The Thurlaston Sausage
This sausage is an amended version of the Every Day Pork Sausage that I posted a while ago. The first version is a nice peppery sausage that we all like a lot. The family, however, think this one is even better. Less peppery and with a more 'rounded' flavour.
Sausage Seasoning Mix
60g Salt
7g Pepper White
5g Pepper Black
2g Nutmeg
1g Mace
2g Ginger
3g Mixed Herbs
Mix together well
For 1kg of sausage
770g Locally Produced Pork Shoulder (about 20% visible fat)
80g Rusk
130g Water
20g Seasoning Mix
For other amounts of meat, you can use this calculator:
Method
1. Mince the meats through the blade of your choice (course or fine). I mince twice through a course mincer plate.
2. Add meats to the bowl and add the seasoning, mix well.
3. Put rusk on top of the meat.
4. Pour the chilled water on top of the rusk so that the rusk gets thoroughly wet.
5. Mix vigorously until the meat mixture looks sticky. I really work it at this stage.
(this is myosin developing, the protein that sticks the sausage together & gives texture, rather like the gluten in bread).
7. If the mixture is wet or soft let it stand for a few minutes for the rusk / breadcrumb to re-hydrate.
8. Fill into casings.
9. Put into the fridge for 6 - 8 hours to Bloom for flavour development.
Cook and Enjoy
There are seventeen comments
Hi, first I have to tell you I was a sausage virgin until this weekend, when I made my first batch of Thurlston sausage using the calculator and my hand mincer/sausage maker, muscles like popeye now, they were delicous and golden brown on the outside, but a bit dry and the mix was a light grey colour once cooked, is this normal, I am only used to the flourescent pink sausage from our local butcher so any advice would be a great help.
Thanks
Wal
Sorry forgot to ask these in my last post, is it ok to use Prague powder #1 or Sodium Ascorbate to retain colour, if so what would be the ratio per kilo. And I think I miscalculated the amount of fat in my last mix, I used 20% per kilo of pork, should that have been 1 kilo in total, eg, 800gms pork and 200gms of fat to make up a total of 1 kilo for mincing.
Thanks
Hi Wal – if you enter 1000gm in the calculator as the meat amount but have lean meat and fat, the yes you’d use 800gm lean meat and 200gm back fat. The dryness may have been due to the ratio being incorrect or due to under-mixing. You need to mix the meat/salt etc until it noticably changes from mince into sausage-meat – it become sticky and can even smell a little different. As for the colour, well if you want it pink then I guess you could add cure #1. For colour rather than curing, I’d just use around 80 – 100 mg/kg nitrite – about 1.5gm of cure #1 per kg meat.
I hope this helps.
Many thanks, yes I got the meat/fat ratio incorrect on my first attempt, probably the mixing as well, will have another go this weekend, be prepared for more questions lol.
Wal Laven
Hiya Phil
Just a quick update, made another batch of Thurlston, absolutely spot on, chilled all meat ingredients and mincer parts in the freezer for an hour, result, perfectly minced pork and really great tasting end product.
Thanks Phil
Mixed herbs is a prepared mix of dried herbs sold in the UK. Whilst the mix varies it tends to be based on Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano, Parsley, Sage and Basil.
You could use a mix of your favourite dried herbs instead.
I hope this helps and that you enjoy the sausage.
Hi, this is a marvellous blog but i have a question.
With the calculator, do you put in the weight of the pork shoulder plus fat into the ‘weight of meat in grams’ section? Or just the meat on its own without the weight of the fat added?
As i have 2kg of pork shoulder and i also have 400g of fat, do i put in the ‘weight of meat in grams’ 2.4kg?
Sorry if i am confusing things unnecessarily
:)
If you use a mix of meat and fat to get the 20% Visible fat, then enter the total weight of meat and fat added together.
i hope this helps and that you like the sausage.
Another Noob question. The salt used is that normal fine table salt or is it coarse salt? (rock salt).
Thanks
Pierre
I’ve been looking for an all-rounder and I believe the Thurlston is the one. It’s impossible to get mixed herbs where I live, so I made up my own with sage (40%), thyme (20%), marjoram (20%) and oregano (20%). Absolutely perfect. I also used panko (japanese breadcrumbs) instead of rusk. Thanks for developing and sharing this Phil. You’re a real star.
As an aside, when I do get round to making my own rusk, I was wondering what natural colouring I could add to make the rusk pink. Obviously nothing that will effect the taste. Any Ideas?
Hi
I don’t add colourings to the rusk I make.
However, I do when using rice: I add paprika as I prefer to use a natural colouring. Maybe you could try it in your rusk.
I hope this helps.
I do hope you are able to answer my question ! I’m trying to find a faggot recipe that I can make in 20lb batches. Using my own Berkshire Pork and the offal from my pigs. There is only one problem I’m unable to use fresh onion and garlic must all be in dried powder form for easy use at my processor. I’m an expat living in Ontario maketing my English bangers, I have managed to source rusk. Thank you in advance Ashley http://www.alverstokefarm.ca is my farm website if you would care to take alook.
Hi Ashley
I’ve copied your question and replied to it on my post about faggots. It’s here:
http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=429
It seemed to be a better place for it.
I have a batch of this made in the larder in a tuppaware box. Every time I open the larder I have to dip my finger into the tuppaware box and taste this. It’s the biz, reallt nice.