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I'm trying to find a way to make my home made English sausages more like shop bought English sausages (I'm saying English here as I'm pretty sure sausages around the world are very different - ideally I'm looking to make something like Black Farmer sausages) The only caveat is that I'm trying to make them carb free, so can't use rusk or breadcrumbs. I've been experimenting with kibbled onions, as I read somewhere that you can use anything as a binding component as long as it's very dry.

I've been using mostly pork belly, which seems to have a good meat to fat ratio - I've been careful to get meat with a fair amount of fat, but my sausages are still a bit dry when cooked.

Can anyone give me some tips to making sausages, especially how to make them moist and succulent?

rumtscho
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Martyn
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Are you only using pork belly? No added fat? Even though pork belly has a high fat content, my experience is that sausages require even more. Add some ground, or finely diced, pork fatback and see if it makes a difference.

Henrik Söderlund
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This suggests gelatin as a binding agent. You could try increasing your salt content for binding, but this could hurt the flavor.

For moisture you could experiment with adding a little red wine to keep them moist. Wine has "carbohydrates" but they aren't processed in the same way as regular carbs. This ingredient is used more in Italian sausages, though, so it may not be what you're looking for.

Also, pork butt may have a better fat content to keep your sausages moist.

ramblinjan
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  • Gelatin is a pure protein, where did you get the carbohydrates from? As for wine, I don't know why it should be more moistening than pure water, or stock. Do you know if there is a substance specific to wine which makes the sausage mass retain moisture, as opposed to just adding moisture? – rumtscho Mar 16 '12 at 21:18
  • Edited the gelatin statement--turned out the site I referenced for its info was a bad one. I'm actually not certain if wine specifically helps sausage to retain moisture, but the acidity may make a difference. I tried to find a reason it might be advantageous over stock or water, but I'm coming up short. – ramblinjan Mar 16 '12 at 21:22
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How about making some low carb bread (mug method can make a batch in less than 5 min) Then make breadcrumbs of it in the food processor. You could dry it in the oven too. I reckon that would be almost indistinguishable from the rusk used by sausage makers then

Bertiev B
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Use ground Golden Flax seed and add water .The reason the sausage is dry ,is because there is nothing in it that holds the water content.Fat repels water.The ground flax seed will keep it in the sausage.Only 1g carbs and 1g sugar per 100g. The lowest of any comparable product. You will only need a few grams per sausage. Negligible. You can also use it for bread .In the microwave for 2 min, Dry in oven and then crumb it .

scrotech
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    *You can also use it for bread*??? Did you mean *You can also use bread*? –  Oct 08 '18 at 12:51
  • @JanDoggen Why "also use bread", that is something completely different? – rumtscho Oct 08 '18 at 14:10
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    I think it may have been intended to be "use it for bread _crumbs_" based on the subsequent instructions. – Erica Oct 08 '18 at 17:00
  • flax seed can be used to make low carb bread that can then be added to the sausage for the desired texture. – Summer Oct 09 '18 at 04:55