Charcuterie_ The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing - Michael Ruhlman [49]
There are two scenarios that work best. Cut up your meat and fat, add the salt and additional seasonings, and refrigerate the mixture until it’s thoroughly chilled, for several hours, or overnight. Or, cut and season the meat and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour, till it’s very cold. The meat can be on the brink of freezing, almost crunchy as it were, but not frozen through. Fat can be ground frozen. We recommend chilling your meat to near-freezing temperatures if you’re making sausage in a hot kitchen or a summertime kitchen.
GRINDING
All sausage is by definition ground to some extent (the meat for some country sausages is only finely chopped). Commercial grinders come with a variety of die sizes, but here we’ll assume you’re using either a standard grinder attachment for a standing mixer or a countertop grinder, both of which come with a large die and a small die, typically 1⁄4- and 1⁄8-inch/0.5- and 0.25-centimeter holes. In the following recipes, use the small die unless otherwise instructed.
Keep your blade and dies clean and dry to maintain sharpness. Wash and dry them by hand and store them securely. A dull blade can ruin the texture of a sausage. It’s worth the small expense to have blades professionally sharpened often.
Temperature is important here too: Keep everything cold. This is simply good food safety practice as well as an element of good craftsmanship. If you keep all your ingredients chilled, below 40 degrees F./4 degrees C., usually your meat and fat will combine perfectly. When you grind your meat, do so into a bowl set in ice. It helps to chill the grinder and blades too. All this attention to temperature does make a difference. (If you’d ever ruined five pounds of sausage, which ended up with the texture of papier-mâché in your mouth, you’d be vigilant from then on!)
Remove as much sinew as possible when dicing the meat. This can tangle on the blade and clog the die, causing what’s called “smear,” and this can result in a broken sausage as well. When your grinder is working properly, the meat should be extruded cleanly through the die, each hole in the die distinct, the meat and fat distinct from each other. It should look like good ground beef. If the meat begins to look mushy and, rather than being extruded, collects on the surface of the die in a mass, the color pale because the meat and fat are being squeezed together, turn off the machine, remove the blade, and clear it of sinew. Then resume grinding.
MIXING (THE PRIMARY BIND)
Ground meat, fat, and seasonings need to be vigorously mixed until they are sticky. In charcuterie circles, this is called “the primary bind.” Ground meat does not naturally hold together. To make a hamburger that won’t fall apart on the grill, you have to work it a little. The more you knead it, the more it sticks to itself and the stickier looking it becomes. The mechanical action of mixing and kneading develops the protein in the meat (as the same action develops the protein in bread dough) and this meat protein, called myosin, sticks to itself.
Developing the primary bind is an important step in sausage making; it ensures a uniform texture, rather than a coarse, crumbly one, improving both the cooking and the eating, and it ensures even distribution of the seasonings. Mixing can be done with a wooden spoon in a bowl, but if you have a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, that works best.
Mix the sausage for a minute or two to develop that protein, that primary bind, and create a smooth texture. Often during mixing, you will be adding water or wine or some other liquid to the meat, which the meat will absorb quickly and easily. The liquid enhances the moisture of the finished sausage, helps