Brothers, Sisters and lovers of fine food and free ranging pigs. The day is fast approaching when we shall make our wonderful pigs into some exquisite creations. Here are a few pointers for our activities on Saturday.
Directions, if you need them, will be via e-mail. I will send those out this week.
Timeline:
07:30 I will trotter along to Mr Humphries' fine store and pick up our harvest.
08:00 unloading as much as I can into the double fridges.
08:30 from about 8:30 onwards people will start arriving, unloading their gear, drinking coffee eating flapjacks etc
09:00 we will try to get going. I suggest splitting into platoons of sausage makers, bacon makers and ham curers
13:00 break for lunch. Lunch will be a leg of Wilshire cured ham with new potatoes and salad. A glass or two of wine and then back to the grinder
14:00 onwards, finishing off sausages. Tying up roasting joints. Bagging and labelling. Experimental salami cures. Washing up and all that good stuff.
In our first year, we finished around 1am. We're much more expert now. I hope to be done in time for tea.
What to bring:
If you show up with just yourself and a happy smile then you can't go too far wrong. Among the other people there on the day you will find plenty of kit go around as we all share salt, sausage skins etc. However, it is always nice to bring a few bits to the sharing party and it is obviously helpful to take your produce home in your own plastic pots and freezer bags. Below is a list of things you might consider bringing along but by no means is any of it essential.
Your sharpest boning knife
A cutting board
Plastic pots and tubs for brine cures and meat
Cooler box and ice packs for finished goods
Freezer bags and cling film
Herbs and spices for your sausages
A pre-prepared sausage mix
Rusk for sausages
Some sausage skins
A pre boiled up brine cure in the brine tub
A dry mix for your ham cures
Some bacon cure
A mental list of the recipes you are going to inflict on your pig
For supplies, these two have proved pretty reliable.
http://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/
http://www.sausagemaking.org/
Don't forget your winning smile, it can be a long day of standing up cutting meat. Children are welcome to poke their heads in to see sausages being made but it isn't a good place for them to be hanging around very long. Too many sharp knives and not enough space to dismember more than 10 bodies in one day.
Parking. Hopefully there should be plenty of room. 4x4s on the grass, ferraris and lambos on the tarmac.
Jamon Libre.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
The Long Goodbye - pigs off for haircuts
Its a sad time when it comes to saying goodbye to our porcine friends. This last week has been about preparing them for their departure and this can be a gloomy set of tasks.
On Tuesday evening I began their trailer-entry training programme. It is quite basic. Position the trailer in its departure point and stabilise it with bricks and both ends. Then for a few days feed them from the trailer. This was learnt from experience. The first couple of batches of pigs weren't so well drilled. I had to practically carry one of them up the ramp and into the trailer. By the second batch I had worked out that a week long feeding routine was probably the answer. However, 6 days in and they still wouldn't go up the ramp. It took me a while to work out that while the trailer felt stable to me, the considerable weight of 4 pigs made it behave like a seesaw. I learnt this by finding myself at the wrong end of the seesaw one morning before work. It was much like the closing scene from the Italian Job with me at one end and pigs at the other.
Then there is the tattooing. Another melancholic task but one I'm getting closing to mastering or at least competency. Back in 2007, the first few pigs I tattooed were a massive inky mess. I had tried to apply large amounts of the ink to each pig and then slap with the spiked slap-marker. Keeping track of which pig had been labelled was a joke as they jostled each other for position at the feeding trough.
I have advanced my skills in two ways. Firstly, don't apply ink to the pig, only to the slap marker. Fingers crossed that works well enough for the meat inspector to read. Looking at my hands now, it appears that even small quantities of ink go a long way and last well.
Secondly, identify the pigs before hand with two clothes pegs clipped to the wiry hair on the back of their necks. (kiwi's refers to this hair style as a mudflap) Then as each pig it slap-marked, remove the clothes pegs, one for the right shoulder and one for the left. Bingo. The job was complete in less than 20 minutes. A great improvement on the first tattooing experience which was an all morning affair with more than a hint of farce.
With only days left, rations have gone up to 12kg per feed. They seem blissfully happy rooting among the leaf litter and under the turf and they are certainly enjoying this exceptional spring weather. Two more days sunshine and then we'll pack-up our snouts and go. They'll be missed.
On Tuesday evening I began their trailer-entry training programme. It is quite basic. Position the trailer in its departure point and stabilise it with bricks and both ends. Then for a few days feed them from the trailer. This was learnt from experience. The first couple of batches of pigs weren't so well drilled. I had to practically carry one of them up the ramp and into the trailer. By the second batch I had worked out that a week long feeding routine was probably the answer. However, 6 days in and they still wouldn't go up the ramp. It took me a while to work out that while the trailer felt stable to me, the considerable weight of 4 pigs made it behave like a seesaw. I learnt this by finding myself at the wrong end of the seesaw one morning before work. It was much like the closing scene from the Italian Job with me at one end and pigs at the other.
Then there is the tattooing. Another melancholic task but one I'm getting closing to mastering or at least competency. Back in 2007, the first few pigs I tattooed were a massive inky mess. I had tried to apply large amounts of the ink to each pig and then slap with the spiked slap-marker. Keeping track of which pig had been labelled was a joke as they jostled each other for position at the feeding trough.
I have advanced my skills in two ways. Firstly, don't apply ink to the pig, only to the slap marker. Fingers crossed that works well enough for the meat inspector to read. Looking at my hands now, it appears that even small quantities of ink go a long way and last well.
Secondly, identify the pigs before hand with two clothes pegs clipped to the wiry hair on the back of their necks. (kiwi's refers to this hair style as a mudflap) Then as each pig it slap-marked, remove the clothes pegs, one for the right shoulder and one for the left. Bingo. The job was complete in less than 20 minutes. A great improvement on the first tattooing experience which was an all morning affair with more than a hint of farce.
With only days left, rations have gone up to 12kg per feed. They seem blissfully happy rooting among the leaf litter and under the turf and they are certainly enjoying this exceptional spring weather. Two more days sunshine and then we'll pack-up our snouts and go. They'll be missed.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Sausage Making
I have posted a few sausage recipes below. There are quite literally thousands or recipes for sausages. From the earliest Roman soldier's ration to the modern rubbish served from hot metal trolleys to drunk tourists. The tradition of taking pork meat and storing it in a handy sausage skin is as old as civilisation itself. The scope for variation (and abomination) is immense.
I guess what we all aspire to create when we set out to make our first sausages is a classic English breakfast sausage. The recipe posted below for 'Regular Breakfast Sausage' has the benefit of being straight forward and low on the effort quotient. Sausages in the UK tend to be made of around 80% pork with the balance made up of rusk (yeastless bread crumb), water and spices.
The addition of water and rusk might appear to be detracting from the wonderful pork you are stuffing into your sausage skins. However, the rusk and water help to promote a moist texture and soak up some of the juices and fat from the gently cooked meat.
It is entirely up to you, as sausage designer, whether you want to vary these ratios. You might prefer a sausage with 100% pork and only spices added, Toulouse sausages are like this. You may prefer to add breadcrumb and Stilton and only have 50% pork meat, pretty much anything goes.
The other established practise that is also open for experimentation is the inclusion of a certain amount of fat. Traditionally, one would use around 50:50 mixtures of shoulder and belly pork, minced. With a naturally reared, rare breed pig you would normally expect a higher proportion of fat in the meat already. Therefore we have settled on using mostly shoulder meat for our sausages. I like to save the belly joints for slow roasting or for using in pork rillets.
Then there is the spice. Around 1-2% by weight is normally salt. The other regular is pepper, in both black or white forms. Herbs, well that is your option.
So there you have it, 80% pork, 20% rusk/water and 2% spices and you have made your sausage mix. While keeping the mixture cold, mush it all up in a nice clean mixing bowl and stuff into your sausage skins. Mr P has very kindly offered the loan of his excellent sausage stuffing machine so we're in business for the sausage making day on 2nd May.
If mixing up your own sausage mixtures seems like hard work, I can recommend the mixture from the website www.sausagemaking.org called Old English Breakfast. It is maybe a little commercial but the results are consistently good. Also, while at the e-store, buy some natural sausage skins and some rusk and you will have all the ingredients you need.
Jamon Libre!
I guess what we all aspire to create when we set out to make our first sausages is a classic English breakfast sausage. The recipe posted below for 'Regular Breakfast Sausage' has the benefit of being straight forward and low on the effort quotient. Sausages in the UK tend to be made of around 80% pork with the balance made up of rusk (yeastless bread crumb), water and spices.
The addition of water and rusk might appear to be detracting from the wonderful pork you are stuffing into your sausage skins. However, the rusk and water help to promote a moist texture and soak up some of the juices and fat from the gently cooked meat.
It is entirely up to you, as sausage designer, whether you want to vary these ratios. You might prefer a sausage with 100% pork and only spices added, Toulouse sausages are like this. You may prefer to add breadcrumb and Stilton and only have 50% pork meat, pretty much anything goes.The other established practise that is also open for experimentation is the inclusion of a certain amount of fat. Traditionally, one would use around 50:50 mixtures of shoulder and belly pork, minced. With a naturally reared, rare breed pig you would normally expect a higher proportion of fat in the meat already. Therefore we have settled on using mostly shoulder meat for our sausages. I like to save the belly joints for slow roasting or for using in pork rillets.
Then there is the spice. Around 1-2% by weight is normally salt. The other regular is pepper, in both black or white forms. Herbs, well that is your option.
So there you have it, 80% pork, 20% rusk/water and 2% spices and you have made your sausage mix. While keeping the mixture cold, mush it all up in a nice clean mixing bowl and stuff into your sausage skins. Mr P has very kindly offered the loan of his excellent sausage stuffing machine so we're in business for the sausage making day on 2nd May.
If mixing up your own sausage mixtures seems like hard work, I can recommend the mixture from the website www.sausagemaking.org called Old English Breakfast. It is maybe a little commercial but the results are consistently good. Also, while at the e-store, buy some natural sausage skins and some rusk and you will have all the ingredients you need.
Jamon Libre!
Lincolnshire Sausage
I have made this recipe on a couple of occasions and I like it a lot. The recipe is obviously open to your own interpretation and the number of ingredients makes it a bit time consuming but if you have the patience I think this is a good one. Sourced from sauagemaking.org this variation was originally posted by 'sausagemaker'
Sausagemaker wrote:
Lincolnshire Style Sausage, 2 Kg mix
1.000g Pork Shoulder
500g Pork Belly
270g Water (Chilled)
180g Rusk / Breadcrumb
50g Seasoning
Lincolnshire Sausage Seasoning
(Adapted from a Recipe supplied by Parson Snows 2005)
50g Salt
5g White Pepper
5g Black Pepper
5g Nutmeg
2g Mace
3g Ginger
1g Allspice
15g Dried sage
14g Corn flour
Mix above together until even in colour.
Preparation
1. Chill all meats well, 2 – 3 Hours
2. Chill the water in the refrigerator
3. Dice meats to fit Mincer Throat – return to refrigerator until ready to start
4. Weigh up the seasoning as above & weigh out the 50g required
(Keep the rest in a screw top jar)
5. Weight up rusk or bread crumb – put to one side
Method
1. Mince the meats through the blade of your choice (Course or fine)
2. Add meats to the bowl & fit onto the mixer with the K beater
3. Start the mixer on slow speed and add the seasoning
4. Add the chilled water and continue mixing on slow for the water to absorb this should take no more than 20 seconds.
5. Turn the mixer up to speed 4 and mix vigorously until the meat mixture looks sticky, Again about 30 – 40 seconds (this is myosin the protein that sticks the sausage together & gives texture, rather like the gluten in bread)
6. Add rusk or bread crumb & mix well in
7. If the mixture is wet or soft let it stand for a few minutes for the rusk / breadcrumb to re-hydrate.
8. Fill into suitable casings,
9. Allow standing overnight to Bloom (Flavour Development).
Sausagemaker wrote:
Lincolnshire Style Sausage, 2 Kg mix
1.000g Pork Shoulder
500g Pork Belly
270g Water (Chilled)
180g Rusk / Breadcrumb
50g Seasoning
Lincolnshire Sausage Seasoning
(Adapted from a Recipe supplied by Parson Snows 2005)
50g Salt
5g White Pepper
5g Black Pepper
5g Nutmeg
2g Mace
3g Ginger
1g Allspice
15g Dried sage
14g Corn flour
Mix above together until even in colour.
Preparation
1. Chill all meats well, 2 – 3 Hours
2. Chill the water in the refrigerator
3. Dice meats to fit Mincer Throat – return to refrigerator until ready to start
4. Weigh up the seasoning as above & weigh out the 50g required
(Keep the rest in a screw top jar)
5. Weight up rusk or bread crumb – put to one side
Method
1. Mince the meats through the blade of your choice (Course or fine)
2. Add meats to the bowl & fit onto the mixer with the K beater
3. Start the mixer on slow speed and add the seasoning
4. Add the chilled water and continue mixing on slow for the water to absorb this should take no more than 20 seconds.
5. Turn the mixer up to speed 4 and mix vigorously until the meat mixture looks sticky, Again about 30 – 40 seconds (this is myosin the protein that sticks the sausage together & gives texture, rather like the gluten in bread)
6. Add rusk or bread crumb & mix well in
7. If the mixture is wet or soft let it stand for a few minutes for the rusk / breadcrumb to re-hydrate.
8. Fill into suitable casings,
9. Allow standing overnight to Bloom (Flavour Development).
Cumberland Sausage
This is about as complex as I think sausage recipes can get and the addition of phosphate and dextrose makes it closer to a commercial recipe than a homemade one. However, someone has clearly spent a lot of time working on this recipe so you've gotta think its going to be good. The phosphate is intended to improve the moisture content and mouthfeel. The dextrose should darken the colour of the meat and potentially add some sweetness. (source: sausagemaking.org)
For 80.79 % Meat Content
78.4 % Pork Shoulder = 63.33g
21.6 % Pork Belly =17.45g
Iced Water 10 % of meat = 8.079g
Breadcrumb 10% of meat = 8.079g
Phosphate 0.8 % of meat = 0.646g
Seasoning 2.9 % of meat =2.34g
Total weight = 99.26g
The seasoning for the above batch of 100grams would be:
Salt = 1.528g
Black Pepper = 0.152g
White Pepper = 0.152g
Nutmeg = 0.155g
Mace = 0.078g
Coriander = 0.155g
Cayenne = 0.02g
Dextrose = 0.173
Sage = 0.229g
Thyme = 0.127g
Parsley = 0.127g
Total 2.9
I would kike to know if Oddley thinks these quantities match up to his recipe
For 80.79 % Meat Content
78.4 % Pork Shoulder = 63.33g
21.6 % Pork Belly =17.45g
Iced Water 10 % of meat = 8.079g
Breadcrumb 10% of meat = 8.079g
Phosphate 0.8 % of meat = 0.646g
Seasoning 2.9 % of meat =2.34g
Total weight = 99.26g
The seasoning for the above batch of 100grams would be:
Salt = 1.528g
Black Pepper = 0.152g
White Pepper = 0.152g
Nutmeg = 0.155g
Mace = 0.078g
Coriander = 0.155g
Cayenne = 0.02g
Dextrose = 0.173
Sage = 0.229g
Thyme = 0.127g
Parsley = 0.127g
Total 2.9
I would kike to know if Oddley thinks these quantities match up to his recipe
Gloucester Pork Sausage
Rich in sage this recipe is for a tradition Gloucester pork sausage. (source: sausagemaking.org)
Pork 80%
10 % Breadcrumbs
10 % Iced Water
1.88 % Spice Mix
Spice Mix
79.7826 % Salt
5.5449 % Black Pepper
4.4359 % Nutmeg
5.5449 % Sage
3.412 % Thyme
1.2797 % Marjoram
Usage weight 18.8 g/Kg or 1.88 %
Method
Keep all meats cold. Mince pork once through a 8 mm plate then mince again once through a 4.5mm plate. Mix Pork, water and all spices for about 2 min's in a mixer, or by hand about 5 min's, or until texture changes to slightly sticky, kneading like bread. Then add the breadcrumbs (3 day old bread crumbed in a food processor) or rusk and mix until well distributed. Stuff hogs casings. Leave in the bottom of fridge overnight to bloom. Eat within 3 days or freeze.
Pork 80%
10 % Breadcrumbs
10 % Iced Water
1.88 % Spice Mix
Spice Mix
79.7826 % Salt
5.5449 % Black Pepper
4.4359 % Nutmeg
5.5449 % Sage
3.412 % Thyme
1.2797 % Marjoram
Usage weight 18.8 g/Kg or 1.88 %
Method
Keep all meats cold. Mince pork once through a 8 mm plate then mince again once through a 4.5mm plate. Mix Pork, water and all spices for about 2 min's in a mixer, or by hand about 5 min's, or until texture changes to slightly sticky, kneading like bread. Then add the breadcrumbs (3 day old bread crumbed in a food processor) or rusk and mix until well distributed. Stuff hogs casings. Leave in the bottom of fridge overnight to bloom. Eat within 3 days or freeze.
Regular Breakfast Sausage
A fairly plain sausage with a bit of a peppery bite. Ingredients for 1kg. Recipe sourced from sausagemaking.org
780gm Pork Shoulder (about 75/25 meat to fat)
80gm Rusk
120gm water
20gm seasoning mix
Seasoning mix:
Salt 60gm
Pepper White 10gm
Pepper Black 8gm
Nutmeg 2gm
Mace 1gm
Ginger 2gm
This gives about 1.45% salt.
780gm Pork Shoulder (about 75/25 meat to fat)
80gm Rusk
120gm water
20gm seasoning mix
Seasoning mix:
Salt 60gm
Pepper White 10gm
Pepper Black 8gm
Nutmeg 2gm
Mace 1gm
Ginger 2gm
This gives about 1.45% salt.
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