Pork – Why Are Sausage Patties Dry When Cooked?

groundporksausages

I have a problem with homemade sausage patties that I make. They come out too dry on the inside. Could it be the difference in kosher salt and iodized salt? The recipe is as follows:

  1. Ground pork with high fat content
  2. Chopped onions
  3. Ground nutmeg, ground cayenne,powdered oregano,cracked anise seeds
  4. iodized salt, pepper
  5. Minced onions
  6. Mix. Grill as is, with no oil whatsoever.

When I first tried this recipe, I was using kosher salt, and the result was good and juicy. However, I remember transitioning to iodized salt, and I still got good results, however I may be remembering things in a blur.

Update. I've drastically changed some parts of the recipe. (1) the meat is now fresh ground twice thru the KA meat grinder, so it's super moist and I suppose it's preserved inside the patty (wrapped in film, frozen), (2) using kosher salt, and a less amount of it. With the test fry, it's more moist now.

Best Answer

The most important difference here is the grain of the salt. Kosher salt has a coarse grain, whereas table salt ("iodized") is fine grain. Yes, it will affect the juiciness of your meat.

Here's an article that discusses it.

Cooking with Kosher salt: I generally reserve Kosher salt for meat and recipes that call specifically for it. Because the larger flakes hold onto moisture, Kosher salt essentially holds the moisture inside of the meat. It keeps pork chops tender, steaks juicy, and chicken breast moist.

See for yourself. Salt one chicken breast with table salt and another with kosher salt. The one with kosher salt will retain its moisture much better than the chicken breast salted with table salt.

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