Chicken brats

[stan]

Hello
I use Walton’s products all the time,
I have not been on this site for a while
And as always, Walton’s has the best customer Support
My question is that I have some seasoning that will be going out of date
And I would like to use them now
I have a pack of south of border cheddar wurst
And a pack of cheese burger cheddar worst,
Which also calls for sure cure

My goal is to make chicken brats
I also have celery juice powder ,carrot fiber,
And cold phosphate
Please remind me of correct quantities of ingredients,water,carrot fiber
And what size casings
Thank you
Stan Kaminski

[craigrice]

stan if you go to meatgistics to learning center under how to make at the bottom of the list is an article /video on chicken brats

[Jonathon]

stan With how your post formatted I thought it was a poem at first, that would be a first for meatgistics!

Casings are up to you but I would recommend the 32mm hog casings or the 30 or 32mm collagen. Are you smoking this or no? If you are making a chicken Bratwurst then you dont need cure as bratwursts are just grilled or pan fried, if you are smoking it then you want to use the cure to help keep it safe during the smoking process.

Celery juice powder can be used instead of sure cure as it has curative properties and should be used at the ratio of 4 oz to 100 lb of meat, so .04 oz per lb.

Cold phosphate is 2 oz per 25 lb of meat so that would be .08 oz per lb of meat.

Carrot fiber is 4 oz per 25 lb to that would be.16 oz per lb of meat.

Now, if you use the cold phosphates and the carrot fiber I would recommend you go with 3 pints (which is 3 lb of water) of water per 25 lb batch. it might present a little soupy but more moisture will stay in the sausage.

Whether you are making a cured sausage or a true bratwurst I would recommend grinding the meat at least twice, the last time through a 1/8 plate and mixing it ery very thoroughly.

For the breakdown of how much of the seasoning and for cures and additives as well check the bottom of Seasonings Page as it has conversion charts for all 3 at the bottom.

Hope this helped!

[stan]

Jonathon
Thank you !

[stan]

Hello
My chicken Brats came out Great,
I smoked them at low temp and then ramped up the temp
I used collagen casings ,But the skin came out a little dry and tuff. Is the fresh collagen casings better to use for this application? Or maybe more moisture internally?
Thank you

[Jonathon]

stan as long as you aren’t hanging them the Fresh collagen might be better. The fresh just isn’t strong enough to stand up to being hung in a smokehouse for long periods of time. If you casing was really tough I think it might be a humidity issue. Did you have a way to introduce some humidity into your smoker? Check out this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBjEqOfyeEI where we used some Automotive sponges to get our relative humidity up to 50%.

Also, the collagen does rely a little on the meat to make it softer by adding some moisture, this can be a problem with chicken as it tends to dry quickly. Next time try sure gel instead of the carrot fiber and see if you like that better?

I’m going to make some TomatoBasil Brats this weekend I think!

[PapaSop]

stan
I’ve been pondering this post for awhile because I’ve never done brats as a smoked sausage, at least initially. BTW those look really nice. See what you mean on the casing. Think I’d go with hog casing, especially if you’re hanging them. Typically do my brats as a fresh sausage using hog casings.
A few years back I fired up the Weber and decided to try smoking them. These were regular Johnsonville brats. Cooked them indirect putting chips on the coals. They came out exactly like a smoked sausage. Changed the whole flavor profile. No bun or condiments needed. Wonderful.

[stan]

Jonathon
Thank you again for all of your advice and useful information . Next time I will try the fresh collagen

Another question,have you ever played around with a sous vide? With the precise temperature settings and cooking in a bag would surly be the most tender sausages out there!
Anyway , I just ordered a sous vide to try out myself
Thank you!

[Joe Hell]

stan I’ve tried the sous vide cook on the fresh brats and as you mention they really retain the juices. It works well to precook your sausages so you can just pull from the fridge/freezer and brown them.

[Jonathon]

Joe Hell Do you cook them all the way up to 165 in the sous vide or do you stop short?

[Joe Hell]

Jonathon I cooked them up to 165 in the bag and then to an ice bath