Turkey/Chicken Breast for brats, breakfast sausage and patties.

[KnucklHed BBQ]

I’ve found that using dark meat helps keep moisture and help everything stick together better than just breast meat too. Boneless/skinless thighs are usually less expensive too.
If you’re not opposed to a little bit of fat you can add some pork butt in as well - it helps bind things together too, pork is sticky.

[Jonathon]

harpo79 Yes, chicken thighs are generally higher in fat content so that absolutely makes sense. I might make some out of thighs and some out of breasts to compare?

Would anyone be interested in a video about that or should I just do it as a post?

[IVERYAN]

@jonathon- I vote for a video.
Thanks

[harpo79]

Jonathon In one of your videos for 5# of turkey you say you would use 5 lb of store bought ground turkey, 1/4 a package of Supreme Pizza Brat (a full package would normally season 25 lb of meat) 1/4 a package of carrot fiber and 0.4 oz of cold phosphate. Now, for a 25 lb batch of regular brats we recommend 12 oz of cold water, since I am using 5 lb of turkey I should use about 2.7 oz of water but since I am using both carrot fiber and cold phosphate I am going to double that and use 4.5 oz of water. Would this be the same for 5# of chicken?
Also you prefer to run it through a 3/16th plate first and then a 1/8th plate twice over doing 3/8 twice?
And last would you hand tie the links or twist them. Is there a video on how to do that?

Thanks

[Jonathon]

harpo79 Yes, it would be the same for Turkey as it would be for Chicken and adding the cold phosphate is really going to help you out here. The cold phosphate seems to work better than anything else at retaining moisture and my best results were when I used it in conjunction with the Carrot Fiber, like you are going to do!

I do prefer a 3/16 to a 1/8th over twice through a 3/8th plate as you will end up with a finer grind and because we want to break down the protein more in poultry than we would in pork or beef I just think it gives you a better end result.

Second question we have had in the last few days on linking. I think we will get a video going on some linking tips and hopefully we will get it on the website shortly. For now the best video that shows how to twist is this hot dog video you can go to the 4:35 mark and Austin does a good job twisting cellulose casings though he does not show how he tied them.

Let us know if you need anything else!

[harpo79]

Jonathon Thanks

[harpo79]

Jonathon I watched the hot dog video. I am making chicken brats, then vacuum seal them six in a bag to cook at a later time. So would I twist then in links of six then seal them. Can you twist then cut individually?
Thanks

[Jonathon]

harpo79 If you are vac packing them before cooking I would leave them linked, then put them in the freezer until they are mostly frozen before vac packing them. This will prevent them from being smashed down when put under vacuum. I would also cut them before packing them if you are freezing them as that will help the twist stay closed a little. If you aren’t freezing them before then don’t cut them or the meat will be forced out of the casing.

[harpo79]

Jonathon So if I understand what you are saying, I prefreeze before sealing in rows of 6 then cut in individual links when I final seal.
Thanks

[Jonathon]

harpo79 That is it exactly! You could leave them linked in the package if you wanted but it seems like it would be more work that way and it wouldn’t really give you any benefit, so just cut them right before you vac seal them.

[Jonathon]

IVERYAN Grabbed some chicken thighs the other day, thoughts on what seasoning I should use? I am also going to make another post so more people see this and can vote but since you responded to that comment I wanted to get your input.

[IVERYAN]

Jonathon Good Morning Jonathon. Pick the seasoning you want, since you are the one who is going to be eating them. Im interested in how the thighs will affect the texture, how you are going to grind them etc.

Thanks!