Salt and Sausages


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When making a sausage the non-iodized salt should be used as it is purer. Iodized salt includes extra ingredients for example, anti-caking agents are used to prevent salt lumping. If you fill one glass with iodized salt and water, and the other with pickling salt and water, you will see that after a while the solution of pickling salt will be much clearer. In earlier days „rock” salts were named after the mine from which they came from, for instance Wieliczka (Poland) or Sławianska, Permska, Jelecka, Bachmutska (Russia) and they all had different degrees of purity. Our American salts are manufactured to the highest standards but keep in mind that in other countries salts can be mined under different conditions or made by evaporation from sea-water. Quality of the final product will vary and may have some impurities present. What is important is that salt should be always perfectly dry (no bacteria) when used for curing.

For brining purposes both table salt and kosher salt will work equally well in terms of providing the desired effects, though kosher salt – and in particular Diamond Crystal kosher salt dissolves more readily. What is important to remember is that kosher salts are less dense than ordinary table salts and measure quite differently from a volume standpoint. Kosher salt has larger crystals and is bulkier. For example, a given weight of Diamond Crystal takes up nearly twice the volume as the same weight of table salt.

One cup of table salt is equivalent to 1-1/3 to 1-1/2 cups of Morton Kosher Salt or 2 cups of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt.

As we can see it is always advisable to weigh out your salt. Make sure the salt is dry otherwise you may introduce some bacteria into the brine. Besides, moist salt weighs much more and your results will be off. Salt used in brine should be as pure as possible. Common impurities found in salt are calcium chloride, magnesium sulphate, or nitrates.

As a flavoring ingredient, sugar plays a little role in making sausages. No more than 3g of sugar is added to 1kg of meat otherwise it can be noticeable. Chinese are very fond of sweet sausages so they might be an exception to the rule. If after mixing meat with ingredients and we find that the mixture tastes too salty, we can try to save the product by adding a little sugar. Not too much though as it should not be felt in a ready to eat sausage. Adding sugar was very important when making fermented and air dried sausages as it provided food for bacteria and helped to form the lactic acid. Now we have commercially prepared and ready to use starter cultures and adding sugar is less important. Sugar also helps to preserve red color of meat. In Europe beet sugar is commonly used, in the USA cane sugar is readily available. Often dextrose is used, but keep in mind that it is only 70% as sweet as sugar.