Sausages . In general, sausages are understood to be meat derivatives prepared from a mixture of raw muscle tissue and finely chopped fat tissue, water, salts, additives and condiments; aromatic herbs and different spices (paprika, pepper, garlic, rosemary, thyme, cloves, ginger, nutmeg) introduced into natural or artificial casings. In the modern industrial manufacture of these products, a type of artificial casing is used, which is edible.
Summary
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- 1 Preparation of the sausage
- 2 Composition
- 1 Typologies
- 2 Classification of sausages
- 3 Basic components of sausages
- 4 Optional components of sausages
- 3 Curing
- 1 Dry Curing
- 2 Vacuum Curing
- 3 Composition of the curing liquor
- 4 Function of the curing liquor ingredients
- 4 How to serve them
- 5 Sources
Elaboration of the sausage
The elaboration of the sausage, in general, goes through four basic stages: Grinding the meat and preparing the dough for sausage, sausage or sausage, thermal process and cooling
- Chopped and stuffed.
The mincing of the raw material is carried out in mincers, mainly made up of a loading hopper, an endless screw that pushes the products towards the rotating blades that cut it and send it to a perforated disk with holes of various diameters or in crushers “cutter” type consisting of a plate and rotating blades. In the IIIA, the minced and refrigerated meat is minced using a meat grinder, then it is introduced into a cutting machine or silent cutting machine according to the Spanish translation in an International dictionary of meat science, well known by its name in the French language. “Cutter” and thus placed in texts in Spanish, although it also appears as a mixer or crusher and is made up of a plate and rotating blades, the function of this equipment is to finely chop raw muscle tissue and fatty tissue, spices and condiments to mix and emulsify the entire mass for sausage. The particle size after chopping is regulated by the different drilled discs or by the chopping time and speed of the blades in the crushers. Depending on the degree of chopping, you can distinguish coarsely chopped sausages (chorizo), moderately chopped (salami) and finely chopped. Sausage or stuffed Once the dough has been prepared, it proceeds to fill, “stuffing” the casings, using stuffering machines provided with smooth and not excessively long nozzles that prevent heating of the dough. The particle size after chopping is regulated by the different drilled discs or by the chopping time and speed of the blades in the crushers. Depending on the degree of chopping, you can distinguish coarsely chopped sausages (chorizo), moderately chopped (salami) and finely chopped. Sausage or stuffed Once the dough has been prepared, it proceeds to fill, “stuffing” the casings, using stuffering machines provided with smooth and not excessively long nozzles that prevent heating of the dough. The particle size after chopping is regulated by the different drilled discs or by the chopping time and speed of the blades in the crushers. Depending on the degree of chopping, you can distinguish coarsely chopped sausages (chorizo), moderately chopped (salami) and finely chopped. Sausage or stuffed Once the dough has been prepared, it is proceeded to fill, “stuffing” the casings. For this purpose, fillers are provided with smooth and not excessively long nozzles that prevent heating of the dough.
- Curing is any of the processes of preserving and seasoning food, especially meat and fish, by adding a combination of salt, sugar, nitrates or nitrites.
Nitrates and nitrites are additives used in the curing of meat. They fulfill various functions; the development of red or pink color, flavor and odor: without its presence an overcooked flavor may develop in some products. They also intervene in the taste and smell through their action as powerful antioxidants since they prevent the development of oxidative rancidity and also sodium nitrite has bactericidal properties as it is a very effective inhibitor of growth Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium that causes botulism. Nitrate itself is not effective in producing the curing reaction until it is converted to nitrite. Various investigations have been carried out in order to reduce or eliminate the nitrite levels that are used in the production of cured products due to its high toxicity, but it has been impossible to eliminate it to maintain the characteristics of the products. Many countries have reduced addition levels and others have set maximum levels of 200 ppm or 150 ppm. Other research carried out has tried to find substitutes for nitrite but without success. Depending on the type of sausage, curing is carried out in different ways.
Composition
From a nutritional point of view it can be said that they are composed of water, proteins and fats.
The proportion of water will depend on the type of curing, ranging from 70% in fresh products to 10% in those that have been cured by drying.
After these basic ingredients, different spices are usually added, depending on the region and culinary traditions. On some occasions, filler material is used, which is usually made with two types of casings: natural (in this case they use the intestine of the slaughtered animal) or artificial (which can be collagen casings, cellulose casings, plastic casings).
Typologies
There are different varieties depending on:
- Its meat material: pork, beef, fish, chicken, goat etc.
- Its way of curing: dried, smoked, salted. etc.
- Its final processing: aspic, blanched (for example the German Brühwurst sausages), raw, dry, smoked etc.
- Its form of sausage: cular, candle, etc.
Sausage classification
Raw sausages: those made with raw meat and fat, subjected to smoking or maturation. Example, sausages, breakfast sausage, salami.
- Scalded sausages: those whose pasta is incorporated raw, undergoing an optional cooking and smoking heat treatment, after being sausages. Example, mortadelas, frankfurter sausages, cooked ham.
- Cooked sausages: when the size of the pasta or part of it is cooked before incorporating it into the dough. Example, black pudding, pate, pork cheese.
Basic components of sausages
Fundamentally it is the minced meat, the products differ mainly in the presentation, in seasoning and in the used processing methods. The basic composition of sausages are meat compounds, fat, water, nitrites and nitrates, phosphates, seasoning fillers and substances, binders and some include other components such as: preservative, antioxidants and color fixatives. Meat ingredients: animal tissue.
The three main components of meat are: water, protein and fat.
Water is found in a greater proportion, 70% of lean tissues, proteins are found in lean muscle is 22% and fat is 5-10%, mineral content is approximately 1% .
In almost all types of processed meat, protein extraction plays a decisive role. If the protein is not extracted they cannot perform their fundamental functions: meat proteins are the emulsifying agent of a meat emulsion and act as the cement between the pieces of meat in the case of hams. the total protein content is almost 50% is my fibrillar protein and 15% actin and 35% myosin the rest consists of plasma zarco and connective tissue or stromal protein. the fraction of my fibrillar protein is the most important to consider to achieve a good binding, emulsion and gelation.
Optional components of the sausages
The term seasoning is applied to any ingredient that alone or in combination, gives flavor to food products.
To season the sausages, mixtures of different spices are used. For example, black pepper, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, rosemary, sage, and thyme, also sweeteners, incorporate non-meat substances sometimes called binders or fillers, emulsifiers, or stabilizers.
Wheat flour is also incorporated as a filler and as a hydrophilic stabilizer that is classified into gum, such as alginate, Irish moss, gum arabic and gum tragacanth. Ascorbic acid and its derivatives, tocopherols, especially in aqueous or fatty medium, are also added.
Curing
The curing process is decisive for adequate preservation capacity, color stability and aroma formation in raw cured articles. Various curing procedures are known: dry cure, wet cure, and vacuum cure.
Dry cured
The meat pieces stack well with the common salt / nitrate mixture, with the nitrite curing salt / common salt / nitrate mixture.
Wet Curing: Hams or pieces of meat are placed in a brine that contains around 18-20% salt.
Vacuum cured
This is for salting hams and meats .
Composition of the curing liquor
This is made up of common salt, nitrate and nitrite, although the two mentioned as additives present certain risks, first is acute toxicity. It is toxic 2g can cause death to a person, by being able to bind to hemoglobin in the blood, in a similar way as it does to myoglobin in the blood of meat, forming meta hemoglobin, a compound that has already It is not capable of transporting oxygen. This poisoning can be fatal, in fact, several fatal cases are known from ingesting sausage with very high amounts of these.
Function of the ingredients of the curing liquor
These methods aim to introduce curing salt into the meat, it is always recommended to introduce 10-15% of an old brine, it already contains the adequate microflora to achieve an optimal curing.
The brine should not be applied at once to the amount to be injected. This is also used to improve the salty taste and a certain amount of nitrite is essential to redness. The curing effect, in which salt and spices also participate, is to preserve the meat, avoiding its alteration and improving the color. curing.
