Homemade sausages do not taste as they should? Avoid these mistakes and enhance the taste

Are you going to make homemade sausages? Well, you should. Great aroma and great-looking homemade sausages are worth the trouble. But it often happens that the result is not what you have expected and all you can do is to analyse where you went wrong What may have happened that your sausages are not that great? What are the most common mistakes? Well, read on and you should find out.

Too small or too big meat cuts

This is usually the first mistake, but fortunately, it is not the most serious one. In the first case, a sausage full of large pieces will appear more like something with chopped meat. Too large pieces of meat make the sausage look too coarse and uneven in shape. You do not want that, but if you did too small cuts you may end up with funny-looking hotdogs. Choose a suitable cut size to make your sausages look as they should. Cuts should be from 8 to 12 mm. It also depends on what types of sausages you prefer and what is the recipe you do.

Incorrect ratio between salt, ingredients and meat

Too much salt or not enough salt may be a big problem. Yes, it largely depends on your preferences but 22 g of salt and 1 g of sugar per 1 kg of meat is considered the golden standard. Other ingredients, such as cumin can affect the ratio. Garlic is also very important and tends to increase the salty taste. Use locally grown garlic, not the imported one.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Fat is also important

Do you prefer drier sausages without too much fat? No problem, but the absence of fat may “help” you to make something very dry where even drinking beer may not help. Try to maintain the ratio between fat and leaner meat.

Too long marinating time

You need to let the meat with various ingredients rest for several days so all the flavours blend properly. But few days, not weeks. The mixture may go bad.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Stuffing errors

This is very important. Sausage must be plump and firm. If you make sausages that can be easily squeezed or dented, you have a problem. Do not forget to release excess of air when filling. Air bubbles are not good. Sausages not stuffed properly tend to be elongated and do not look good. However, if you stuff too hard the casing or intestine may rapture.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Incorrect temperature or smoking time

Again, it depends on the specific recipe you prefer, but in general, the temperature should be around 60 to 70 degrees Celsius and the smoking time from 6 to 8 hours. If you prefer a cold smoke, the time is much longer of course. If you use very hot smoke, sausages may start dripping fat and you do not want that either, but too low temperature can leave raw meat inside…

Source: jidlo.cz, kulinari.cz, vlastní zkušenosti autora

Preview photo: Radek Štěpán