Additives

[ffmedicman]

I’m very new to this and have a question about the additives. Do I need to add carrot fiber, cold phosphate or sure gel to fresh sausage or just for meat sticks and smoked sausages?

[Austin]

ffmedicman
While you don’t have to add anything there to fresh sausage, you will get some benefit from adding Carrot Fiber or Cold Phosphate, to help with some moisture retention. I would not add the sure gel to a fresh sausage though. If you have a high fat content on the fresh sausage (something like 70/30 or 60/40) I wouldn’t worry about carrot fiber or cold phosphate. But, if you are making a leaner sausage (80/20 or 90/10 or even less fat…) I would definitely add some carrot fiber and/or cold phosphate.

Jonathon Anything you would add to this or change?

[Jonathon]

ffmedicman Austin the only thing I would add is that adding carrot fiber does have one more benefit, even in a fresh sausage with enough fat, and that is it acts as a yield enhancer. Carrot fiber holds up to 26 times its weight in water so it is going to get you more sausage out of your meat. That doesn’t matter as much to home processors, but if I could have 13 sausages or 10, that taste the same I am taking the extra 3!

[Joe Hell]

Jonathon I have found that adding carrot fiber to a beef burger patty helps with additions such as beer!

[Jonathon]

Joe Hell How so? Are you saying that it helps the meat hold more of the beer taste?

[ffmedicman]

Austin
So is the sure gel pretty much used in the emulsified sausages like hot dogs? Then use carrot fiber for everything else? Also how much extra liquid do you add once you put in the phosphates or carrot fiber over the normal recipe?

[Joe Hell]

Jonathon I suppose it just enables a higher concentration of beer without ‘juicing’ out during cooking. I could also achieve that with a little protein extraction but might end up with a tough burger.

[Austin]

ffmedicman Sure Gel can be used in any type of cured sausage, but I wouldn’t use it in fresh sausage. If you want to use carrot fiber in fresh sausage, it will work great there. I wouldn’t add more water than we normally suggest though with any binder. We typically recommend adding 1 quart per 25 lb of meat as that would be the proper amount with a binder added.