6 minutes to read
Due to being widely consumed in Brazil, sausage production ensures great business opportunities and growth for any company. However, if you want to make high-quality meat products, you need to learn more about all the necessary steps, procedures, and main tips to properly produce sausages.
It’s crucial, then, that you take a number of precautions, including choosing the proper meats and the best casings. This will help you ensure that your product is properly conserved and delivered to the end consumer. Below are some instructions on how to make sausages with new collagen casings, allowing you to improve standards and productivity.
1. Prepare the production
Making sausages means following a series of steps and using specific equipment for the production process. It’s also essential to set aside adequate space for this type of work. The environment must be spacious and capable of accommodating all required tools, allowing you to get through each step of the process without issues.
An ideal work area must include sinks, tables, and running water, as well as good air circulation to preserve sanitary conditions, which is crucial to ensure product quality and care for the end consumer health.
2. Separate the ingredients
This is one of the most important tips when preparing sausages. Before starting any procedure, separate the necessary ingredients like the types of meat, fats, and seasoning. Don’t forget about the liquid that will act as a link between the dough and casings during the stuffing process. Use potable water, as the quality of the water is an extremely important component of this task.
Speaking of casings, remember to set aside the casing you’ve chosen. Collagen casings are an excellent choice in this case. Don’t forget the tools required for the job, too, like gloves, threads, containers, and other items that are essential when handling the product.
3. Freeze the ingredients
Making sure you get the right cooking temperatures for the meat is essential to make sure the sausage gets to the desired results and prevent losses. Freezing the meats and fats is a great idea that could really help in the production of meat products.
To do this, place the meats and fats in separate containers and leave them in the freezer. The ingredients should be kept at temperatures below -15 ºC and must be taken out as soon as a layer of ice begins forming on the surface.
4. Grind the meats and fats
Once they’re frozen, keep the ingredients in ambient temperatures, but away from warm places that could make them thaw out faster. This is another suggestion among the different tips for sausage preparation.
Before you start grinding the meats and fats, clean up the tool you’ll use while the products are returning to their natural state. Remove any impurities, residue, or dirt that could contaminate the ingredients.
After that, you can start grinding them. Be very careful during this process since all meat must be ground. Otherwise, you’ll have trouble during stuffing and will not be able to guarantee delivery of a high-quality product.
5. Season the ingredients
After grinding them, the resulting dough must be seasoned manually. Place the ground ingredients in a deep container, add the seasoning of your choice, and start mixing. Ideally, the fats should be visually imperceptible while the meat stands out the most.
If the mixture looks dry, add some water bit by bit. It should not be too moist or too dry. Finally, drain the excess water as needed.
6. Start stuff
Another tip for making sausages is about choosing the best casing to encase the dough. This step requires adequate tools for the job to prevent any possible failures. You can encase the product with a manual or automatic tool, following the manufacturer’s recommendations regarding caliber.
To make sure that your sausage will be in perfect condition, you’ll have to choose the best casing for your needs. If you want to make sure your product is standardized with near imperceptible casing for consumption, collagen casing might be the best for you. Its best advantages include:
- product uniformity: recommended for industrial production as it helps standardize the production process;
- easily digestible: collagen is a material of animal origin and easily digestible by the human organism;
- improved liquid retention: due to having a less porous surface, collagen casing allows humidity to be evenly spread around the product;
- does not require washing: collagen casings are ready for use and doesn’t have to be washed before casing;
- odorless: collagen casing is the only one that is odorless, preventing it from interfering with the aromas of spices or meats;
- easily placed in the funnel: intestine casings are hard to place in a funnel. It’s a time waster and the repetitive motions required can be tiring;
- compatible with color prints: collagen casings make it easy for producers to print their brand on them, without damaging the end product;
- can be colored: for cooked products, collagen casings can standardize color and reduce oven time.
7. Wait for it to dry
The drying process for sausages is optional. So, if you’d like your product to be delivered freshly to stores, you can sell it immediately after manufacturing, but if your product is cured, it will have to be dried first.
8. Start the smoking process
If you want to make smoked sausage, take it out of the refrigerator and place it in a smoker at 70 ºC for 4 hours. After the industrial production is complete, the meat products are stored in appropriate bags or boxes in a manually or vacuum-based packaging machine.
These are our tips that will help you make the best-quality sausages. As you know, getting a meat products business to grow in Brazil is not at all difficult, but be sure to always follow the best manufacturing practices and make sure your ingredients and materials are of the highest quality and reliable.
Collagen casings are a great choice for sausages. They can help you drive productivity and caliber standardization while also helping you ensure hygiene and resistance.
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