I’m wondering about shelf life of freshly made sausages?

[X86BSD]

The usda says 1-2 days, which seems ridiculous to me. It takes 24 hours just to bloom them. Leaving a day to consume? Seems a bit short.

There is salt in most sausages at the very least, sometimes also curing salt. Salt alone in the amounts sued won’t really do much for shelf life but it can’t hurt.

5 days seems like a reasonable and safe window.

A day to bloom after grinding and stuffing.

And 4 day sale window.

But I’m not a food chemist.

What do you most of you use as a shelf life for your freshly made sausages?

Chris

[NCPaul]

My suggestion would be to poach them at 160-170F for 15 minutes (10 minutes in sheep casings). Then a quick fry or turn on the grill will brown them. Chicken is easy to over cook starting from a raw sausage. Having a wet mix from adding the rice may cause them to split. After poaching them you should have three days to eat or package and freeze.

[X86BSD]

Once again, thank you Paul!

That’s just the info I needed.

A minor note on overcooking chicken... I’m not a huge fan of chicken wether it’s breasts or legs for that exact reason. So I use thighs in my chicken sausages. Mainly because I can still find them, usually at Costco for .99 cents/lb. I just have to debone them.

But I digress, the technique I use to help keep all chicken parts from overcooking and becoming just awful, I picked up this technique in kitchens. I simply dry brine the chicken part. As I said I use thighs because they are juicier and tend to be a bit harder to overcook but if you just rub them with salt and chill for 24hrs you’ll buy yourself some wiggle room when cooking. In case you’re on the phone and forget they are on the grill or whatever the case may be. A rubdown with salt or salt and seasoning mix for 24 hours in the fridge helps prevent them from over cooking so fast.

I dry brine everything. But chicken does beat with this technique and beef sees the least benefit.

Most probably already know this but for new folks that don’t...

Chris

[wheels]

It also develops the myosin in the meat making the sausage easier to make.

Phil

[lkapigian]

i Often take a link or 2 of my fresh sausage ang hang it in my curing chamber, becomes a delicious dry sausage after a few weeks...2-3 days is ridiculous ...if you’ve gone2% salt by weight, smaller casings , it’s just fine...a bit of fermentation enhances it even if you don’t dry it to long

[wheels]

i Often take a link or 2 of my fresh sausage ang hang it in my curing chamber, becomes a delicious dry sausage after a few weeks...2-3 days is ridiculous ...if you’ve gone2% salt by weight, smaller casings , it’s just fine...a bit of fermentation enhances it even if you don’t dry it to long

IMO that's not exactly a safe practice.

The usda says 1-2 days, which seems ridiculous to me. It takes 24 hours just to bloom them. Leaving a day to consume? Seems a bit short.

There is salt in most sausages at the very least, sometimes also curing salt. Salt alone in the amounts sued won’t really do much for shelf life but it can’t hurt.

5 days seems like a reasonable and safe window.

A day to bloom after grinding and stuffing.

And 4 day sale window.

But I’m not a food chemist.

What do you most of you use as a shelf life for your freshly made sausages?

Chris

Without a preservative 3 days is the usual time-scale that I've seen. In the UK, if the powers that be say 2 days and you want to do 4 days you have to prove safety by having samples tested to prove the process is safe.

Phil

[X86BSD]

Thanks for the reply Phil!

I found the bit about “if you want to make it 4 days” interesting. AFAIK we don’t have a procedure like that here in the US. If the state health dept or FDA says 1-2 days, it’s 1-2 days. I don’t think they leave wiggle room for interpretation.

How much longer would you get if you cases the fresh sausage and vacuum packed them? How about vacuum packed them then poached them?

Is there a good book on this subject specifically anyone knows about?

[NCPaul]

Does this help?

https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety- ... age-charts

[X86BSD]

It does indeed!

Doesn’t cover any difference IF any vacuum packing plays in extending shelf life but it covers everything else perfectly!

Thanks again Paul!