Curing sausages refers to cooking the sausages at a lower temperature in the oven for longer; hence, curing is time-consuming. Summer sausage is a great meal for the visitors that you can use the charcuterie board to impress the visitors. However, even if curing the summer sausage consumes a lot of time, you can still do it if it is your hobby because you know the result of something yummy that will impress you and your visitors if you are making it for them.
There are many things you need to know about the curing of summer sausage. Remember, curing has many benefits to you: it adds flavor to your links that will be yummy for consumption. It removes the excess moisture in the meat, and lastly, it gives the sausages a fine texture that the bacteria cannot survive in the food. Some of the things about curing the summer sausages that you need to know are also about preparing the summer sausages.
The article below shows the few things you need to know about curing the summer sausages, like if the summer sausages need curing, how to fix the summer sausages, the amount of cure to use with the summer sausages, and many more things after the things are the frequently asked questions and lastly the conclusion.
Things you need to cure the summer sausage about
If summer sausages need curing
Since making the summer sausage is lengthy, you need to take your time making the sausages curing must be the last step. Remember, some methods like smoking can take up to even three days when preparing the meat. Some people choose to skip the curing part because they prepare the sausages and eat them immediately, which is a mistake.
Curing is essential in the sausages in cases where the method you are using involves using the heat of lower temperatures that failure to cure causes the existence of some diseases like botulism which mainly occurs in such cases that is a bacteria which can lead to the death of an individual. Therefore, it is necessary to cure the sausages mostly when you prepare the links to eat immediately after cooking if you are using lower temperatures. But if you are at higher temperatures, you can fail to cure the sausages since the higher temperatures can kill the bacteria.
The curing process helps in prolonging the days of the sausages since there is the use of curing salt that is one of the preservation of food for the links. If you are making your sausages at home, it is good to cure them to avoid risk by using salt that cures the sausages that will help kill the bacteria or prevent them from growing.
How to cure the summer sausages
In most curing, the summer sausages involve the using of curing salt with the links. The curing process does not only include mixing the salt with the sausages, but you need a good time to do the curing process. Below are the steps you can follow when curing the sausages.
i. The first step when curing the sausages is choosing the best type of meat you will use with the summer sausages since different kinds of meats have other methods of preparing them. Remember, links need some percentage of fat to produce sweet links. Therefore, you need to choose meat parts that have a fantastic fat amount.
ii. If you do not get fatter meat, you can use lean meat, but you have to get pork fat or beef fat to add to the meat.
iii. Place the meat in a bowl or any suitable place. If it has fats, you can go on with other steps, but consider adding the pork or beef fat if it lacks the fats. You can add the binder, which makes the texture of the meat fine for consumption and reduces the rate of chewing. Choose to season the meat, which involves adding spices to the food like pepper, garlic, chili, and other spices to your preference.
iv. After that, you start the curing process by adding the curing salt and then mix everything in the bowl together with good energy until the texture is fine and you can recognize the texture of meat.
v. After mixing everything, place the mixture in a bag for freezing or tin, then put it in the fridge for the following curing process after using the curing salt.
vi. After curing the meat and making the sausages, choose to cook the sausages by either smoking or grilling.
vii. Ensure the temperatures are optimum to cook the sausages well.
viii. You can use different methods of cooking to make summer sausages.
Methods of cooking the cured summer sausages
1. Smoking
Smoking is a traditional method of cooking the summer sausages that you need to heat the smoker and then put the links on the smoker. After that, you need to keep turning the sausages for a few days until they are dry and okay. To check if the sausages are ready, you can use the meat thermometer to limit or taste the links if you know the taste of the links.
2. Using the oven.
Using the oven is a modern way of cooking the sausages that you need to work with the temperatures of heat with the oven and be keen since the oven can overcook the sausages. Using the oven does not involve many things and takes a few minutes for the sausages to be ready.
3. Frying.
There is the frying that after making the mixture you put them in the pan and fry the sausages for some five minutes then they will be ready for consumption. Frying causes excess application of heat to the sausages that without curing using this method of cooking can be suitable for your sausages.
The amount of cure to add to the sausages
When curing the sausages, it is not that you have to add any amount of the curing salt to the meat or put the heart in the fridge for a long time. Still, instead, you need to cure according to the size of meat you are making the sausages from to avoid adding excess or fewer cures. The other processes on making links do not need much care since you add contents to the meat according to your preference; unlike curing, you need to follow specific rules.
When you have experience curing the sausages, you do not need to measure the amount because you know the size to add for a yummy taste. It is good to follow the ratio that a certain amount of meat needs a certain amount of curing salt. For example, one pound of beef requires one tablespoon of curing salt. Some people may think the ratio is either excess or less, but if they do not follow can make them cook something not edible.
After adding the curing salt, curing is the time the meat will take in the fridge since it must have the exact hours. The mixture must stay in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours since the time is good for the curing salt to work in the meat. After curing the mixture and putting it on the fridge, ensure it has a lower weight than before.
Frequently asked questions
1) What are the effects of eating summer sausages without curing?
Eating food without curing depends on the methods you are using for cooking to either cause harm to you or not. The effects of eating food without fixing it are that it can cause a deadly disease when you are cooking using lower temperatures like smoking. So if you know you are smoking your sausages, consider curing the sausages to avoid such conditions. But if you were using a method to expose the links under high temperatures, you can eat the sausages without curing since higher temperatures can kill all the bacteria in the meat.
2) Can one boil the summer sausages after curing?
After curing the summer sausages, you can choose a suitable method that fits your taste to cook the summer sausages. Boiling the sausages can be ideal for anyone who prefers it since it is a simple method and natural that you do not need any additives. The only thing the user needs to do is add water to the sausages and place them in a cooking pan that you will boil for some time, and remove them. After boiling, you can still choose to fry them, that is if you are okay with using the oil for frying.
Conclusion
The article shows the different things you must know about curing summer sausages, including the steps of curing the links, the methods, and other necessary items for the curing process. Curing the sausages is good for the health of an individual consuming the sausages.
Always follow the rules in the curing process, including the amount of curing salt you are adding to the sausages to avoid adding more miniature or more spoons of the salt that is not good for the health.