Pork loin was on sale this week, packaged in half loins (roughly 3.5kg). I picked one up and split it into four roasts. Pork loin is usually cut into chops or brined and smoked (as back bacon, or Canadian bacon). It’s a fairly lean cut, but when cut right will have some marbling and a fat cap. It makes great ground pork, if you include the fat cap.
I ground ¼ of the loin, seasoning and brining it overnight. I tested a small portion of it, and decided to run it through the mixer with the paddle attachment to soften it up a bit (to get the texture right). I formed it into balls and paties, and froze them.
Preparing sausage patties and rolled breakfast sausage is easy and cheap, if you follow a few rules of thumb:
- 1.25 - 1.5% salt
- 3 - 5% water
- .5 - .6% MSG
- .5 - 1% sugar
- .5 - .75% spices
As for texture, you have a few ways to control it:
- grind (single grind versus double grind, plus grind size)
- mixing (combined, mixed, whipped)
- hydration and time (more/less water)
- fat (90% lean is chewier, 70% lean is juicier)
- additional ingredients (bread, milk, butter, cheese)
In this test, I’m playing with mixing it more, using a paddle attachement on my stand mixer. A Vienna sausage is double ground and mixed until homogenous, and a farmer sausage is only loosely mixed and barely holding together. For sausage patties, I want it somewhere in between.