Percentage of Salt in Various Proteins

[JerBear]

While I said various proteins in the title I'm mostly referring to pork vs. chicken, however, if someone has something to add regarding beef, seafood or other poultry I'm happy to learn more. This is the challenge I had...

I normally add salt at an amount of 1.75% of the weight of the pork shoulder. I recently made a chicken sausage with the same percentage that while tasty was a smide over-seasoned. I have a couple theorys that I'm going to work on but wondered if anyone has found that they need to adjust their salt dependent on protein, seasonality, etc. I know that if I'm adding something salty to the mix (say feta cheese) I'll want to drop my salt precent down a smide.

Theory 1 - salt level must be adjusted by protein/season - as yet untested by me
Theory 2 - a closer inspection of my recipes show that I'm an idiot, well, at least a little. When making pork sausages in addition to the percentage of salt I add 10% back fat also based on the weight of the pork shoulder but I don't/didn't do the same with the chicken. This translates to a .16% difference....closer to 1.59% instead of 1.75%
Theory 3 - Please see italicized sentance above. While writing this out I realized that I had an ingredient that included a great deal of salt, specifically fish sauce. Spot checking google suggests that fish sauce is about 7.7-8.2% salt depending on manufacturer. Based on the quantity added for this recipe which was 5.5% by weight my salt content was closer to 2.15%.

End Result - While I thought I was normally at a 1.75% salt level in my pork sausage when in reality I was closer to 1.59%. With the addition of the fish sauage I was actually closer to 2.15% which is about a 25% increase.

I was initially sharing this to find out more isoteric information regarding protein + salt but instead taught myself a lesson in sausage making 101 which I failed at. I decided to go ahead a share it as a reminder and warning to everyone else to be careful with salt levels... no going back from overseasoned meat.

[wheels]

I assume that we're talking fresh sausage? In which case, I salt to 1.2% - 1.5%. That said, I can understand that many people prefer more.

HTH

Phil

[JerBear]

I was indeed referring to fresh sausages and the end result was that I learned I also prefer a salt level of closer to 1.5% and that I need to be more careful to look at the other ingredients I use. What would cause you to vary your precentage between 1.2 and 1.5?

[wheels]

Just looking at my recipes, they're mostly around 1.2%. The ones that are higher are ones with no filler, and little other than salt and pepper - Toulouse sausage etc.

HTH

Phil

[JerBear]

Most everything helps Wheels. It's all a process of self-discovery, experimentation and education. As one of my old friends used to say, "Some days chickens, some days feathers." As it turns out I had a tester of the Thai sausage in my fridge that I cooked up last night and as it turns out the salt really mellowed out and the sausage was fantastic! I'll still be dropping the salt level overall but I think I dodged a bullet on this one.

Thanks!