Sausage : Sausage ingredients, Casings, Processing of sausage - FOODZAQ

 Hello friends, Welcome to my blog FOODZAQ. Today we are going to discuss about Sausage : Sausage ingredients, Casings, Processing of sausage. The world Sausage  derived from the Latin world "salsus". mean salted literally. Preserved on salt, seasonings finally stuffed in to container like casings. Sausage is an important meat products. It is defined as mined or grinded meat with additives like spices, seasonings, salt and finally stuffed in to a container like casings.

Sausage Ingredients

The quality of sausage depends upon the quality of ingredients used and successful sausage production depends upon the reflection of proper raw material, controlled processing condition. The ingredients used for sausage production are :

1. Meat

Meat used for sausage production may be fresh, cured or frozen. In the case of fresh pork sausage, minimum meat content is 65% of the meat and not less than 80%. Must consist of pork and the remaining 20% can be made up with other meat.

2. Fat

Fat generally added up to 14% in sausage. pork fat or tallow fat are commonly added. But hydrogenated vegetable fat may also be used.

3. Water

It is added to improve juiciness and tenderness of the products. Chilled water or ice is added to lower the temperature during emulsification process. It helps in dissolving salt and using salt also uniform distribution of ingredients.

4. Salt and curing salt

Salts serves for 3 functional uses :

1. To retards the microbial growth.
2. To gives desired taste and flavor.
3. Curing salts like nitrates or nitrites, ascorbic acid imparts color to the product (pink).

5. Phosphates

Sodium phosphates or sodium tri phosphates are added up to 0.1% to 0.3% to improve water holding capacity in the product.

6.  Spices

They  are added to improve taste and flavor. They also helps in preservation and some spice have antioxidant property, which can reduce rancidity.

7. Binders, Fillers and Extenders

Binders, fillers and extenders are added to sausage to obtain some functional properties. They are non meat ingredients added for the following reasons.

• To improve cooking yield.
• To impart stability to emulsion.
• To improve taste.
• To reduce cost of the production.
• To increase water holding capacity.
• To improve slicing property.

Binders

They are high protein substance, helps to increase water holding capacity and fat emulsification.

Examples : Milk protein, milk powder, soya protein

Fillers

Fillers can bind large quantity of water, but have little emulsifying property.

Examples : Starch, bread, crumbs

Extenders

They are non meat ingredients, other than water.

Examples : Carrot, cabbage 

Casings

• Many sausage are prepared with in casings.
• It may natural or synthetic type.
• Natural type casings are made from gastro intestinal tract of cattle, goat, sheep and pigs.
• Casings helps to together ground meat and prevent excessive moisture and fat during cooking and smoking operation.
• In recent years, use of artificial casings is also gaining popularity. These synthetic casings are made by collagen, cellulose or plastic.
• Sausage batter is filled in to casings to give desired size and shape. The filled casings are blinked at equal distance to give uniform and attractive appearance.
• Casings helps to prevent fat and moisture lose.

Natural casings

Natural casings are made from the mucosa layer of small intestine. Most of the casings from pig, sheep, cattle are commonly used.

Processing of Natural Casings

1. Collection of intestine.
2. Fat removal.
3. Stripping.
4. Transfer of intestine to NaOH solution.
5. Slimming.
6. Cleaning.
7. Curing.
8. Packaging and storage.

1. Collection of intestine

The visceral parts are removed from slaughtered animal by hand pulling. The intestinal tract is carefully removed manually and processed immediately.

2. Fat removal

  Fat associated with intestine must be removed carefully and completely by a manual knife operation.

3. Stripping

The intestinal contents are stripped from intestine by hand.

4. Transfer of intestine to NaOH solution

The intestine are dipped in 0.02N NaOH solution for further purification and collected.

5. Slimming

Slimming is the process of removal of mucosa layer from intestine by passing between rollers.

6. Cleaning

It is done to remove any stain of blood. It may be results color change of casings. So proper washing and cleaning is carried out.

7. Curing

The cleaned casings are dipped in salt solution to prevent microbial activity.

8. Packaging and storage

Casings are packed in polythene bag and shelves for 6-9 months at ambient temperature.

Types of casings

Artificial Casings

Artificial casings are made up from collagen, cellulose or plastic. The casings from collagen and cellulose are edible and plastic casing is inedible.

Collagen casings

Collagen casings are mainly produced from collagen in the bones, skin and muscle of the animal like cattle and pig. It can be also derived from poultry and fish. It is formed by passing the ground meat through dyes of desired shape and size. Collagen casings are edible and less expensive to use and better weight.

Cellulose casings

Cellulose usually from wood pulp . Wood pulp is processed to make viscos which is then extracted in to clear, tough casings. It is also formed by extrusion through a dye to desired shape and size.

Plastic casings

Plastic casings are non edible. Generally smoke and water can not passed through plastic casings. So plastic casings is used for non smoked sausage. This is generally consumed by pealing off the outer cover of the sausage that is plastic. Plastic casings are generally made from polymer such as polyamide, poly propylene or polyethylene. Poly amide casings are most commonly used in the production of sausage.

Classification of Sausage

Ground sausage.

It is prepared by grinding of meat along with water or ice, salt and other ingredients.

Emulsion Sausage

These are prepared by solubilizing meat protein and suspending fat particles in protein solution. On subsequent heating the protein coagulated and fat particles are embedded in protein matrix, which forms a sack around the fat particles. Which give firm texture and stability to product.

Emulsion sausage have better taste, texture and flavor than ground sausage. Emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquid in which one is dispersed phase and another is dispersed medium. To prevent aggregation of fat droplets, the protein solution act as emulsifying agent.

When heat is applied, protein denaturation occur and fat droplets are embedded in protein and hence emulsion is formed. Here fat is dispersed phase and protein is dispersed medium. To this solution all other ingredients such as salt, curing salt, phosphate are added.

The amount of protein that can be incorporated in stable emulsion depends on fat particle size, temperature during the emulsification and amount & type of soluble protein. It is very important to make low temperature during emulsification in order to avoid melting of fat particles. This is done by ice plates.

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