Meat Science

DEVELOPMENT OF SAUSAGE - STEPS IN PROCESSING

• Processing of sausages is a continuous sequence of events in which each step is an integral part of the whole.
• Thus it is not proper to consider any one step separately or to assign more importance to one step than to another.
• Mincing
  • It is advisable to cut the meat in small pieces, prior to mincing it .
  • Fat is also minced in this
  • Meat grinder with 1/8” plate and 5/8” plate are used for grinding the meat.

Meat mincer	Screw conveyor

• Mixing
  • This step may are may not be followed, but this increases uniformity.
  • The cylinders of fat and lean obtained by grinding are tumbled in a mixer to give a uniform distribution of fat and lean particles.
  • Mixing also aids in extracting and coating the fat and lean particles with salt soluble proteins.
• Chopping
  • A chopper is composed of a revolving metal bowl that contains the meat while the knife blades rotating on an axle cut through the revolving meat mass.
  • The meat is first added followed by the salt, curing salts, phosphate and then the fat spice mix condiments and finally binder or filler is added and chopped together to produce a fine ground emulsion.
  • The emulsion formed is not a true emulsion and is only a pseudo emulsion as fat and water are not in direct contact at all.
  • Chopping results in extraction of muscle protein, especially myosin which serves as the dispersion matrix in which both fat and water of meat are dispersed on either side of the matrix.

Bowl-chopper	Bowl chopper blades

• The next two steps i.e stuffing in a casing and kinking and tying are unique to sausages alone.

Stuffing

• The sausage emulsion is also known as mix.
• Sausage dough or batter is transferred to stuffers for extruding into casings.
• At this point the size and shape of the product is determined.
• Natural casings (hog stomachs, beef bladders, or sheep intestines) or artificial casings (cellulose) may be used to package the meats.
• While making sausage one should be careful not to stuff the casings too tightly.
• Space is allowed for swelling during cooking otherwise, the casings may burst.
• There are three types of stuffing pumps.
  • Piston type recommended for coarse-ground sausages and those having fat chunks.
  • Screw type and
  • Rotary type used for small sausages.

 

Piston sausage stuffer

• Linking and tying
  • After the emulsion is stuffed into casings, the encased mass is tied with thread or fastened with metal clips.
  • In case of small sausages such as frankfurters, stuffed casings are hoisted or drawn together to produce links either by hand or by mechanical devices.
  • In linking sausage, the casings are pressed together at appropriate intervals and twisted around once.
  • The direction of the twist is alternated, to allow the sausage to remain linked.
  • One should be careful not to break artificial casings while linking, tying and knotting the links with string.
• Smoking and cooking
  • The sausages are placed on smoke trees or trolleys with 12 to 18 sticks per tree.
  • The trees are transferred to the smoke house usually having an internal temperature of 15 to 20°C.
  • During cooking the temperature rises to 68 to 72°C.
  • The air velocity (4000 ft/min) in the smoke house influences the rate at which the sausages are cooked.
  • Humidity of 35-45% is required to transfer smoke through cellulose casings into the product.
• Chilling
  • After smoking and cooking, the product is showered with cold water and then chilled by refrigeration.
  • On large volume continuous operations, chilling is frequently done with a 6% brine solution by dipping or spraying.
  • The brine permits lower chill temperatures and rapid cooling of the product.
• Peeling and packaging
  • After properly chilling the product to an internal temperature of 1.5 to 4.5°C, the cellulose casings on frankfurters are removed.
  • This is known as peeling.
  • Peeling can be done by hand/machines.
  • Peeled frankfurters can be packed with general information for sale to the consumers.
  • Cleanliness cannot be overstressed in the making of sausage.
  • Sanitation of ingredients as well as utensils is essential for best results.
  • Sausage may be successfully stored in the freezer.
  • These products tend to lose flavour during freezer storage.
  • Therefore they should be used without long storage .