www.sausagemaking.org

I make a sausage fairly often that is akin to mortadella. I use a Ninja food processor to get the texture of the met and fat fine enough. The problem I have is in the end I have something akin to a mousse. After I poach my sausage it has a spongy sort of texture. I have thought about using my foodsaver to vacuum the air out of the mixture but am unsure this will work.

The spongy might be from over working the meat, But that's more of a rubbery texture. The pros who chop with a buffalo chopper will cut and mix on high then reduce the speed to low for a bit to remove the air. I can't offer anymore then that. good luck.

All I can suggest is to emulate what the pros do and stir it with a spoon to try to 'let the air out'.

I've had similar, although maybe not to the same extent:

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=648

Phil

Those blenders are are way too fast in a small area to use for meat emulsions, but I'd try pulsing it on a lower speed and mix it with a spoon or something between pulses. They set up a vortex that will just spin the contents and force air into the mix. You could use vacuum, a lot of very high end bowl cutters are vacuum capable, but used mostly to insure very consistent batch consistency. Best to pulse slow to keep from developing a vortex and mix mix mix.

Haven't tried it, but have read in some texts that emulsified sausages are better processed in three steps: first chop the most lean meat with one third of the almost-frozen liquid, then add the remaining meat with one more third of the almost-frozen liquid, and only then add and chop the fat with the final one third of almost-frozen liquid. Maybe this helps, but just speculating.

The last time I made hot dogs I ran the meat and fat through the grinder four times chilling between passes. I would suggest using the grinder more so the meat has the least amount of time in the processor.

I think you guys are right. Too fast. Man, I wish I could afford a buffalo chopper. I am going to have to experiment. I have just been adding semi frozen chunks of meat to my ninja, and pureeing to a paste. I wonder if a few passes through my grinder then pulses in the ninja would be better? Maybe just 4 passes through the grinder as previously mentioned.

I always grind the meat first - 3 grinds through progressively smaller plates down to a 4.5mm plate (a 3mm would be better) for the last grind. Only then do I use the food processor (Magimix).

HTH

Phil

For a vacuum to work you might need to use a chamber sealer, I'm not sure that a standard vacuum will have the power to do what you're looking for.

Cutlass,
I make Dutch Rookworst on a regular basis now and NOW only uses my # 22 grinder with a 3mm plate.I mince everything beforehand through a 6 mm plate, mix in the spices and cure etc, Than mince once through a 3 mm plate and semi freeze this in chunks that fit through the mincer inlet, than again through the 3 mm plate and fill the casings.
This results in the consistency of a slightly courser frankfurt mix.
I used to vitamise but didn't like the end result.
My 2 cents worth.
Good Luck,
Jan.

As JerBear says, a vacuum sealer will work to extract the air bubbles from your mortadella mix and make it denser, but you will need a chamber sealer, ie one that pulls air from the entire chamber and not just air from the bag as a FoodSaver does.

This technique can be great for achieving a denser texture in a pâté. Instead of putting a board on top of the pâté pan and weighting it down with cans, etc, you can just vacuum-seal it in a chamber unit and use the atmospheric pressure to compress it.