Creative Sausage Making participants with their sausage in TAMU coolers
The fifth annual Creative Sausage Making class, a joint venture between the Meat Science Section of the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, was held on January 12-13, 2018 at the Rosenthal Meat Center. Thirty participants, representing barbecue companies, foodservice distributors, retailers, chefs and backyard enthusiasts came to learn sausage production from start to finish.
Dr. Osburn teaching the lecture portion of CSM.
During the program, participants learned the science of basic sausage production, differences in casing types, sausage cooking/smoking and food safety. With the assistance of Meat Science graduate students and faculty, and additional technical support from Rick Fitzgerald (A.C. Legg), participants formulated their own batches of both fresh and cured/smoked sausage from a list of different sausage choices, stuffed them in natural casings and prepared them for packaging or cooking.
Meat Science graduate students Martin Wu and Brogan Horton (in white coats) helped each participant formulate, grind, and stuff their products
Dr. Osburn and Hillary Martinez assisting
Jacob Valenta and his group seasoning and getting ready to stuff fresh sausage.
Hannah Laird helping a participant learn to use the stuffer.
Wade Hanson helping during fresh sausage manufacturing
Jill Jobe assisting with grinding
Kayley Wall supervising during batch formulation
Room full of sausage makers!
Kathy Modrow assisting with fresh sausage products.
Rick Fitzgerald with A.C. Legg has volunteered to come each year of Creative Sausage Making to provide technical ingredient expertise as well as his excellent sausage-making experience. Thank you Rick!
This team of successful sausage makers included (l-r) Dr. David Reed, former TAMU students Janell Plochek (’92), and Jeff (’99) and Katherine Chalkley (’00) – great job!
Fresh sausage made by CSM participants.
Student assistants cooked/smoked (when needed) and packaged each participants products for them to take home and enjoy.
After the sausage was made, the students assisting with the program took over. They made sure that each participant’s product was properly labeled, then the fresh sausage was chilled and packaged. The cured/smoked products were hung on sticks, placed on a smokehouse truck and cooked in the smokehouse at the Rosenthal Meat Center. After cooking and chilling, the products were packaged, matched with each person’s fresh sausage and placed in individual Texas A&M coolers for distribution.
Starting off Day 2, Dr. Matt Taylor and his students led the class through some practical ways to maintain food safety as they take their newly developed sausage making skills back home.
Dr. Wes Osburn and Dr. Davey Griffin led and coordinated the program, respectively. A tremendous group of Meat Science graduate and undergraduate students started preparing for the course earlier in the week by making example batches of each of the sausage products available for participants to make during the workshop. The products that they made were sampled during the last day of the program to give participants a better idea of what to expect from their own products when they got back home.
It takes a great deal of help and service to make workshops a success. Students involved in making products, leading groups, cleaning the lab and helping with all the behind-the-scenes activities included Chi-heng (Martin) Wu, Sam Annor, Kourtney Daniels, Eric Hamilton, Wade Hanson, Jill Jobe and Brogan Horton, Hannah Laird, Hillary Martinez, Kathy Modrow, Lokesh Motanam, Katy Jo Nickelson, Cassie Peña, Jacob Valenta, Kayley Wall, Caleb Wong de la Rosa, Hayden Blumberg, Jordan Hevner, Kenna Turner and Kirby Bohls.
Some of the TAMU Meat Science Graduate and Undergraduate students that worked behind the scenes and served as group leaders for the Creative Sausage Making class. (l-r front): Cassie Peña, Martin Wu, Jill Jobe and Brogan Horton, (l-r back): Hillary Martinez, Kathy Modrow, Jacob Valenta, Kayley Wall, Wade Hanson, Eric Hamilton and CalebWong de la Rosa.