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This is a recipe that I posted on the BBQForum and thought some of you guys that have been doing the winter sausage making thing may be interested. As said in the post, I've been dinking with this for a few weeks and think I finally got something pretty good in the Italian Sausage line of tastes. Family and the few friends that have tried it so far like it alot. Mild to med in heat level, adjustable of course to your own tastes. If you try it please email me with your thoughts good or bad,label your post "Italian Sausage" so I can see if it's spam or not
Thanks and good sausage making
Jon

ITALIAN SAUSAGE SEASONING BASE
(FOR 100 LBS.OF MEAT)

10g Ground Bay Leaves
50g Red pepper (cayenne)
75g Fennel Seed (crushed)
35g Thyme
35g Basil
40g Oregano
60g Paprika (Hungarian)
60g Chipotle powder
90g Granulated Garlic
15g Nutmeg
35g Med. Grnd. Black Pepper
Mix very well, all above ingredients in bulk, enough for 100# of ground meat. Add at a ratio of 5g/lb. of meat

Below ingredients are measured out per lb. of meat in grams
7g/# Tender Quick (or an equivalent product)
1.5g/# MSG
2.4g/# Canning salt
12g/# Non-Fat Dry Milk
15%/# Liquid per lb. of meat, weighed on scale(i.e.15# of liquid to 100# of meat)**

**For liquid I use whole milk, I think it gives the sausage a little more than plain water does, but that�s my preference, certainly other liquids will work too.

Weigh meat and add 5g of bulk spice per lb. of meat along with all other measured dry ingredients to large bowl, add mix with liquid to make a slurry dissolving salts and mixing out any spice lumps with a wire wisk and add to meat and mix for at least 10 minutes or til everything is �WELL� incorporated and meat mixture will become almost springy. If stuffing into casings do so right away and let links set overnight if possible, or pack into bags if putting up in bulk still letting meat rest overnight so the meat can cure and meld with the spices, and also if twisted into links, the twists will hold better.

I made this recipe on Fri. and split 50# with my brother and we both liked it a lot but found it needing just a bit of tweaking so we did another 50# today (Sun.) after the addition of some Chipotle and Black Pepper and jacking up the amts. on a couple of spices. Heat level is mild to medium (gotta please the wardens of the house as Bigwheel would say) but very good overall. If one wanted it hotter you could go up 50% more on the Red Pepper or the Chipotle or both to suit your personal tastes. Or add another type of heat to it. If anyone tries this out Email me with you comments good or bad, or if you have some other ideas on how to improve it. Pretty damn good though, wife and daughters loved it so the wardens are taken care of. The recipe was a culmination of a few recipes with a couple of my own twists that I�ve been researching and playing with the last couple weeks. Again any comments please fire away. Feel free to change or add ingredients to you own tastes. The second group of ingredients is pretty much the same with all my sausage recipes, I never change those ones, but if you want to play with the spices just let me know what you did, you might come up with something better???
Happy Sausage Making
Jon
pa...Also we smoked some of this with very good results. Lightly cold smoked for 1-2 hrs and turned out very good as did the unsmoked bulk and links
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At a glance it sounds good. Do you use this for links in buns, pizza, sauce, lasagna, ???

Is there any chance of converting the spice measurements to common volume measurements for a 5 or 10# batch? Sure, I realize that by weight is more accurate, but at least for spices it usually doesn't matter much, especially since the strength of spice flavors varies so much.

Ever try using dry red wine as the liquid?
You will never regret getting a good gram scale. As for converting to volume measurements I never do that if I don't have to. Better off going with Joe's advice on that. Much better reproducable results from year to year when using a scale. It will always be the same when weighed out. And yes it really does matter alot, especially when making sausage. As far as what I use it for...all the above. We linked some(some fresh and some smoked) and left some in bulk for later use in chili, spagetti etc.
Jon
Jon
Here's the recipe converted based on Joe's advice and rounded to common measures:

Ingredient Amt
Ground Bay Leaves 3/4 tsp
Red pepper (cayenne) 1 1/2 tsp
Fennel Seed (crushed) 2 tsp
Thyme 1 3/4 tsp
Basil 2 1/2 tsp
Oregano 2 tsp
Paprika (Hungarian) 1 1/2 tsp
Chipotle powder 1 3/4 tsp
Granulated Garlic 1 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg 1/4 tsp
Med. Grnd. Black Pepper 3/4 tsp
Tender Quick or equiv 2 Tbsp
MSG 1 1/4 tsp
Canning salt 2 tsp
Non-Fat Dry Milk 1 cup
Liquid 1 1/2 cup
Meat 5 lb

Certainly not as accurate for large production, but pretty close for home sausage guys. Hope y'all don't mind my conversion...I think I usually use at least twice as much fennel, but whole seeds instead of crushed.
tjr,

'Way to go. :-)

Also, if you convert Jon's gram formula to percent. you can easily manipulate what ever size batch you want. Even based on if you have a limited amount of one ingredient.

Also, when you have a 100 percent formula, you can consider that decimal pounds , grams, ounces etc. IMHO, a much better way to design your product.

Doing it as Jon does, keeping the spice blend as a separate ingredient, you can vary the intensity of your finished product by simply adding more or less of the "spice blend". And of course, you can tweak the spice blend to suit your personal taste. BTW, this method works on rubs, mops and sauces too. ;-)

Joe
OK, let's try it:

Here's the entire recipe as percent:
Ingredient
Ground Bay Leaves 0.018%
Red pepper (cayenne) 0.091%
Fennel Seed (crushed) 0.136%
Thyme 0.064%
Basil 0.064%
Oregano 0.073%
Paprika (Hungarian) 0.109%
Chipotle powder 0.109%
Granulated Garlic 0.164%
Nutmeg 0.027%
Med. Grnd. Black Pepper 0.064%
Tender Quick (or an equivalent product) 1.3%
MSG 0.3%
Canning salt 0.4%
Non-Fat Dry Milk 2.2%
Liquid 12.4%
meat 82.5%


Maybe it's better to mix the spice blend first:
Ingredient
Ground Bay Leaves 2%
Red pepper (cayenne) 10%
Fennel Seed (crushed) 15%
Thyme 7%
Basil 7%
Oregano 8%
Paprika (Hungarian) 12%
Chipotle powder 12%
Granulated Garlic 18%
Nutmeg 3%
Med. Grnd. Black Pepper 7%

Then use the blend as an ingredient in the main recipe:
Spice Blend 0.9%
Tender Quick (or an equivalent product) 1.3%
MSG 0.3%
Canning salt 0.4%
Non-Fat Dry Milk 2.2%
Liquid 12.4%
meat 82.5%

How's that, Jon & Joe? I guess the problem I usually have is measuring the tiny amounts of spices & additives for small batches whether by weight, volume, or percent. Guess I could get hold of a "pusher" scale...
Both look like they would work ok but again, not to beat a dead horse I don't think anyone would ever regret getting a gram scale. I have a digital one that weighs up to 4 lbs. With the push of a button it will change from grams to lbs/oz and also zeros itself with the push of another button. If your even moderately serious with your rubs and spice blends for bbq or sausage making it is really irreplacable. I have the Ohaus CS2000 and use it all the time. I also have a couple of spring type scales that go to 30 lbs. You will never regret the purchase. Exact repeatability of all you spice recipes and blends. I sell rubs and blends to freinds and family and they have more than paid for themselves. Here's a link to one site that has them http://www.balances.com/ohaus/cs.html
Lookin' good guys. :-)
BTW, to make it easier on the eyes, it's a good practise to arrange the percentage in order of predominence, I have an Excel template that I use for doing all the math. If anyone would like one drop me a line at ames@ptd.net
Incidently, triple beam Ohause scales show up frequently on Ebay. I just picked-up two of them for under 30 bucks each.
Just be careful to get one that has a sliding tare bar in the back.

Joe

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