Mastering the Craft of Making Sausage by Warren R. Anderson Read Free Book Online Page B

be purchased at a wholesale grocery store for about $3.50. There are few reasons to use anything other than one of these two varieties for making sausage. Iodized salt and sea salt contain minerals that are good for you, but they are not the best salts for making sausage.
    Pickling salt and table salt are fine grain salts. Fine grain salts are best for sausage making because fine grain crystals dissolve faster than large crystals and because fine grain salt can be measured accurately by volume.
    Kosher salt, especially the fast-dissolving flaked kosher salt, is quite acceptable for sausage making because it is a pure salt with no additives. A negative point is that any given volume measurement of kosher salt will weigh less than the same unit of fine grain salt; consequently, one tablespoon of kosher salt will weigh less—and contain less salt—than one tablespoon of fine grain salt. All the sausage-seasoning formulas in this book are based on the use of fine grain salt. If kosher salt is used, the volume measurement of the salt needs to be increased, and the amount of increase will depend on the brand and kind of kosher salt you are using.
    Store salt in a tightly sealed plastic bag to protect it from humidity. Pure salt may become lumpy even if it is stored in a plastic bag, but its quality will not be diminished. Storage time does not lessen the quality either; so don’t hesitate to by a large quantity if that is most economical.
    If the salt becomes lumpy, break the lumps and use it. The best way to deal with lumpy salt, sugar, or spices is to put the seasoning into a strainer or a flour sifter, and then break the lumps. If the seasoning passes through the wire mesh, it is fine enough to use.
    Spices and Herbs
    For most of us, there is no clear distinction between the word spice and the word herb, especially when the subject is seasoning for food. Even the experts do not always agree, so let’s use the word spices to mean both spices and herbs .
    The main reason why one kind of sausage tastes so different from another is because of the different spices and seasonings used in each. Of course, the varieties of meat used in each sausage contribute to the differences in taste, but the spices and seasonings determine their main character. Appendix 1 contains a list of spices and seasonings commonly used in sausage making.
    The sausage formulas in this book will suggest certain spices. If you have experience with the suggested spices, and if you can imagine the resulting taste, you should make changes to match your preferences. If you can’t imagine the taste of the finished product, but you want to try the suggested seasonings, you should make a small batch of the product. In fact, it is wise to make a small batch anytime you make a sausage for the first time. For a small batch, it is suggested that the meat and all other ingredients be cut in half. The resulting taste will be the same as a full batch.
    The spices used should be of good quality. However, as far as quality is concerned, we have little choice but to trust the reputation of the brand. Very few of us are qualified to judge the quality of a spice by peering through the glass or plastic container.
    The freshness of dried spices is, to some extent, under our control. There is often an expiration date on the spice container. If you have some spices sitting around the house and the dates have expired, or if you have no idea how old they are, the best thing to do is to throw them out.
    The company that processes and packs the spice decides the expiration date. The expertise of specialists in the company is used to determine the shelf life of the particular spice. They assume that the spice will be tightly sealed, struck by an average amount of light, and exposed to room temperature. If the actual storage conditions are worse than expected, the spice will go bad faster. If the actual storage conditions are better than they expected, the particular spice may be usable