Breakfast Sausage - Slightly Dry

[SWINPaul]

Finished a 25lb batch of Maple Breakfast Sausage this past Saturday. Flavor was fine when trying it out Sunday morning, but was a tiny bit drier from what I was expecting. The dryness was subtle: I noticed it. My wife didn’t. Curious as to whether I undermixed (by hand), meat to warm when mixing, not enough fat or ???

20lbs ground pork, 5lbs pork fat trimmings;
Coarse grind, then 2nd grind through 1/8 plate. mixed in seasonings and unsalted chicken stock. Stuffed into 24-26mm tubed sheep casing.

Thanks in advance.
Paul

[processhead]

Any idea of the lean/fat ratio of the 20 lbs of ground pork?
Almost sounds like your meat block might have been a bit too lean.

[smokinbubba]

SWINPaul Did you keep the lean and fat separate? I mix the seasonings with the lean and add the fat to the mix in the last minute of mixing. Makes all the difference in the world. Gives much better particle definition and palet feel. Seems creamer to me.
Paul #2 may have hit it on the head. More fat is more better!

[SWINPaul]

I added the additional fat in during my final grind. Then added seasonings and stock to the meat before beginning the hand mixing.

The lean to fat ratio before I added fat was right about 85/15. So i know i was running to lean even with the additional fat added in later.

[YooperDog]

SWINPaul that is pretty lean for breakfast sausage. I used to try to keep it lean like that, but tough to turn out a quality product. You really need to be in the 20-30% range, closer to the 30% range. Store/commercial types can run up to 50% in their products. Everything else looked pretty SOP. Like everyone I have my own techniques, first grind fat and lean ground separately, second grind everything together, add spices and liquid, mix to incorporate then stuff. Pretty simple stuff.

[TexLaw]

How did you cook it? What was the final internal temperature? It’s not hard to overcook fresh sausage, and that’ll make it a bit dry. It could that simple. We’ve all been there.

If that isn’t it, you could try some carrot fiber or Super Bind.

[SWINPaul]

I have now cooked up 2 batches of the links. First was pan fried with 2 tablespoons of water in skillet. Fat was bubbling in the casings when I probed with thermometer (160 and 162 on the 2 I checked). Did another 5 links this morning in skillet with no water and 2 I checked were right at 160-164. Again, flavor was good and dryness was oh-so subtle. Next batch I do I intend to bump up lean to fat to closer to 30% and see how it impact the outcome.