Ingredients
Total meat plus fat. Everything below rescales.
Meat & Fat
Cure & Seasoning
Weigh the cure on a scale that reads to 0.1 g. Not something to measure by spoon.
Cure Safety
United States (USDA), 9 CFR 424.21(c)
Open in the Cure CalculatorEquipment
The emulsion is built in stages, beef and half the water first, then pork, cure, fat and potato flour, with the rest of the water last. Everything stays cold so it does not break in the kettle. Three hours of low smoke at 46C sets the color before a gentle poach takes it to 70C, soft and sliceable and fully cooked.
How To Apply It
Build the emulsion in stages, starting with the beef and half the water, then folding in the pork, cure, salt, spices, fat and potato flour before finishing with the rest of the water. Keep everything cold throughout so the emulsion stays tight and doesn't separate during cooking.
Instructions
Grind the beef, pork and fat separately through a 10 mm plate so each component emulsifies evenly.
Start the beef in the food processor with half the water. Once it is smooth, add the pork with the salt, Cure #1 and spices, then the fat, then the potato flour, trickling in the rest of the water as the machine runs.
Fill beef middles, beef bungs or wide fibrous or cellulose casings.
Hang at room temperature for two to three hours, or overnight in the cooler at 4C if you prefer a slower start before smoking.
Smoke at 46C for three hours to set the color and add flavor before cooking.
Hold the poaching water near 72C, well short of a simmer. Expect 60 to 90 minutes in middles or fibrous casings, and longer in beef bungs. Take it out when the center reads 68 to 70C; the thermometer decides, not the clock.
Drop the cooked sausage into cold water for about ten minutes, let it finish cooling on a rack, then refrigerate.
Then What
Once cooled and refrigerated it is ready to slice and eat cold. Use it within a week, or freeze it for longer.
About This Recipe
American bologna grew out of European-style emulsified sausages brought over by immigrant butchers and was adapted to local tastes and casings. It's cooked and lightly smoked rather than air dried, which keeps it soft and sliceable.
Curing salts are toxic in quantities you could measure casually with a spoon. Weigh every dose and mix it through evenly. Adapted from Bologna -American; all wording here is our own. We have not made this one ourselves yet, so treat the timings as a starting point.
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