!

At first do not try to adventurous, go for bog standard pork bangers - pork shoulder,belly pork, rusk,salt pepper and sage, let them ripen for a day in the fridge and then enjoy.

OH BTW casings stink they are supposed to - its normal.

I'm sure you have read the rest.


NB
I made this lot on saturday, highly spiced SA Farmers Sausage I counted 77 bangers from 2 kilos of mixed beef and pork
http://uk.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/steve26@btinternet.com/lst?.dir=/My+Documents/Sausages&.order=&.view=l&.src=bc&.done=http%3a//uk.briefcase.yahoo.com/

Debt_Free_Chick

Cheaper cuts of meat are fine for mince e.g. if beef, chuck (as suggested), shin, skirt etc.

Mincing breaks down the fibres of the meat and has a tenderising effect - so there's little point in paying for a "premium" cut if you think it will be more tender. We make burgers out of skirt. When raw, you can actually see how dense the fibres are and you think it will be tough. But it makes the most tasty and tender burgers.

Cheap cuts

leonie_2

Thanks again everyone, it seems to be a popular pastime here already, I should have guessed!

I buy my meat from the supermarket so I shall be checking out all the different cuts. I dont like my local butcher so im a bit limited. I am however considering ordering online.

Mr Proctalgia your sausages look brill, thanks for showing them to us! And you are just showing off doing the twisting together like that

Mr_Proctalgia

leonie wrote:

And you are just showing off doing the twisting together like that

Leonie,

Once you have "got it" its a doddle - Once I learned how to do it (its french knitting BTW) I didn't need to even look at the job.

Go here http://www.btinternet.com/~happydudevir/sausagemaking.html and click on the how to link film at the right.

leonie_2

Thanks Mr Proctalgia, i'll give this a go on my next sausage making adventure :beer:

Debt_Free_Chick

leonie wrote:

I buy my meat from the supermarket so I shall be checking out all the different cuts. I dont like my local butcher so im a bit limited. I am however considering ordering online.

Unfortunately, you almost certainly won't get the cheaper cuts of meat from the supermarket. They sell stuff like "braising steak" but by adding the word steak, they tend to inflate the price!

You'll need to shop around or perhaps consider finding a decent local butcher and stocking up your freezer.

Regards

leonie_2

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Unfortunately, you almost certainly won't get the cheaper cuts of meat from the supermarket. They sell stuff like "braising steak" but by adding the word steak, they tend to inflate the price!

You'll need to shop around or perhaps consider finding a decent local butcher and stocking up your freezer.

Regards

Well i'm all up for finding a good local butcher. There's an organic one nearby but the prices are high, even for organic... I paid £19 for a chicken!

I'll look around because i'd love to be able to get good quality meat. I hate buying it from the supermarket. I'm a little nervous about buying it online as you cant 'look' at the premises.

Rikki

I have an Abattior not far away and they have a little butchers shop that opens two days a week. They have a good selection of meat.