Kosher Doshers Koshcuterie {kosh-koo-tur-ee}: Gidoshian Sausage (Lamb & Beef)

Ahhh....finally enough time to make some sausage. This is truly one of my favorite culinary things to do but it's all consuming. It's literally an all day affair. From start to finish it takes about 12 hours to complete. What 12 hours? Yes 12 hours.....I may have commercial equipment but I don't have a commercial kitchen or helpers. You see I've been making sausage on an off for about 25 years or so.....mostly off due to my work schedule. Well on Nov 30, 2017 that all changed for me. I'm all retired now and it's time for playtime. Yes making sausage is fun.

I'll quickly explain the daunting 12 hour process. Cut meat up to an appropriate size to feed through the grinder. Ok when I say meat I mean at least 15-20 lbs worth. And after adding the additional ingredients we're at 17-23 lbs. Go big or go home I say.

While cutting up the meat I am assessing the Lean Meat to Fat ratio. Yes I try to calculate everything. After cutting up the meat I will place it all in the freezer for about 45 minutes. Giving it a quick chill makes it easier to grind. After the first grind which is through a 1/2 inch to 3/4 in plate I toss all the meat back in freezer for about 30 minutes to chill back down. I than regrind through the same plate. If it's winter and no one is home I will turn off the heat in the house and avoid the second step of freezing. That's right creating a refrigerator temps to work in....much easier to work with cold meat and safer. I than choose the plate which suits my needs for a particular recipe.... usually 1/4 - 3/8 inch plate. Ok..... into the refrigerator now.

While meat the meat is cooling off in the refrigerator I am cleaning everything up. Yea cleaning is a huge project. After I clean everything up I start weighting out all the ingredients for the recipe. If it's a new recipe it takes longer....lots of tasting. After that I attach my meat mixer to my grinder which takes about 15 minutes.... not to bad. I toss the meat in and let it rip. I add all the additional ingredients and evaluate as I go along. I fry up several meat patties and adjust the seasoning if I have to. This last batch needed more fat but I'll get to that in a bit. After it's all done I remove from mixer (which can hold about 30 lbs) and place in a large container. Guess what?.... back in the freezer for about an hour or so than I transfer to the refrigerator. Now I start the clean up process. After everything is cleaned and satanized and assuming I am not to tired I take out the sausage stuffer and go to work. After all the meat is encased in casings.....yes you guessed it I spend the rest of the time cleaning. Yes, a large amount of the time is spent cleaning.

Let's start out with what meat I chose for this endeavor. I wanted a Lamb sausage but I knew I wanted to add Beef. Using some beef would remove some of the heavy Lamb flavors. So what percentages did I use? I ended up using 75% Lamb and 25% Beef. The cuts were... 1978 grams of Boneless leg of Lamb (wish it had more fat on it), 2400 grams of Lamb Breast, 970 grams of Lamb Fat , and finally 1724 grams of Tri-Tip (wish I had used Short Ribs for the higher fat %). I could tell I was going to be short on Fat. The Tri-Tip, and Boneless Leg of Lamb, and the Belly had some intramuscular fat spread through the muscle but that was hard to distinguish.

Here is my Meat/Fat Ratio Calculator.

I chose Lamb Breast for several reasons. It has a large percentage of fat and from what I have read it has some awesome flavor. Basically equivalent to the pork belly. After doing some reading I need to find a source for Shoulder and Neck.

Anyhow using a boning knife separate the meat from the bones.Very easy to do!! Get that knife as close as you can to the bones. These bones will have no other use after this accept for stock and sauces.

Just a boneless leg of lamb from Costco. It didn't have that much fat on it...dang. I need to find some shoulder and neck.

All the fat I could scrap together so I could run some math to determine that Fat %.

Here is my Meat/Fat Ratio Calculator.

Tri-Tip..... I should have used short-rib but the use by due dates didn't coincide with my schedule.

Cut everything up into sizes appropriate for your grinder. I have a Big Bite #32. I've already mentioned this but toss this in the freezer and rotate the meat for about 45-75 minutes. You just want to get it somewhat firm. Kinda lucky here. My grinder will grind 18 lbs a minute. I can't shove it in fast enough.

First cut was through the 3/4 inch plate. I like using larger diameter plates for the first cut. This prevents smearing, provides cleaner cuts, and the machine doesn't work as hard. Anyhow toss in the freezer for a bit. This will give you time to start cleaning. After about 15 minutes grind it again. Toss in freezer again for 15-30 minutes. Place on final plate... I used 1/4 inch plate and in retrospect I should have used a 3/8 inch plate.

This is what it looks like after going through the 1/4 inch plate. Ok.... now the work begins. Man it would be nice to have a commercial kitchen. I dream of having huge sinks one day? ahhh...Having helpers too?

Anyhow place this in the freezer for about 30 minutes than transfer to the refrigerator. Ok....you must be wondering why I keep tossing the meat in the freezer and refrigerator? Safety that's why. Keeping meat cold keeps the bacteria at bay. Working with ice cold meat is easier too.

Take a guess what I did next? Yes I started to clean. I cleaned the grinder and the plates. Everything was satanized too.

After everything was cleaned I started in on the spices. Did you notice the spice theme? Yes I could have done this ahead of time but I wasn't sure how much meat/fat I was going to have and I like doing everything based on the percentage of the meats weight. In addition this is a new recipe. I created this from scratch based on previous experiences and taste profiles I liked. Don't forget I measure everything using a precise gram scales. I had to clean my palate many times and kept on tasting until I got it right. Yes it took a while but I think I nailed it out the .01 gram.
Note: I used Penzeys Dried Orange Peel which is my Fav.

Ok...Salt is based on personal preference and experience. Sodium Erythorbate was used to enhance the color and speed up the curing process. Using C #1 and the Erythorbate is optional. For me I knew I might want to cold smoke so I had to add C #1. I used the very minimum that would achieve a margin of safety and would not compromise the fresh version of this sausage. Using .19% of the meats weight equals 120 ppm million of nitrites. Based on the FSIS I could have used .25% at 156 ppm but didn't find this to be necessary.

This is my monster mixer. Well maybe not a monster mixer for a commercial kitchen but for a home it's quite big. It can hold about 30 lbs of meat. It attaches to my grinder. Can you imagine doing this by hand? Or even using a lever to turn those blades? Here's a Link of it in action. While it's turning I am adding spices. Now this is an important part. You must add ICE-WATER!!!! How much? I don't know. It's about how it looks and feel in my hand. It should feel wet and not dense. I bet I added a liter plus water.

This nest part is essential. YOU MUST TASTE!!! Pinch off a piece and fry it up. I must have done this 4 x. My wife and kids wanted to sample the sausage too. I nailed it!!! However it didn't have the mouth feel I wanted. I need more fat. How am I going to do this after the fact. I added Olive oil at 100 grams and a Fat Replacer at 33.5 grams. I also added some extra ICE-water. Perfect. As an after thought I could have added Mint and Cilantro. Anyhow back into the refrigerator it goes until I've completely cleaned the kitchen.

Well the next part is relatively easy. Grab you sausage stuffer or what ever you use and get to work. I chose a variety of casings. I used Fresh 32 mm Collagen Casings, 40 mm collagen casing for smoking, and a 38 mm straight Fibrous and 47 mm Higher Barrier casings.