Forcemeat: A Key Component of Sausage-

Making
Liver pate, a type of forcemeat.

Forcemeat is a combination of meat, fat, seasonings and other ingredients

that are blended together through grinding or puréeing to form an emulsion.

Forcemeat is used as the main ingredient in making sausages, pâtés,

terrines, galantines and other charcuterie items. Basically, it's the filling. And
it's named because in making sausages, the filling is forced into the casing.

If you're thinking this sounds like a lot of effort, remember that sausages
were invented with two primary purposes in mind:

1. Use up every last scrap of edible material from the carcass of the pig
2. Transform this edible material into a form that will allow it to last for a long
time, with no refrigeration

Sausages and other charcuterie items are part of a culinary field known
as garde manger, which concerns itself with the art of preparing and
preserving foods using techniques as varied as pickling, smoking, salting or
air-drying.

Why Make Forcemeat?

To understand why this works, remember that food spoilage (as well as food
poisoning) is caused by tiny organisms called bacteria. In addition to food,
these bacteria need water and oxygen, as well as a certain favorable range
of acidity (pH level). Food preservation, then, comes down to controlling one
or more of those factors to ensure that the bacteria can't survive.

Sausage-making, for instance, often involves smoking or air-drying, both of

which deprive bacteria of air or water. Additionally, sausage-making always
uses salt, which itself deprives bacteria of water through a process known
as osmosis. (You can read more about the six factors that contribute to the
growth of the bacteria that cause food spoilage.)

In any case, just as it is possible to preserve strips of meat by drying it to

make jerky, forcemeat is the emulsion created by grinding or pureeing meat,
fat and other ingredients along with preservatives like salt, sugar, and
sodium nitrite, to make sausage.
Grinding into forcemeat thus helps expose more of the ingredients to
whatever the preservative happens to be in use, whether it's salt or smoke or
air.

Types of Forcemeat

Traditional or straight forcemeat is made with pork meat and pork fat, along
with a primary meat such as fish, seafood, veal, poultry or game.

Country-style forcemeat has a coarser texture and traditionally includes pork

liver along with some garnish of nuts or vegetables. It usually uses some
sort of binder, called a panada, such as cubes of bread soaked in egg and
milk.

Mousseline forcemeat has the lightest texture, and is usually made with
heavy cream rather than pork fat. Mousseline forcemeats are typically forced
through a sieve to produce a very fine consistency. They're good to use as
fillings or stuffings, for instance, in ravioli or tortelloni.

Gratin forcemeat is made by briefly searing the primary meat, developing

flavor and color, before cooling and grinding it as in a straight forcemeat.

One traditional form of forcemeat is used when making the classic chicken
galantine, in which the meat of a whole deboned chicken is combined with
finely chopped veal, truffles, pork fat and other ingredients, along with
numerous seasonings. This mixture comprises the forcemeat, which was
then stuffed into the skin of the chicken, tied, wrapped in bacon and poached
in stock.

ALL ABOUT SAUSAGES

Sausage is a traditional way to preserve meat, and a great option for using
up parts of the animal that are perfectly nutritious but not exactly
photogenic – nothing goes to waste just because it’s not very appealing to
look at on its own. There’s nothing weird or gross about that: those bits are
perfectly good to eat and there’s no reason why we should throw them out.

The real problem with sausages isn’t the meat scraps. It’s all the other stuff
that gets put in there alongside the meat itself. Sausages are typically
slammed as “processed meat,” and it’s true that a lot of grocery-store
sausages are more junk than actual animal parts.

On the other hand, it is possible to get good sausages, or even make them
yourself with minimal fuss. And if you can fine or make something good,
they’re a very convenient way to pep up your stew or substitute for eggs at
breakfast time. Here’s what you need to know about finding the good ones,
or making them yourself if you’re adventurous.

Types of Sausages

The basic idea of sausage is simple: meat and spices combined, sometimes
with fat or fruit, typically in some kind of casing to hold it all together.
Sausages come in an endless number of regional varieties and
specializations, but here’s a very basic overview of three different types:

 Fresh or raw sausage: ground meat, fat, and spices that have been
mixed but not cured or cooked (the meat is still raw). It’s typically
sold in casings, but you can also buy fresh sausage meat in patties or
just loose like any other ground meat. This is the most basic and
versatile form of sausage, and the easiest to make yourself.

 Cooked sausage: basically fresh sausage that’s been cooked so all

you have to do is reheat it. Like fresh sausage, it comes in links or
patties (not typically loose). These are convenient if you like to save
on cooking time.

 Cured, Dry, or Summer Sausage: sausages that have been smoked

and/or fermented before they get to you. These are stable at room
temperature, so they’re perfect for long commutes, traveling, hiking,
or other adventures that call for a ready supply of high-quality
 protein. You can DIY these, but they’re more of a project and require
some fancy equipment.

All of the above can be Paleo, if they don’t contain any monkey business in
the ingredients list. Here’s what to look out for:

Casings

Traditionally, sausage casings are made from the intestines of the animal
(remember how it’s all about using every part of the carcass? That really
does mean every part!). If you see sausages “in a pork casing” or something
similar, that’s what it means.

Animal intestines (“pork casing,” “lamb casing,” “beef casing,” etc.)

are the casings to look for. They taste the best, and generally indicate a
high-quality sausage overall. The companies that run giant industrial
production lines have no patience for natural casings because they don’t
come in standardized sizes, but you probably don’t want to eat sausages
from those factories anyway.

You can also buy casings made from collagen. These are probably fine,
especially for hard sausages where you don’t actually eat the casing itself,
but go for animal casings if you can. Collagen is a protein isolated from
animal foods, and it’s actually very good for you – it’s the same protein that
makes bone broth so healthy. Collagen casings are made from animal
hides. The hides are ground up and then treated with acidic and alkaline
materials to extract the collagen and give it the right texture, and
sometimes vegetable fiber is added. Then the collagen is formed into the
shape of a casing. That doesn’t sound bad, except that sometimes the
collagen is treated with other things as well, and there’s really no way to
know since all you see on the ingredients label is “collagen casing.”

Casings are sometimes made from cellulose as well, but cellulose casings
are typically inedible and they’re removed before the final sausage is sold,
so you don’t really need to worry about what’s in them. Avoid plastic
casings. Plastic is not food.

Filling
Good sausages should be stuffed with some combination of meat, fat, salt,
and spices. Optionally, they may have a sweetener (e.g. maple syrup in a
maple breakfast sausage), other animal ingredients (e.g. blood in blood
sausage), or fruit. Good sausages do not need cornstarch, flour of any kind,
any kind of gum, breadcrumbs, texturized vegetable protein…you get the
idea.

The only way to figure this one out is to take a very critical eye to the
ingredients list. Many health-food or organic grocery stores carry
reasonably junk-free sausages. But if you can’t find any, there is another
option: making your own.

Making your Own Sausage: Not Actually That Hard.

One easy way to make sure everything in your sausage is completely Paleo
is to simply make it yourself. There are two ways to do this: the fancy way
and the easy way.

 The fancy way: buy a sausage stuffer and casings, look up a recipe for
your favorite kind of links, and let your inner DIY food nerd go wild.
With this setup, you can make any kind of sausage you want (raw,
smoked, cured or fermented, cooked…) and package it up to be very
attractive.

Unfortunately, the fancy way requires you to actually buy a sausage stuffer,
which can get pricey, and dedicate a significant amount of time to the
project. If that sounds like a total pipe dream, there’s also the easy way.

Homemade loose sausage adds a lot of flavor to frittatas and other egg
dishes
  The easy way: forget about the casings and focus on sausage patties
and raw sausage meat for use in other recipes.

This method doesn’t require any special equipment and it barely takes any
time. The cons: it doesn’t look as pretty, and there’s no way to do
fermented or cured sausages. You won’t be able to make anything that will
keep at room temperature. But if you’re looking for something like
breakfast sausage, or if you just want sausage crumbles for a frittata or
something, you can get exactly the same taste without any junk!

A few recipes for Paleo-friendly sausages:

 (Fancy): Homemade Italian and Chorizo Sausage (Nom Nom Paleo)

 (Fancy): Sheboygan-Style Bratwurst (Food 52) – replace the beer with
cider or another Paleo-friendly poaching liquid.
 (Easy): Breakfast Sausages (Primal Palate)
 (Easy): Homemade Beef Sausage (Once a Month Meals)
 (Easy): Christina’s Turkey Breakfast Sausage (AIP Paleo)

Use your loose sausage in patties, or in recipes like soups, chilis, and
frittatas: it’s an easy and delicious way to add flavor and variety to the meal
rotation.

Summing it Up

There’s nothing wrong with the traditional model of sausage. Meat is good
for you and spices are good for you; they don’t magically become
unhealthy when they’re stuffed inside a perfectly nutritious animal part and
eaten as sausage links. In fact, sausage is an easy way to get all the health
benefits of the less-appealing parts of the animal and avoid wasting food.

If you buy sausage from a farmer, a good butcher, or a local supplier, you
should be able to get high-quality sausages in an animal casing with no
junk ingredients – otherwise, it’s reasonably simple to make your own, and
the result is delicious.

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