Going to try to make sausage...

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Sandyj

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Northern New Jersey
My mom just returned from South Africa on Sunday, and brought me my grandmother's very old (manual) meat grinder which has a suasage "nozzle" attachment.

I'm so thrilled with this gift, I've decided to try my hand at making sausage this week-end!

I'm going to make boerewors, and I have several recipes that I'm looking at, but I'm leaning towards one I found in an old cook book that was my Gran's (Mrs. Slade's South African Cookery (1939 edition)). I'd like to make about 30 lbs (and freeze a lot of it). Boerewors is very popular in South Africa, it is from the Dutch words boere (farmer) + wors (sausage). It usually contains ground pork and lamb (or sometimes just lamb) and fat (pork spek) and a combination of salt, peppers (green, black), coriander, and I'm not sure what else. I know these days, you can get all sorts of flavours added to the boerwors (sun dried tomato is one I can think of), but I'd like to start off with a recipe that is close to the original. It's a lot like Italian sausage in texture, except it is never sweet and I've never tasted anisette (? that spice that tastes like licorice? or is it fennel) in boerwors.

I'm going to ask a local meat shop to order some casings for me - I know you can get vegetarian/non vegetarian - not sure which I'll try.

Anyone have any tips about sausage making? I'd be most interested.

Sandyj

ps my good friend also gave me two (!) le Creuset pots - 5qt oval and 2 qt round in the flame colour - I'm in heaven.
 
Oh Sandy,
I bet you're in heaven..I've thought about trying to make sausage, but, have never done it. Your boerewors sound so good. Italian sausage is mainly pork with anise seeds..I like them if there is just a little anise in them otherwise I prefer them without..Sweet just means with the anise and not doctored up with pepper to make them bite you back:LOL:

kadesma
 
Wow, you are lucky....just go for it, there is nothing like eating your own foodstuffs. I have made a bit of sausage, usually goat meat solo, and only in 5 pound batches. I freeze it in one pound packages. As you are making it, fry up some to see how you like it. I had to tweak a recipe quite a bit to find a mix I liked. In fact, that was how I learned I do not like thyme, I kept reducing the amount of thyme, and when I completely left it out, I had the recipe!
 
Thanks for the input kadesma and bethzaring ... I really am in heaven... and I think the idea to fry some up as I'm making the batches to see if the taste is right is an excellent idea. Boerewors done on the grill is delicious, too, by the way.
 
Have a great time!!! I got a grinder and sausage attachment for the KA a few years ago. I put all the attachments in the freezer before using. Try to keep everything as cold as possible. And have fun!!
 
Small batch sausage is great. I have only made bulk for patties, but I do have an extruder attachment now for my kitchen aid so links will be comming this winter. Have made country, sweet, hot, and chorizo.
 
Sandyj,

Sausage-making is a lot of fun, and quite a project.

You really need a second person's hands, while you are grinding and stuffing. One person has to "catch" the sausage as it's being stuffed into the casing, to guide the speed of filling the casing, preventing air pockets, and tying off the ends, while the other person is working the stuffer.

When using hog casings, I find the end of each casing, one at a time, and slide it over the tip of a plastic funnel, then run tap water into it to rinse. I then put the rinsed casings in a bowl of water, with one end of each casing hanging out over the edge of the bowl, so I can easily grab one at a time.

There are lots of sausage-making tips and recipes on the web, but this book by Rytek Kutas http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0025668609/102-2859050-6826518?v=glance&n=283155 was highly recommended to me when I was just starting out, and it's worth every penny.

Also, if you need special supplies, like cures and flavorings and other cool toys, Allied Kenco http://www.alliedkenco.com/catalog/index.php has a wonderful website and paper catalog, with very reasonable prices.

Have fun!

Lee
 
Thanks for these tips and for the links! My mom and I will be doing the sausage together, so I will have that much needed second pair of hands. I originally had grandiose ideas of 30 lbs, but after looking at all the recipes, I've scaled it down to 10 for this first batch - approximately double the recipe I finally settled on.
 
Regarding the casings ... and I had to laugh about making sausage and stuffing them into "vegan" casings ...

Yes, there are basically 2 kinds of synthetic casings ... the ones you can't eat (basically plastic bags - the sausages are cooked and then the castings are stripped before packaging - like in hot hogs) and they ones you will regret eating (cellulose, natural plant fiber but still a little too "toothsome" and "plastic" for my taste).

I vote for natural casing every time!

If you have a manual (hand-cranked) grinder - you definately need a 2nd pair of hands.
 
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Michael - you're right, I see that it is funny about the vegan casings.

I have just spoken with a butcher and he can sell me enough hog casing for my 10 lbs.

The recipe I picked will have pork and beef, not pork and lamb.

I googled for other boerewors recipes and instructions and found a well written description (it's also quite funny), with pictures, on the web, of another South African's attempt at boerwors (in Las Vegas, of all places). I enjoyed it so much, I am copying the link here. The page is not selling anything - it's purely there for fun to read. Hope that's okay, GB!

http://www.sablesys.com/boerewors.html

Sandy!
 
Agree with QSis, the book by Rytek Kutas is great and I think a must read for anyone getting interested in sausage making.

He also sells a lot of sausage making materials, is worth a look.

Totally agree that frying up the forcemeat is necessary to adjust the seasonings, but we have found the flavor is not exactly the same as it will be when the sausage has had a chance to sit for awhile. The flavors will be more pronounced in the final product and the sausage will be more salty than one tastes in the initial frying.

At least in our experience.

And so we use the frying step as a guide, a very necessary one, but we don't add enough extra salt and spices to make the initial fried patty taste just the way we want the sausage to taste. Or we have found we wind up with an overly spiced product.

Making sausage is a lot of fun. We have the KA adaptor and an electric grinder but usually use the hand cranked onel

Hope you enjoy.
 
Thanks AuntDot - I probably would have over-seasoned! In the instructions for the recipe that I found on google (link above) they recommended letting the sausage to rest in the fridge for 24 hours before cooking. Makes sense and ties in with your advice.

A quetion: I am going to cut the meat into cubes manually and then mix it with the spices then put it through the grinder - it occurs to me that I might not get the ingredients evenly enough distributed before placing in the casings. Maybe I should grind it first, then put it through the grinder again, but without the blade, when I stuff the casings. Am I making sense?
 
I made sausaage last year using pork and venison. I did some in casings and that takes 2 people for sure. I also made patties and they were really good. You can grind the meat and then mix by hand to make sure you have it all mixed. Just don't squeeze it.Have fun.
 
where can you buy sausage casings in toronto? I always wanted to try to make homemade sauages (with cheese) since my kitchen aide is equipped for that
 
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Sandy? I've only just seen this thread, thanks to Prada's post. Have you now made the sausage? How'd it go? Give us an update, please!

We started making all our own sausage last year and it was so easy and so succesful we've never looked back. We now almost always have packages in the freezer of a "Greek" sausage (leek and orange peel), an "Italian" (lots of fennel seed, yum), and a "German" which is the traditional American "breakfast sausage". I'd be happy to trade recipes if you'd like.

By the way, did you ever get an answer to that question about the licorice flavor? If not, here's my take: both anise seed and fennel seed have a licorice-ish flavor. The fennel seed is a good bit larger so it's maybe not advisable to use whole, whereas the anise seed is a very delicate thing. (I just love to sprinkle anise seed on all sorts of things -- tuna salad, sandwiches, etc.!)
 

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