What Is Fresh Sausage?

Jonathon

What is Fresh Sausage?

Fresh Sausage is traditionally a product that has been ground, seasoned, and then most times stuffed into a casing for cooking. The size of the sausage can vary from as small as breakfast sausage links up to 35mm Bratwurst-style sausage. It can be made from beef, pork, poultry, wild game, or other meats and even some non-meat items are being called sausage now.

Initially, sausage was made to use as much of an animal as possible, so organ meats, connective tissue, and other non-desirable cuts were ground, salted, and then stuffed into the intestines of the animal to be either cooked or cured. Over time it proved to be so popular due to its taste that the practice of using lower-quality cuts is no longer common.

Today some common types of Fresh Sausage are Breakfast whether it is in links, patties, or just made as a ground product, Italian, Bratwurst, Mexican Chorizo, and even some Boudin. Because a cure is not used for fresh products, they need to be refrigerated or consumed right away. When cooking them, you can add smoke if desired, but it is less common.

Meat Block

Sausage can be made from almost any meat. Pork is the most common as it is readily available and relatively inexpensive, but beef is also fairly common, and chicken sausage is becoming much more common and commercially available. Regardless of what meat block is being used at least an 80/20 fat ratio is standard, but we like 70/30, and some even go closer to 50/50.

This means if a leaner wild game such as venison is being used the correct amount of pork fat will need to be added or the finished product will be less flavorful and overly dry. The best time to add this pork fat is during the second grind so it can mix in well with the lean meat. For most types of fresh sausage, the meat should be ground twice through a 3/16" plate to achieve the ideal particle size.

Texture

Fresh Sausage, especially Bratwurst and Breakfast Link Sausage, does not have the same texture as cured sausage. This is because we do not need to achieve protein extraction during the mixing process as we are not smoking it, meaning there is less of a danger of the fat rendering out of the meat during the cooking process. The end result is that when you cut a fresh sausage open, it will have a more coarse appearance and mouthfeel.

Casings

Fresh Sausage can be stuffed into natural casings, like hog and sheep, or you can use fresh collagen casings. Since Fresh Sausage can cover everything from Breakfast Links to Bratwurst you might be using casings as small as 21mm collagen or as large as 35mm natural hog casings.

Cooking

Depending on the meat you are using to make your sausage you will need to cook it to different internal temperatures. For example, beef and pork sausages need to be cooked to an internal temperature of 160° F while chicken and other poultry need to be cooked to 165°F. The reason that sausage needs to be cooked higher than a whole muscle cut, like steak, is that very little harmful bacteria live inside the muscle, the majority of it is on the surface. Once you have ground that however, you have exposed all of the meat to that bacteria and it must be properly cooked to be safe to eat.

Storage

Either cook your sausage immediately or freeze it and then vacuum pack it for future use. If you do not freeze the sausage first and try to vacuum pack it you will end up crushing your sausage, and it will either have flat sides to it, or it will be pushed out of the casing altogether.

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Crawrugger

Where do you get Pork Fat when making venison sausage such a Brats or Italian Sausage?

Joe Hell

Crawrugger Check with your local grocer or butcher! It’s not an item you’ll likely see on the shelf but if you ask they can generally provide it for you.

Crawrugger

Joe Hell Thanks, I’ve been using Pork Butt (for instance 16 lbs of venison and 8 lbs pork butt or shoulder) as my fat source but after reading more on the subject am obviously not getting the correct ratio of fat to lean meat in my fresh sausages and snack sticks as I should be.

Joe Hell

Crawrugger Fat is key for flavor and texture!