Making a Precooked type Sausage from Bulk Raw

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Integraoligist

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We’ve always used bulk raw sausage, when an order came in we’d hand pinch each piece onto the pizza… o how time consuming and messy this is.

I’ve attempted precooking sausage before then chopping it and putting it on the pizza. It tastes normal but the look of it is bad because of the cut.

Does anyone here partially cook their sausage so it’s easy to just throw on the pie, and if so, how do you do it?

As I’m getting everything I can figured out before I start constructing the new Delco, we will be running just a conveyer oven (no fryers or grill) so however we precook the sausage must be through the conveyer.
I was thinking of just having the pizza people hand pinch sausage one at a time onto a pizza pan then partially run it through the oven (just enough to make it non-sticky to the touch) but we’re back to wasting all that time… and I can’t think of a device to press and chop raw sausage.

Ideas?
 
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We use both fresh and precooked in my stores - fresh for thin crust pizzas and precooked for stuffed pizzas.

At the store with a conveyor oven we layer it into a sheet pan and get it about 3/8 of an inch thick (it takes up the entire sheet pan.) It gets run through the conveyor about 3/4 of the way and it’s fully cooked.

We then pinch it after it’s cooked and it goes a lot faster than pinching it before. It still doesn’t look as good as hand pinching it before cooking, but it’s a compromise.

There actually is a device that will take care of fresh sausage for you. If money is no object, here you go: http://www.pizzamaticusa.com/sausage_depositor.html

That baby automatically dispenses fresh sausage onto pizza. Last time I checked it was north of $25,000 and there’s no way it would save me enough labor to justify the cost. But I still want one.
 
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If you’re going to par-cook the sausage just be sure it reaches a minimum temperature of 165F and then cool it as rapidly as possible to full refrigerated temperature (36 to 42F). If you have any doubts about the way to handle the precooked sausage, run it across your local health department as they will be the ones deciding if you’re doing it right or not.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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As far as precooking… because the Bulk sausage sits in the Pizza Prep table for usually 36 hours max, wouldn’t precooking it just slightly (not getting to 165F) then finger tearing it apart and throwing it into the Pizza Prep be good enough for just 36 hours? As it will be put back onto the pizza and fully cooked reaching well over 165F?
 
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We cook off rope sausage on a sheet pan, then freeze it slightly, till firm…then we slice it on the Hobart mixer w/the pelican head…use like pepperoni…
 
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cook links, cool off and let them harden in freezer for a bit, then slice them on a hobart slicer with a chute attachment
 
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WE go through about 30 lbs a week so what I do is cook off 10 lbs in my oven and use my cheese shredder on my hobart, shredding it when its hot and it come out nice and loose… I would never cook it raw on my pizzas.
 
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We buy pork butt and pork trimmings from our local meat market. They grind it for us. We take it back to the shop ,put it in a 24x24 pan, add our seasoning mix, run thru the oven, break it up, run it thru the oven again, cool it, put it in baggies and freeze it. We use it as needed.
 
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Like I said, check with your local health department. Most are going to say, if you heat it, you must heat it to the point where it is food safe (160/165F), then refrigerate or freeze it quickly. The 4-hour rule then comes into play.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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I like the idea of cooking off the links or ropes and then using a slicer or grater to make the par-frozen meat into a ‘topping’. That could have real benefits over what I am dealing with here . . . pre-cooked, frozen and not as flavorful as I would like to use. Even using a RoboCoupe or Cuisinart processor could get a coarse chop that is acceptable. Anyone using that sort of equipment?

As Tom said, the health department will have some interest in par-cooking techniques with pork. Do also double-check your liability insurance coverage for food related claims if you have a food handling technique that is in direct conflict with accepted and published food handling guidelines and laws. Your insurer may actually classify that as willful negligence and deny coverage (just sayin’). Ground meats are risky because we cannot be certain of our meat packers (see all the ground bef recalls the last two years).

Even seeing it ground in front of my face from trimmings, what is the time in temp danger zone on that trim they’re using? If they can’t tell me, then it is a high risk meat product for me. I am by no means a food safety fanatic/freak/nazi, but ground meats do get me watching my temp/time with the most scrutiny and my newest thermometers.

I like the idea of
 
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we buy italian sausage bulk raw. I thaw it and press it out into large pizza pans and send through the oven once, flip it and cut into squares and send it through again. next we drain the grease off and buzz it up in the Robot Coupe.
works great
 
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Tom Lehmann:
Like I said, check with your local health department. Most are going to say, if you heat it, you must heat it to the point where it is food safe (160/165F), then refrigerate or freeze it quickly. The 4-hour rule then comes into play.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
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I believe most states/counties have dropped their minimum internal temperature requirements for pork down to 140 degrees to be considered fully cooked now, but during it’s subsequent re-heat, it must then reach 165 degrees minimum internal temp for 20 seconds. (please verify times and temps with your specific county health department) You may have some carryover heat happening too, So verify right out of the oven, and then again in 30 second intervals.
I like to use an instant-read thermapen from thermoworks for this, they have a very quick read time of 3 seconds, and a very fine tip on the probe to get accurate readings on small or thin items.
Then you usually have 7 days to use it once it is cooked and held below 40 degrees before needing to be discarded.
 
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GotRocks:
I believe most states/counties have dropped their minimum internal temperature requirements for pork down to 140 degrees to be considered fully cooked now, but during it’s subsequent re-heat, it must then reach 165 degrees minimum internal temp for 20 seconds. (please verify times and temps with your specific county health department) You may have some carryover heat happening too, So verify right out of the oven, and then again in 30 second intervals.
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Your temps are right on for whole muscle pork. Sausage (fresh) you will probably find is considered a ground meat, higher risk factor, and has the temp restrictions Tom mentioned above. It is not unlike hamburger and it’s difference from steaks. Local agencies can take some latititude to make more restrictive policies, but Federal Guidelines are gold here . . . use your ground meat techniques, or develop a HAACP plan that is comparable and present it to your community health people.

Remember that lower temps at longer times may be acceptable in some cases. Consult food experts as YMMV.
 
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I just checked my county guidelines and yes, I was incorrect in my previous post. Thank you for correcting me Nickspizza
My county guidelines show 155F for the initial “Fully Cooked” temperature for ground meats and sausages, and the reheat is 165,

Beef is 130F
Poultry is 165
pork, whole-muscle has been changed from 140 up to 145 now in my county. but hot-holding is still at 135 here.

Anyways, just check with your local H-D to make sure you are within spec, they usually have quick reference charts on their website in a printable format for easy use. They are all based off the federal code, and the counties have the option to be more restrictive than the federal guidelines.
 
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