Mixing Guidelines

[krautguy]

We are making sausage for our farmer's market and use a Globe stand mixer to mix our meat. On the lowest and slowest setting we mix with the paddle for 3 min. and then with the dough hook for another 3 min.. I've noticed that once the meat begins to turn sticky (after 3 min) it sticks to the paddle. That is why we then use the dough hook.

I have this question: Are we mixing long enough to develop the meat to give it a good texture? And what mixer attachment is the best for mixing sausage?

Thank You

[BriCan]

We are making sausage for our farmer's market and use a Globe stand mixer to mix our meat. On the lowest and slowest setting we mix with the paddle for 3 min. and then with the dough hook for another 3 min.. I've noticed that once the meat begins to turn sticky (after 3 min) it sticks to the paddle. That is why we then use the dough hook.

I have this question: Are we mixing long enough to develop the meat to give it a good texture? And what mixer attachment is the best for mixing sausage?

Thank You

It seems that every one you may ask has a time definition/length on mixing before stuffing. I myself only mix/blend for approx a minuet and a half and that's 30 lbs by hand. (12,000 lbs a week)

The key thing here is to know your amount as well as the recipe as that will give us help on answering your question

Believe it or not you can over mix sausage

[wheels]

I know it sounds daft, but I just mix until it changes from being minced meat into sausage-meat.

The change in texture and smell are what I go by.

Phil

[DanMcG]

I know it sounds daft, but I just mix until it changes from being minced meat into sausage-meat.

The change in texture and smell are what I go by.

Phil

I second what Phil said. I mix by hand and it might not be as obvious when using a mixer, (I can't say) but it will change its aroma and the texture will be sticky

[krautguy]

Yes I've seen it go from hamburger to a sticky paste.

What are the signs of over mixing?

[krautguy]

This is our general recipe:

20lbs grass fed beef 70/30 1/8grind
3/4 cup salt
2 cup bread crumbs
4 cups water
spices (sage thyme, mustard, coriander, fennel, onion, garlic, peppers sugar)

Mix dry and wet ingredients (not breadcrumbs) and then add to meat. Mix on level one for 3 minutes in globe mixer. Add breadcrumbs. Mix another 3 minutes with dough hook. Stuff.

[BriCan]

Yes I've seen it go from hamburger to a sticky paste.

What are the signs of over mixing?

sticky paste, should be sticky to hold but not as a paste. Product will/maybe on the dry side with beef (more than normal) Could/might/will be crumbly

[BriCan]

This is our general recipe:

20lbs grass fed beef 70/30 1/8grind

I am assuming by this you are only grinding/mincing once and that is with a 1/8th plate

3/4 cup salt

At the moment I am working off my work computer as my home one has crashed and it seems that I am not getting updates on the work one. I came across this an hour ago but left this alone hoping some one else would catch on There has been a discussion on salt albeit one sided this hit me between the eyes as to be way out to left field

If we convert the 20 lbs of beef to metric we get 9.0718kg or 9071.8g http://www.worldwidemetric.com/measurements.html

In days gone by we would work with either 20g or 25g (salt) per kg of meat, this would give us a number of either 181g salt or 227g salt. Due to the health problems that arrive out of excess salt a lot of producers have dropped the amount of salt in there products, myself I use 10g salt per kg of meat when making fresh sausage so for your 20 lbs of meat I would be using 91g salt

I weighed out 3/4 cup of salt and it weighs out at 265g

Wheels, vagreys any thoughts on the above

2 cup bread crumbs
4 cups water
spices (sage thyme, mustard, coriander, fennel, onion, garlic, peppers sugar)

Mix dry and wet ingredients (not breadcrumbs) and then add to meat. Mix on level one for 3 minutes in globe mixer. Add breadcrumbs. Mix another 3 minutes with dough hook. Stuff.

Wow, that's a total of six minuets of mixing and in my humble opinion is more than a tad too long

[wheels]

Certainly the salt is higher than I would use - I tend to go for around 1 - 1.2% salt in fresh sausage but I guess that it's down to personal preference. Too little may affect the development of myosin in the meat - the magic that turns mince into sausage - but that's not an issue here. The water level appears to be about 10% (if my calcs of the cups are about right - I'm not used to them!) which again seems OK. I'm guessing that the breadcrumbs are nowhere near half the weight of the water - so again, I don't see a proble.

I'm with you Brican - 6 minutes seems too long. That said, the initial question was: "Are we mixing long enough to develop the meat to give it a good texture? And what mixer attachment is the best for mixing sausage? "

The answer to that is that you're probably mixing for too long and that, in my experience, there's little difference between the paddle or dough hook - if my Kenwood Chef is anything to go by. The only thing I did notice though is that the dough hook seemed to try to empty the bowl of the sausage mix!

If I remember correctly, Brican uses a "brief mix, then a re-grind" to make his sausage - it's a method used by many butchers (at least it is in the UK) perhaps that may be easier for you?

I'll leave the detail to him to explain.

Phil