Tough Brat Skins

[fzxdoc]

A few years ago I switched over to more of a smoked-brat, easy bite through, no hot grease squirting you..,

...These are johnsonville most of mine are.

...I do these At roughly 310-325 for 2 hours. Rotating and flipping on the 30 minute mark. Of course they re done before that, but, I really have come to enjoy them in this state, so do lot’s of our friends.

That's how I smoke most of my sausages, which are always raw, not pre-smoked. I use Johnsonville, sometimes storebrands like Laura Lynn, but most often fresh sausages from Fresh Market where I like their Hot Italian and their Andouille flavors the best. I smoke them in a sausage hanger alongside chicken halves in my PBC, taking them to 185° in a 350°+ PBC, well past done. That usually takes about 40 minutes. They're always delicious with a great snap to the skin and never dry.

But for a few brats this weekend, I didn't want to fire up the PBC and turned to the sous-vide/sear method, which has worked like a charm for me over the years. I use Kenji Lopez-Alt's method, as I mentioned because I feel that the Joule method is not long enough for true pasturization. (Those Chef Steps guys can be real cowboys with food safety sometimes.) I've never had a problem with tough skins like this.

Here's the link to Kenji's method: https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vid...ecipe-food-lab , and here is the excerpted cooking chart for sous-viding sausages:



Kenji says that sous vide-ing over 4 hours results in a degradation of the sausage, but Polarbear777 has proved that wrong in his post #4 in this topic.

I've read that many people treat brats gently, saying that searing is what toughens the skin, just as Panhead John does. I've never been gentle when it comes to smoking, sous vide-ing, or grilling sausages but maybe I should give that approach a try, at least with sausages from this particular butcher. I've never had a problem until this past weekend's batch of brats.

I'm going to talk with the butcher about them. I have a couple more packages of (non-brat) sausages from that same butcher. If I get into a sciencey mood, I may cook them the same way to see if I get the same results.


Kathryn

[CaptainMike]

To paraphrase George Costanza "You're not in a sciencey mood? Well, you GET in a sciencey mood!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNRY5fZQO9Y

[fzxdoc]

CaptainMike ,



K.

[Bob's BBQ]

Hi Kathryn - This sounds to me to be more of a casing problem than a cooking issue. I would be curious to try a reverse sear type cook on these as a comparison to what you did. The casings on the stuff I buy is quite thin, always cracks during the grilling step, and is almost un-noticeable when eating. Good luck - I will be interested to hear about any additional trials. My Grandfather was a butcher, and my my dad made a lot of his own sausage and was always quite particular about the casings.

[Murdy]

Have you bought brats from this butcher before? And were these different? Could be the quality of the casing. It could also be the grind. If this butcher does a fine grind on the meat, it may not have enough resistance to let you cleanly bite it and the meat come blasting out as soon as there's a hole to let it. I've seen this once about 20 years ago with a natural casing wiener made by a Chicago meat company that apparently just used the recipe for their skinless when making the natural casing ones. Anyways, note if the grind is unusually fine.

I've never really worried about treating brats gently--boiled in beer, butter, and onions has always been the traditional method.

[fzxdoc]

This is the first time I've bought brats from this butcher. I bought a few other types of sausages from him at the same time and put them in the freezer. I'm going to cook them and see how they turn out. I'll report back.

Thanks for the tip about the grind. I'll ask the butcher about that as well.

Kathryn

[Mark V]

I had tough casings only once in my homemade sausage. It was the time I decided that soaking the casings beforehand was only to get the salt out. I figured if I rinsed well enough that was good enough. Found out that not soaking long enough can be a cause of tough casings. I have never had that happen again after making sure to soak.

I found this online, can't personally vouch for it all but most of it sounds plausible.


1. To begin with, the casings should be properly prepared. Most manufacturers instructions will advise you to soak the casings for one hour, flush and soak for one more hour. But soaking longer and changing the water more often will never hurt. The key here is not only to re-hydrate the salt preserved intestine, but also to get rid of the salt. So just to make sure that this is accomplished, soak the casing for a couple of hours, flush out the inside, change the water over several hours, and change the water a couple of times more before stuffing. Best is to plan ahead and start soaking in the fridge a couple of days in advance.

2. Hobbyists/amateurs tend to smoke theirs sausages longer than do the commercial processors. The long smoking phase will result in a dryer sausage and a tough casing. Next time you are smoking weigh a few sausages before and after smoking, and you will discover that you can have a weight loss of as much as 10%. Electric smokers are particularly notorious for this. Placing a pan of water in the smoker can help, but also try shortening the smoking time. Once the sausage has achieved good colour, turn up the heat and bring it up to the necessary IT. If you like the flavour of a heavily smoked sausage and will be smoking it heavily for a long time, don't expect the casing to be soft. Instead use a collagen casing and peel before consumption.

3. Poaching the sausage after it has picked up colour will almost always result in a softer casing. But if you keep it in the smoker for an extended period of time, poaching will not help.

4. After stuffing the sausage needs to set. This is usually accomplished at room temp for 1-3 hours, or several hours in a refrigerated environment. Here we have to be careful so that the casings do not dry out too much. They should be dry to the touch but still moist and flexible. If the casing dries to the consistency of paper, the casing will be tough. Hanging in a frost free fridge with air blowing over the sausages is also not recommended.

5. When stuffing, the farce should be packed in firmly with as little air as possible. Loosely stuffed sausage with air between the casing and meat will cause a dry casing. On the other hand, if the sausage is stuffed too tightly, the casing will be stretched out to its maximum and may also become tough.

6. Start smoking with at a lower temp, 52-55C. Once the sausage starts taking on colour increase the temp to 60C. A hot smoker will quickly dry and shrink the natural casing.

7. If cooling with water, after smoking or poaching do not chill thoroughly. There still needs to be some warmth inside the sausage to dry the exterior. There are also claims that ice cold water should not be used but rather room temp water.

8. The addition of a large amount of binders such as soy protein powder, or non fat milk powder (non-instant) may cause excessive adherence of the meat to the casing which will harden when heated, giving the illusion that the casing is tough, when in fact a dry ring is formed on the meat inside. My dad, a Polish trained butcher, claims that it is also more difficult or even impossible, to peel off the casing a sausage with binder will also be harder .

9. And of course one of the main causes of a tough casing is the casing itself. Larger diameter casings and especially those from older pigs will be naturally tough. Casings not prepared properly by the processor may also be faulty and therefore hard. And we have come to terms that natural hog casings are just that, and no two are alike.

[glitchy]

I ordered a bunch of different sausages from the place often labeled as the original sausage and BBQ joint in Texas. I ordered a variety of sausages both fresh and already smoked. I've been disgusted by the casings on them. They're tough and chewy and the texture is very off-putting to me. On the fresh, I've tried both smoking and just cooking the entire time over higher indirect heat. It seems to make little difference if any. I can't imagine that the place has grown to crazy popular levels serving chewy casings all the time, so I'm inclined to believe comments above and think that I must have gotten sausages that casings were not prepared properly on. However, with the cost, half the order being damaged due to poor packaging, and having to spend a long time cleaning up a huge mess due to hot sauce being all over anything from a broken bottle in shipment, I won't be giving them another chance to find out if they are usually better than what I received.

[glitchy]

CaptainMike I’ve had really good luck with SRF and Porter Road. Creekstone has been mostly good, with a couple minor disappointments. Most of the other things I’ve tried have been pretty disappointing, so skeptical of trying much more and just sticking to those I know already…but still just buy most meat locally.

[fzxdoc]

Good to know that the most likely problem is tough casings. That means that smokin fool is right, as always, when he said it could just be the luck of the draw.

This particular butcher shop has their own food truck and folks rave about their sausages. I can't imagine that the food truck would stay in business if every sausage had a tough casing.

Kathryn

[smokin fool]

fzxdoc ....believe me Kathryn, I do have some of those days where my info could be shall we say....suspect....
Take care and be safe.

[shify]

I’m inclined to think it was the sausage/casing and not the SV cook. I’ve done a fair number SV sausage cooks and haven’t come across any impact on the casing. In fact the only bad casing experience was with a seared and then braised in tomato sauce Italian sausage.

[fzxdoc]

Good to know. Thanks!

Kathryn

[FireMan]

There is way to much here to read about sumthin that is so simple. I have cooked al kinds of brats, brats made at stupid markets, Johnsonville, Klements, & from my local butcher (which I think I like the best). This is Wisconsin the land of brats & cheese, it is the major food group, maybe the only food group. I agree with Jerod, there is a time & place for everything. Givin brats a bath is not the time, yeah I know some do. But, don’t be afraid of em, (health wise) light a fire & cook em! And who gives a rip about pokin a hole in one of em. It’s not like ya gotta test every cotton picking brat fer cripes sake. Ya test one & if it’s there yer ok, shoot if it’s at 170, yer ok it’s a brat not filet mignon. KISs should be the rule & no par boilin. If ya dunk em in water or in a baggie the terrorists win or maybe a flatlander or two.

[FireMan]

I get some stuff at a little store, 2 mebbee 3 man operation called the Butcher’s shop.

[FireMan]

Kathryn, please excuse me if I sounded a little harsh, it was not directed at you. 🙏

[fzxdoc]

No worries, FireMan , I know your comments were not me-specific.

You're right about complicating something that should be so simple. It's almost like SVing a hot dog, which I wouldn't do.

OTOH, on a busy day or when entertaining, it's nice to pop something in the SV and have it sear-ready when needed. Quick and easy when a lot is going on.

Sometimes I SV to experiment, but most of the time it's for the pure convenience of the thing. Convenient can be simple too, at least in my life.
K

[Huskee]

I've had really tough ones before too and it's not my favorite thing. Never SVed them myself tough. I attribute it to random happenstance, maybe the factory got a load of thicker casings that week. I do like crunchy hot dogs.

[Craigar]

I just forgo the tubes and buy patties, that way I don't have to waste my beer poaching the stupid things.