Odd Fried Sausage Question

[DanMcG]

This may seen like an odd question, but it's been bugging me for years. My grandfather use to slice his Italian sausage and fry it in a pan with some oil and the slices would form a nice crown on both ends like in the pic below but with more rise of the crown.



He sliced it about 1/2" and ended up with probably 1/4" rise on both sides.
How did he get this to crown like that? It has to be something in the sausage and was thinking maybe rusk and water?
I've fried what seems like hundreds of pounds of sausage like this and I'm never able to replicate it.

Why would I want my sausage look like that?
Sentimental or nostalgic reasons for sure' but I been trying to duplicate his Italian sausage for a while and although I'm close on flavor it's missing something, and I was thinking whatever causes the crown might be what's missing. Not to mention it's frustrating as heck that I haven't figured it out after many years of trying.
So to the rusk users out there, would this happen with your sausage when you fry slices.
Thanks, Dan

[RodinBangkok]

Starches used as fillers can cause this, as the starch does not expand until heated, also steam can cause some swelling, so its hard to tell depending on your formulation.

[DanMcG]

thanks Rod. I'll try some starch on the next batch, and any advice you could share would be greatly appreciated.

Here's my formulation

Italian Sausage;
Pork Butt 1 kg
Salt 10g
Course ground black pepper 4.1g
Fennel seed 6g
Chopped Garlic 6.2g
Crushed Italian hot pepper 5g


Cube pork and fat, set aside fat, and add spice mix to meat. Mix well.
Let set over night.
Grind fat through 5/16 plate then mix with meat cubes and grind everything again. ( I don't like large chunks of fat, that’s why I double grind it)
Mix by hand until meat gets tacky.
Stuff into 32-35 hog casings.