Rookworst sausage

[DanMcG]

I made up some Rookworst this past weekend and thought I'd share what I ended up with for a recipe. (I thought I had posted it awhile back, but didn't find it with a search)
It's a great sausage for grilling with just the right amount of heat.







Rookworst

Ingredient Weight in
Grams
Pork trim 1800
water 100
NFM powder 30
dextrose 30
Salt 30
Phosphate 9
nutmeg 7
coriander 5
Cure #1 4.5
Black pepper 4
hot pepper 3.3

Grind lean through a medium plate and fat through a fine plate.
These were stuffed into a 29-32 casing, linked and then smoked for 5 hours.
I finished them in a water bath. They were around 135 after the five hour smoke, so I placed them in a 175° water bath for about 10 minutes till they reached 154° +/- then into an ice bath. The hot bath helps plump them up and the cold water sets them.



Need to make bigger buns or smaller sausages .....

Thanks for looking, Let me know what you think if you make them.

[wheels]

They look the biz Dan.

You need to sort those buns out though!

Phil

[NCPaul]

That sausage to bun ratio looks good to me. 2016 is off to a good start for you Dan.

[wheels]

You're just greedy!

[crustyo44]

In The Netherlands, Rookworst is always eaten by itself, no bun in sight. This sausage is made in a ring only and sold as 1/3 or 1/2 with mustard if you are hungry, kept hot in water and cut while you wait. The most famous brand is Hema Rookworst.
Nobody actually knows exactly what spices are used or the meat, I bet it will be full of colouring, taste enhancers, phosphate and other chemicals, leaving not much room for real meat.
Obviously Quality Butchers make their own with great success. Recipes are a trade secret!!!!
Dan, your sausages look great. I certainly will be making them to your recipe.
Thank you for posting all the info.
Cheers,
Jan.

[This Little Piggy]

Dan, curious about the quantity of phosphate salts. Does that yield quite a firm sausage?

[DanMcG]

It's firm but not rubbery, with a good bind and mouth feel.
One odd thign about this batch is it was an extremely wet mix for some reason (I might have added more water then I should have) 5% shouldn't have been an issue, but even so they firmed up nicely, and when pinched between your fingers they do give a fair amount, maybe a 1/4" or so.
Here's the inside's to show the bind;

[herjac]

These sausages look good and I'd like to try this recipe but what is NFM powder??

[NCPaul]

Non-fat milk powder.

[herjac]

Thanks!

[herjac]

I made this sausage, following the recipe, and the taste is superb! I found that 5 hours with my cold smoke set-up was a little much and I'll cut back on this by half the next time but overall my wife and I like this a lot and will make again!
I made a 1.7 kg test amount along with some other test recipes and I am wondering how best to store this sausage.. How long will this be safe in the frig since it is smoked and cooked? Should I vac-pak? Should I freeze?

[DanMcG]

Glad you liked them Herjac. I always vac pack and freeze my extra sausages, the one's I leave in the frig I try to eat that week.

[Robin0925]

I think these look great, and I've just finished mixing up the seasonings and cutting up 4 lbs of nice, fatty pork shoulder to make them. It's going to be my first time making a sausage in a casing. I hope someone can give me a couple of tips...

I don't have a dedicated stuffer yet... So I was wondering about the grind.

1) Should I mix in the seasoning and water before I grind? I do that with my breakfast sausage for a few hours.

2) Should I grind it once and then back through to stuff on the coarse plate? It seems like putting ground meat back through my grinder might cause all kinds of headaches.

3) I pulled out several lengths of casing and they all seems to have a hole in them when I rinsed the inside. Should I go back through and untangle a few more to find some without any holes or is this normal?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the new guy questions. Any thoughts would be appreciated greatly!

[DanMcG]

Sorry but I just noticed your post Robin..
1. I prefer to do as you say and mix the seasoning with the water. I think it helps to distribute the mix evenly.
2. Sounds like you're stuffing using your grinder? I can't help much with that process but it always helps to almost freeze the meat between grinds, it will go through much nicer.
3. Finding holes in your casings is more common with a lesser quality casing. I store mine in salt so pulling more out to use would take to long to soak and loosen up. If I'm having a bad day with natural casings, I'll give up and pull out some collagen casings and carry on.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for ya...Oh yeah, Welcome to the forums!!

[Robin0925]

Well I decided after thinking it over for a while to just grind once through the coarse plate, straight into the casing. I had a little trouble with linking them, since it was my first time. I ended up with a lot of variation in size. But, no blow outs. The holes I found in the cases did not really give me any problems. And, overall it wasn't that hard. Next time will be easier.

As for the final product, I am really happy with it. I smoked 4 hours, then did a water bath. Texture and taste is fantastic. I was a little concerned about all the nutmeg, but once it's smoked it really takes on a different flavor. So I'm thrilled with my choice to make these as my first sausage. I'm probably going to get a dedicated stuffer, now. Thanks for the recipe. Up next is andouille.