Sausage Making.

[FrankZ]

Tonight we plan on making some sausage.

I ground up a butt last night. It might have been better to wait and try to get it ground right before making the sausage but it took long enough that I am glad that part it out of the way. I ended up being just shy of 10 pounds of meat. I double ground through the coarse plate.

I have the meat divided into two batches and we are planning on doing breakfast sausage and kielbasa.

I went looking for casings the other day and the fella at the Italian market sold me some small and large sheep casings for $5. In the long run that might be a high cost for the amount, but it is perfect for a introduction. He also let me come back and watch him make sausage, from start to finish as well explained everything he was doing in great detail and answered questions. He really seemed to have a passion for sausage making and sharing the knowledge. I have bought sausage there before and they are good, though I do find them a tad salty for my taste.

Will take some pictures later and report back on how it goes. I am so excited!

 

[Andy M.]

Sounds interesting. Keep us posted on your progress and results.

Did you add fat to the breakfast sausage batch?

 

[taxlady]

That sounds great. I've been looking for a source of small quantities of casings. No luck so far, so I've been making sausage patties. We make breakfast sausage and I made Italian sausage for the first time not long ago.

I want to make salami too. I have some 40 year old Danish recipes for salami. I love the last instruction, "Now bring it to the smoke house." It would be nice to be able to bring stuff to a smoke house and say, "Smoke this for me for 7 days."

 

[FrankZ]

Sounds interesting. Keep us posted on your progress and results.

Did you add fat to the breakfast sausage batch?

I didn't add any fat. I sliced the butt up into strips the grinder could handle and just split the batch at the 5 pound mark.

 

[FrankZ]

That sounds great. I've been looking for a source of small quantities of casings. No luck so far, so I've been making sausage patties. We make breakfast sausage and I made Italian sausage for the first time not long ago.

I want to make salami too. I have some 40 year old Danish recipes for salami. I love the last instruction, "Now bring it to the smoke house." It would be nice to be able to bring stuff to a smoke house and say, "Smoke this for me for 7 days."

At some point I would like to make some smoked sausages. I need to figure out how I am going to smoke them though, as my smoker won't let me hang them.

 

[4meandthem]

Cardboard box smoker maybe? poke some dowels through.
Alton brown has some vids.

My buddy started making sausage but I think his are too salty too.

 

[taxlady]

Cardboard box smoker maybe? poke some dowels through.
Alton brown has some vids.

My buddy started making sausage but I think his are too salty too.

My DH told me about AB's home made smoker. I gotta check that out.

It's really easy to get too much salt in sausage. Once we perfected our recipe for breakfast sausage to our taste, we doubled the recipe and discovered that we should not have doubled the salt.

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

I make patties of breakfast and italian sausage, but I'm hoping to start along the road of stuffing/curing/smoking them this summer.

If you don't have the book, grab "Charcuterie". I've read it cover to cover a couple times, and have started experimenting with curing over the past couple months.

Good luck, and I look forward to some photos!

 

[pacanis]

My neighbor makes sausage once in a while. After mixing in all his seasonings he always cooks a small patty just to make sure he likes it. If I happen to be over there, he cooks two

 

[PrincessFiona60]

My neighbor makes sausage once in a while. After mixing in all his seasonings he always cooks a small patty just to make sure he likes it. If I happen to be over there, he cooks two

I do that when I am making chorizo or meatballs OR meatloaf. I always have to make sure it's good enough to eat It also helps me decide if it needs something else, before cooking it all up.

 

[FrankZ]

No pictures right now, we are taking a break but the breakfast sausage has all been stuff. 82 links.

We did end with a fist full of sausage not stuffed, I needed just a tad more casing but cut it too short on the third run. Oh well.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

No pictures right now, we are taking a break but the breakfast sausage has all been stuff. 82 links.

We did end with a fist full of sausage not stuffed, I needed just a tad more casing but cut it too short on the third run. Oh well.

Sounds like a start for breakfast tomorrow, fresh sausage and eggs. Well, grocery store eggs

 

[FrankZ]

Ok..pictures.

 

[taxlady]

Is that two different kinds of sausage? the casing looks wider in the bottom one, or maybe it's just me.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Is that two different kinds of sausage? the casing looks wider in the bottom one, or maybe it's just me.

One looks like breakfast sausage, the other looks like kielbasa...they are beautiful!

 

[Kathleen]

Is that two different kinds of sausage? the casing looks wider in the bottom one, or maybe it's just me.

Good spot! The small links are breakfast sausage. The large sausage is kielbasa. It smells awesome.

As PF just pointed out!

 

[FrankZ]

We fried up some of the leftover and it was pretty good. The breakfast coulda been a little more spicy. Maybe next time.

 

[Kathleen]

Sounds like a start for breakfast tomorrow, fresh sausage and eggs. Well, grocery store eggs

*nods* b/c I have no chickens.

 

[taxlady]

We fried up some of the leftover and it was pretty good. The breakfast coulda been a little more spicy. Maybe next time.

They might be tomorrow. The flavours come out more after some number of hours.

They look really pretty. I wouldn't have expected them to be so uniform for a first try.

Good job.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

*nods* b/c I have no chickens.