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Hi. Welcome to Local Flavor. My name is Oystein Solberg and we're here at the Institute for
the Culinary Arts. Today we've got a whole day of sausage grinding and stuffing. Its
grilling season and nothing tastes better than a homemade bratwurst. So I'm gonna teach
you guys a little about the equipment that is used and how to make a pretty basic sausage.
When building this contraptions, take the house and just put it onto our grinder and
just tighten it well. It's really important that everything is very very tight. And this
one goes in right there. Like so. And then the blade, flat side out. It just sits on
front there. Then we take our dye and have that little nub facing forward, this will
just help it tighten up as well. And it has a little track right there that will attach
on the bottom. This will avoid the dye spinning around and keeping everything nice and tight.
Then we just get the ring on. Right there. You just want to get it nice and tight.
Like make sure the dye is not moving at all cuz you want to get good contact between the blade
and the dye as possible. You want those to be flush. And then the chute goes up there
and the stuffer there. And then you're basically ready to grind. It's a very easy contraption
but it's wonderful. So I understand that most of the home cooks won't have a beast like
this at home. If you do it's great, if you don't then don't worry. You can have a little
bit cheaper solution as well. You can get one of these grinders as well. This is a Kitchen
Aid grinder; it fits on the front of your Kitchen Aid, similar to a pasta attachment.
It consists of the same pieces basically. You've got the same house; you've got your
blade and your dye. This blade is reversible so you can go either way like it doesn't have
a flat side or a rounded side. Then you've got the same pieces. The only difference here
is that the house and the chute are attached. Which works fine but other than that it's
the exact same pieces. It does a pretty good job. If you doing quantities like in the hundreds
of pounds of sausage and forced meats, getting one of these is a good investment. Or even
a hand crank one works great. Another important part when making sausage is you gotta have
a stuffer. With the Kitchen Aide ones you can get stuffers that are just attached on
the front there. But if you're making larger quantities, it's a good investment to buy
a commercial grade stuffer like this. You can get them at certain butcher stores around
town and their excellent. It consists of a press, then we've got a plate that will help
push the meat down the house, and we're just gonna screw that one on there. Then the house
will go in there and there's just two little tracks on the side that sits underneath. It
will fit very very snuggly inside the house. The plastic ring will make sure that it pushes
all the meat evenly down. So you just select your tube. And that just screws right on
top there. And that's all you need to stuff really. So that's a little about the equipment.
We'll be back here in a minute and we're gonna start this whole grinding process
Just stay tuned and we'll see you guys in a little bit.
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Hi. Welcome back and we are here to make some sausages. So I just pulled this meat out of the fridge.
It's very very cold. Even preferable if it was half way frozen, that's really the best.
But really really cold works good too. So here I've got some diced up pork butt, pork
butt is probably the most common meat used when making pork sausages. The reason being
is it has a high fat marbling in it and that's very desirable when making sausages. Like
most common sausage start out with a fat content of like 25% and up. You'll find some leaner
ones too but that's kind of the norm at least. Here we've got some fat as well. It's just
the trimming off of the pork belly. It's extremely fat and delicious. Then we've also got some
veal. This is veal top round that we just kind of cut up into a little dice as well.
So it's a little bit leaner but it's still kind of a tough meat with a good amount of
connective tissue. That will create a very very nice sausage. So we're gonna start by
adding all our meat together up here. Then we take our spices. Here we have salt, nutmeg,
ginger, and some white pepper. You want to make sure to use freshly ground spices, It's
very important when making sausages. You just want that very forward flavor. The only one
you don't want to use fresh is ginger, it just contains some enzymes that will start
to breakdown protein and it will eventually eat up your sausage pretty much. It will destroy
the protein structure and make it an awkward texture. For ginger you want to use the pre-ground
dried stuff. It still works very very good for the sausage. So I'm just gonna sprinkle
that over the meat. And we're just going to grind that into an already chilled bowl. This
is a bowl for the Kitchen Aid that we're gonna use afterwards to emulsify. So I just had
that one in the freezer for a good 5-10 minutes, nice and cold. So if the meat does catch any
heat going through the grinding process it will chill very very fast once it gets into
this bowl. So we're just gonna turn this one on. It will get a little loud but that's okay.
And we just start feeding meat down the chute. And it will just go straight into our bowl
right there. Just make sure that all the spices and everything just gets through there just
nice. You see its coming out kind of looking like spaghetti. That's just that knife cutting
that meat up against that dye. If the blade was backwards the meat would come out looking
like a meat slushy. And that's not good. Right there. So we got all the meat and all our
spices. They are all in here having a jolly good time. And then we need to emulsify the
meat. So we're gonna paddle it on the Kitchen Aid, it will help blend in the spices, and
also make the protein and the fat stick together. If you don't do it the fat will render out
very fast and you'll get dry and awkward sausage. And that's not something that we want. So
just gonna attach the bowl on there. And then I've got the paddle as well, just kept it
in the freezer, so it's nice and cold. Attach that one on there, if it wants to. Like so.
Then I'm just gonna kind of start it on a fairly low speed in the beginning and I'm
just gonna let it mix for about a minute or so. While that's whisking up, I'm gonna take
an egg and cream, and these are gonna help emulsify it and add more moisture to the sausage.
This will give a more tender product and adds a good chunk more flavor. You're also adding
a good chunk more fat but it's just one of those, its summer and it's worth it. So it's
delicious. So just gonna stir this up just to kind of break down the egg so it's easier to whisk in.
The meat is looking good. I'll increase the speed for a couple of seconds. So the quality
of meat can also be judged by the amount of tackiness you get in the meat. It just basically
means that it just has more connective tissue and more binding power in the meat. So then
we're just gonna pour in our cream and our egg. If you want instead of using cream and eggs
you can use beer, water, apple juice, cranberry juice, it all depends what kind of flavor and what kind of seasoning
you're adding to the sausage in the first place. So once this is kind of mixed in with
the meat a little bit, you're gonna turn up the speed a little bit cuz you don't wanna
turn it on high when you just add that cuz you'll get cream and eggs flying everywhere
and that would be a mess. Wonderful. So you see now the texture of the meat, it's tacky
and you can still see visible specks of fat, its sticking to your hand like this is the
kind of tacky you want. If it just falls flat and still kind of looks like ground beef just
paddle it a little bit more. Be careful not to paddle it too much cuz then the fat would
get smeared a little too much. Having still specks of fat in there, I think is better;
it just stays in the sausage a little better that way. So once we're at this stage we're
just gonna put this whole thing back in the cooler and just keep it nice and cold up until
we're ready to start stuffing the sausages. So just stay tuned and we'll be right back
and we'll show you guys how to stuff some sausages.
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Hi. Welcome back so now we're ready to start stuffing our sausages. You can't
just serve force meat in a bun like that doesn't work, it's not sloppy Joes. This is a recipe
I made a lot so I'm comfortable with the seasonings kind of where their at. So we're just gonna
roll with it and it will be delicious. So you're just gonna scoop all our wonderful
meat into here. It kind of looks like meat ice cream. And you can see it's just super
sticky and it's just holding together really well. This just looks delicious. I'm gonna
set this one to the side. This one we just put it underneath our press. There's a little
air trap on the bottom so just press that up when you slide it underneath and it will
fit in there just fine. And we'll start pressing down, go very slowly cuz there's still a lot
of air trapped in here. So you want to try and get that one out cuz it's easier getting
that one out without the casing on. Keep an eye on the force meat in there once it starts
coming out and it starts getting flush here you can stop cranking for now pretty much.
You never want to have air in sausage because when you start cooking the sausage, the skin
is going to naturally try and shrink. And the forced meat is gonna try and balloon up
a little bit. And any air that's trapped in there, air will expand when it gets hot as
well, it will make it easier for the casing to just burst open. And that's not good.
So I'm just gonna crank this one down a little bit. The forced meat is just starting to come
out right now. See it looks kind of like a turtle popping its head out. Alright so we'll
just stop it right there. Then we'll take our little tube and here we have the pork
casing. So this is natural pork casing. I think natural casing is a lot better than
synthetic but you can get either one at the butcher store. So it's a little bit finicky
but just try and find a hole at the end of the casing. Get some water on their cuz the
casing is very thin so it's gonna start drying out very fast once you start getting it on
the tube. So then it's just start threading it on. So this a little peculiar process.
Right there. Just use plenty of water and feed the casing on. And you want to try and
feed it on as straight as possible and kind of keep turning and keep feeding it on like
that. For a small batch like this you don't need a lot of casing but it stores very well
if you're gonna store it. It freezes really well. Just pack it in water and a lot of salt
and it will store like that for a good old time. Alright so that should be enough casing
for this portion. So leave a little bit of tip. And we'll just cut that off. And you
can just set that aside for next time. We'll steal a little bit of this water to water
up the counter. This will just make it easier for the sausages to slide around. If you're
working at home just lay down like plastic wrap or cling film that way you don't make
a complete mess everywhere. You can just pull it off after and you don't have to wipe down
the whole counter. That will be a little easier. Then I'm just gonna screw this one on here.
So there's still a good chunk of air trapped in the chute so we're not gonna tie off the
end. This will leave an escape path for the air that's still trapped; just want to make
sure to get that out of there. You can see the sausage where the force meat starts coming
through. Once it starts poking out clamp on the end and just slowly, you want to hold
it back a little bit just so it fills the casing pretty tight. So your just gonna keep
cranking and keep feeding the sausage out. So you want to try to avoid air bubbles in
there and let the force meat fill the casing as much as possible. So you can do very large
quantities very easily. It's easy to do at home it just takes a little bit of space.
I've been making deer sausages on a fold out table in the garage during the fall and it
works fine. So that's about the casing I've got on there. So I just leave a little nib
like that just so we have something to tie it off with. I've got a little bit of extra
meat in there but I'll make some little meat balls or little good stuff. So I take the
two end pieces and tie the ends together. And it's a little bit tricky cuz the casing
is a little bit slippery and kind of funky to work with but you'll get ahold of it very
quick. So we'll tie off that end. And kind of in the middle, we'll just clamp it
and spin that whole side. So that's kind of the first of the casing or the linking. So this
one maybe we'll do four sausages out of this one. If I cranked out the rest of it I probably
would have had six maybe seven sausages maybe. But we're just gonna make a little small batch.
So figure out kind of where the middle is, clamp it, and then roll it. So then you create
this little notch right there that will kind of link off the sausages. And then if it's
a little bit loose just press it back a little bit to tighten it up a little bit. Cuz you
want to make sure that it's not too loose but not too tight. You see here you've got
a couple of small air bubbles. Those ones you want to try and get rid of so just use
the tip of a paring knife or a bamboo skewer or a hairpin works great. And just make a
tiny little pop. Rub your hand over it and that air will escape. It's a lot better doing it
now then when you're cooking it cuz it's a lot less chance of bursting and all that fun stuff.
But that's the process of casing the sausages, right now I'm just gonna put this
in the fridge and let them sit for about 30 minutes. It will make the casing stick to
the forced meat a little bit better. And it will act a little better when cooking. So
just hang on tight and we'll be right back and we'll put together a quick little dish
with some fantastic sausage. See you guys in a bit.
Hi and we're back here. We've got
some wonderful sausage, we've got a nice hot pan, and we're just gonna fry these puppies
up so we can get some grub. Once these have been sitting for a little while we can go
in between each link here and then you'll get nice individual links like that. And then
kind of the excess casing here you can just snip it off. Like so. And then at this stage
like you can freeze them or keep them in the fridge for a good old while and you can just
take them out of the fridge; throw them on the grill whenever you feel like. But I'm
just gonna get these started. We've got a nice medium hot pan with a little bit of vegetable
oil in there. I'm just gonna place them in here and you don't want to have too high of a heat.
If you have too high of a heat the casing is gonna try and retract too fast. If it retracts
nice and slow the force meat will kind of act with it. And it will behave a lot better.
So now I've been showing you guys how to play with a lot of fat and all that stuff. We've
got a new member of our team, her name is Mary Watson and she'll tell you a little bit
about the nutritional value just stick around and see what Mary says and we'll be back in
a second to finish up the sausages.
Hi. My name is Mary Watson, registered dietician.
There are some foods that are just high in saturated fat, calories, and sodium. And bratwurst
is one of those foods. My recommendation, as a registered dietician, is to eat those
foods in moderation. Eating a healthy diet does not mean you have to deny yourself of
foods but just think about they fit in. What is moderation? When I think of bratwurst I
think of what would fit into a bun, that would be one bratwurst or if they were small maybe
two. Another approach to working bratwurst into a well-balanced diet is to incorporate
it with perhaps grilled or fresh fruits and vegetables and a whole grain bun. I like to
think about the whole meal when thinking about good nutrition rather than just focusing on
one food. That's what the ChooseMyPlate.gov is all about.
Well thank you Mary for that
good advice. As you apparently know what you're talking about, you're a certified dietician.
I'm actually gonna heed your advice and I'm not gonna do your regular brat in a bun. I'll
do that later instead. So instead I've got some Swiss chard here, some pickled vegetables,
there's carrots, radishes, celery, and also I've got some roasted grapes. And then the
sausages are just about ready to come out of the oven. So these ones are just seared
off on the stove to get a little bit of color on them and then I just put them in the oven
at 400 degrees. It takes about 10-12 minutes. You want to check for an internal temperature
of about 150. A lot of people cook their sausages way too far and they really dry out and that's
not very good. So you want to use a regular thermometer, pop it in there let it get up
to 150, and then with the carry over heat it will probably get up to like 155 and that's
kind of the sweet spot for sausage right there. It will be very nice and tender and they'll
retain a lot of that flavorful fat in there. And then I'm just gonna take these out and
just put them on the plate for now. You can see they just shrunk up a little bit as well
once they got in the pan. That's just some of that fat shrinking out of there and that's
natural. Like the force meat will just want to kind of shrink up a little bit. Then we've
got some fat that rendered out of here. Its very very flavorful. Save that until the next
time your making like a sausage gravy or something like that. And just use that fat to make the
roux, its extremely extremely flavorful. I'm just gonna pour that into like a little cup
right here. But also in the bottom of the pan we've got kind of nice sucs in there.
A lot of good flavor. So what we're gonna do is add a little bit of water. Just a little
dash. And your just gonna scrape a lot of those sucs out of there. Alright so they just
kind of cooks out of the pan. That's a lot of very good flavor right there. Then you're
just gonna cook that down till it's almost dry. Then I've got some roasted fingerlings
right here. I'm just gonna add those in there and then I've also got some roasted grapes.
These are regular red seedless grapes that I just tossed in a little bit of oil and a
little bit of lemon juice and salt. And just roasted them at about 300 degrees until they
kind of start to shrivel up a little bit. I'm just gonna add those in with the potatoes.
And just kind of let it get coated in all of those nice sucs that we cooked out of that
pan. So it's just very easy and extremely flavorful. Then I've got some beautiful chard
right here. I'm just gonna lay that straight on top and just kind of let it wilt in a little
bit. Right there and just leave it on there for a minute or so. And just kind of let it
wilt down with that wonderful stuff. Then I'm just gonna take our pickled vegetables
and I'm just gonna put it straight on the plate right here. So this is kind of not a
single serving though please. It's kind of like a little family portion. I would probably eat that
whole thing but I'm special. Got a little bit of whole grain mustard. I think it's just
marvelous with sausage and I'm just gonna put a little dollop right on there so people
can just kind of go to town themselves. It's already looking pretty delicious.
I'm gonna eat that whole thing. So then the chard we're just gonna toss it in with the potatoes and
the grapes. And you don't need the chard to cook too very far like just kind of coat it
in some of that hot deliciousness in here. Right there. I'm just gonna give it a little
salt and pepper. Just a little pinch or two. And just toss that seasoning in. And that's it right there. It's very very
easy. Very fast. And then I'm just gonna kind of lay that on with the sausages right there.
So that's just a plate of happy deliciousness. So it's a little bit different than your regular
brat but it's a very good alternative. It's a bit more healthy cuz the pickled vegetables
those are just vinegar and seasoning and some salt in there. Nothing too crazy. So like
it's not that terribly bad for you. But I still wouldn't eat 4 sausages alone. I would
but you maybe shouldn't. But it's very easy, good for a hot summer day, all the vegetables
you can easily get out of your own garden. It's the easiest thing in the world; you just
gotta kind of like jump out into the water and do it pretty much.
That's all we have for you guys today. Thank you guys for watching and
just catch our future shows and we'll see you again soon.