Making Sausage

So another one of our new food adventures this year was our first attempt to make sausage from scratch.  This is something Brad has wanted to do ever since we got the food grinder attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer.  So much like the cheese making adventure I decided the easiest thing to do was to buy a sausage making kit so we would have the appropriate casings, etc.  From Amazon I selected two of the Eastman Outdoors kits: Breakfast Sausage Kit and Sausage Variety Kit (Italian, Beer & Cheddar, Bratwurst).  Both kits came with the appropriate natural casings which is lamb for the classic small breakfast sausages and hog casings for the larger style variety sausages kit.  Both kits also came with appropriate seasoning mixes and both have enough casings, etc. to do 15 lbs of meat.

For our first run we opted to attempt the larger sausages just because we felt it would be easier to work with them until we got the hang of things.  So we purchased a large pork butt and additional pork fat and decided to try both the bratwurst and Italian sausage seasoning mixes. 

Pork butt and pork fat cut into large chunks ready to grind.

Grinding the meat and fat together.



It looked like a good mix but after cooking
we decided it really needed more fat.

We attempted to create a meat to fat ratio of 70/30 but either did not figure it correctly or our pork butt was leaner than we thought it was. The resulting sausages tasted really good in terms of flavor but were a bit dry so we will be increasing the fat content next time.









We quickly discovered that stuffing the casings was a two person job.  Brad threaded our prepared (soaked and rinsed) casings onto the sausage stuffer funnel and ran the power while I monitored the filling of the casing and segmenting of the sausages.  I have since learned it might have been easier to just fill the casing completely and then segment into links or we could have left larger gaps between the links for easier twisting afterwards.  However, for our first time the process went much better than expected and we ended up with what actually looked like sausages.



We ran out of prepared casings before we ran out of meat
so I simply froze the ground Italian for use in meat sauces.

We started with the brat mixture first to be sure we had those made completely into sausages.  When we switched to the Italian mixture we did run out of prepared casing so froze some of the mixture as is for use in meat sauces.  For the links we cut them into 4 link segments for freezing into portions. 









The final results were actually really great.  We plan to use up the seasoning mixes that came with the kits but have already clipped ideas for our own seasoning mixes.  Next time we plan to attempt the smaller breakfast sausages.

Grilled brats and Italian sausages.



Making Mozzarella

In 2010 I first attempted to make my own cheese by starting with a simple milk + vinegar recipe to create a ricotta style cheese (Make Your Own Cheese Dec 2010).  When I was looking into how to do this I ran across tips and recipes for making all kinds of cheese but the vast majority of them required having rennet as an ingredient so I never pursued it further until this year when I decided one of my resolutions would be to try really new food things each month.  So for my first time I took the easy way out and found a company that provides simple cheese making kits: New England Cheese Making Supply Company.  I selected the extremely friendly 30 Minute Mozzarella and Ricotta Kit.

The kit comes with a dairy thermometer, re-usable butter muslin, citric acid (powder form), vegetable rennet (tablets), cheese salt (looks like sea salt) and a recipe/instruction booklet.  First it should be noted that a dairy thermometer has a smaller and lower temperature range than a candy thermometer making it more accurate and easier to read in the range of concern for cheese making.  Another difference is that some dairy thermometers float which I assume would be convenient if you are leaving it in the pan?  Another significant note about the kit is that it has enough ingredients to make 40 - 1 lb batches of cheese! 

The instructions for the kit are very well written and provide a lot of what went wrong scenarios.  Of keen importance is the type of milk you use.  You do not want to use ultra pasteurized (UP) milk which is what the majority of milk is at the common grocery store.  You need to find a local source of milk which at most has only undergone lower temperature pasteurization.  Essentially the higher the temperature and the longer milk is pasteurized the more the enzymes break down and you need those enzymes to make cheese.  The good news is that their website provides sources for milk that has worked in the recipes and I was able to confirm that a local dairy (that supplies my local grocery store) did have the correct kind of milk.  In fact I highly recommend consulting their website for more details and photos of the steps in the process of making mozzarella 30 Minute Mozzarella (look under the specification tab for photos of the steps).

I used Maple View Farm's Milk from Hillsborough.
 

Overall the process was really easy but some of it was extremely messy.  I discovered that the dipping the curds into hot water (one of the two methods for heating in order to stretch the cheese) was a bit too hot for my hands.  You really have to get the curds hot to be able to stretch them so next time I will be attempting the microwave method versus dripping hot water all over my kitchen counters while making somewhat frantic yelping noises.

After cutting the curd - it should have firmed up a bit more I think.

And I suspect I either didn't heat the milk hot enough, needed more rennet or needed to stretch the cheese a lot longer because although really tasty, my mozzarella turned out softer than I would preferred.  But with enough stuff to attempt this 39 more times I assume I will have a chance to perfect my technique!




The cheese was tasty but a bit soft.

Yadkin Valley Wine Vacation Part 5

This is the final installment in our recounting of our April wine vacation to some of the Yadkin Valley wineries. 

On Sunday we began by heading up into the mountains to McRitchie Winery and Cider Works.  Of course we checked out of the hotel a tad early and got to Thurmond way too early for the winery so went off on a short adventure to Stone Mountain Park.  Was a pleasant diversion for a Sunday morning.  Once we came back to the winery they were just opening for the day.  The property is really pretty and they have a nice tasting bar and porch area.  We really enjoyed chatting with the pourer and thought the wines overall were some of the better wines of the trip.  Was $7 for the tasting with glasses.

• Fallingwater White (Traminette): very light, good level of sweetness, not tart, very nice (bought 1 bottle)
• Traminette: noticed the tropical fruits, good body, more floral and some spice compared to the first wine, very pleasant
• Chardonnay: light oak, tart and citrus, minerals, okay
• Ring of Fire (Merlot/Cabernet Franc/Petit Verdot): soft tannins, dry beginning, very pleasant, nice (bought 1 bottle)
• Petite Verdot Reserve: unfiltered, has an inkiness, great tannins, very dry (bought 1 bottle)
• Dry Cider: nice and dry, crisp like an English style cider, not sweet, really nice (bought 1 bottle)
• Semi Sweet Cider: subtle sweetness, very nice

View at McRitchie

The second stop was back in Elkin at Slightly Askew Winery.  They make use of the juice versus buying grapes and can mix together almost anything including juice from California grapes to all kinds of fruit juices.  They have a crazy long list of wines to choose from and are located in a small in town shop with a small tasting bar and lots of wine knick knacks.  It was $6 to taste but that is limited to picking I think only 6 or 7 wines.  We enjoyed talking with the pourer, very personable and nice stories about the various photos of dogs hanging on the walls.  Many of the fruit based wines are named after their pet dogs.  And they get the award for most interesting wine glass as they are the only place we have been to in NC with the newer, stem less wine glasses.

• Camp Creek Clears (Traminette/Chardonel/Viognier): crisp, some fruit, very light, very nice
• State Road Red (Chianti): blend of four grapes, very smooth, nice (bought 1 bottle)
• Yadkin River Red (Cabernet Sauvignon): strong aroma, subtle pepper finish, nice (bought 1 bottle)
• Roaring River Red (Rosso Grande): Chilean blend, a little empty, interesting spice and fruit, okay
• Blue Door Red (Carmenere): Chilean blend, tasted mocha, subtle, light but dry, okay
• Bridget Street Red (Amarone): another Chilean blend, good fruit but nice dryness, maybe a little empty, nice (bought 1 bottle)
• Tattoo the Beach (Banana/Pineapple/Viognier): excellent fruit flavors, not too sweet, very nice (bought 1 bottle)

Slightly Askew

At this point we ventured off to lunch at Elkin Creek for the pizza as mentioned in our first posting in this series.

The final winery stop of the whole trip was Windsor Run Cellars.  I will preface my comments by indicating that this location was participating in a special event for Swan Creek area wineries and were slammed with visitors.  So the tasting bar was overly crowded and the pourers were rushed and starting to become frazzled by the time we got there in the late afternoon.  You get to pick six wines for $5 with glass and/or $4 to taste their two fortified wines and keep the shot glass.  Or combine the two tastings and save a dollar.  They carry two wine labels: Ferguson Vineyards (FV) and Windsor Run Cellars (WRC).

• FV Justice (Chardonel blend): crisp, dry, light bodied, nice (bought 1 bottle)
• FV Viognier: soft, small amount of tartness, okay
• FV Judge Verdict (Cabernet Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot): oaky, and Cabernet Franc bite, okay
• FV Rebel Red (Chambourcin/Cabernet Franc): light sweetness, very nice
• WRC Cherry Smash: Rose' style with cherry juice, cherry tartness, nice (bought 1 bottle)
• WRC Apple Mead (fermented cider): sweet, slight bitterness from the spices, nice (bought 1 bottle)
• WRC Ratafia (Fortified Wine of Traminette Brandy/Petit Manseng): sweet and spicy like honeysuckle, bought 1 bottle
• WRC Midnight Run (Fortified Wine of  Chambourcin/Petit Verdot): port-like, chocolate, tobacco