home made sausage (uncured) [General]

2010 Mar 19
OK, my books are not here yet and I want to make some sausage anyway - just regular stuff to throw on the BBQ

Any good links, reading, recipes, whatever?

I picked up some sausage casings at Nicastro's

2010 Mar 19
Hi zymurgist,

I came across this site, home.pacbell.net , a while back when I first started thinking about making my own sausage. He seems to have a load of recipes. I bookmarked the site for future use. I haven't taken the plunge into making sausage yet so I can't comment on his recipe quality.

Though you might be interested in taking a look. He lists quite a few recipes for uncured (fresh) sausages. Here's a direct link: lpoli.50webs.com

FWIW

2010 Mar 19
that is a GREAT recipe site HotFood

thanks for sharing

2010 Mar 20
Yeah, I've already got that link and a bunch more. Here is another good recipe site

web.archive.org

But just wondering if any of you folks have recipes you want to share. I'd sooner use something from someone I trust rather than something random off the internet.

2010 Mar 20
I'd never considered making sausages at home before, but seeing the recipes for Cumberland & Lincolnshire sausages has got me thinking that I should maybe give it a try.

For those of you that have made sausages before, is it necessary to buy special equipment (e.g. the recipes I looked at used a meat grinder) or can you get decent enough results just using a food processor?

And how do you get the mixture into the casings? Just spoon it in very carefully and then roll them to even them out?

Cheers,
Ratty.

2010 Mar 20
Zymurgist:

As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t taken the plunge yet myself. That being said, every new recipe needs someone to try it first and report back to the rest on results. I think in some circles they call this person a “sucker” but hey what do they know. I’m sure in the OF circle they’re called a “brave adventurist type” ;-))

Seriously, no harm or insult intended! Whatever recipe you try please report back on results. I’m not far behind you. I have 2 lbs of beef sausage meat in the freezer from my last Fitzroy Beef Farmer’s order. I’m sure I’ll be trying something new and “suckerish / adventurist” myself.

Ratty:

I haven’t made sausages yet but am planning to soon. I do have a KitchenAid mixer and a meat grinder attachment so I figure I have a bit of an advantage as a beginner. Rather than buying a stuffer attachment or stuffing casings by hand I’ve decided to make fresh sausage patties for my first tries.

Based only on research, if making “fresh” sausage, I get the feeling you really don’t need to invest much if anything to wet your feet and try it out. Check out the site I posted earlier. The person responsible for the site started out with a second hand food chopper/processor I think. home.pacbell.net

I do have a few years of experience canning and preserving harvests and would have to suggest that cleanliness and safe food handling (ex. temps) during the process play a bigger role than equipment used in the end result.

JMHO

2010 Mar 27
First attempt went reasonably well. The Kitchen Aid sausage stuffer is terrible though - cannot recommend it at all. The problem is that the vertical tube that stuff goes down into is tapered but should be uniform and the plunger should be engineered to fit perfectly into it kind of like an aeropress. If it were like that it would be a lot better. Also I was using the small-holed plate at first and should have been using the large.

I just used about
- 500g ground pork
- 450g ground beef
- 3 tablespoons smokey pork fat
- 1 tablespoon oat flour
- 1 tablespoon barley flour
- 1 and 1/4 tsp readycure (should have just used salt)
- 1 tablespoon thyme
- 1 tablespoon savory

I forgot the pepper :-( The smokey pork fat is fat from pork I'd smoked. I trimmed the fat and rendered it, and canned it up for exactly this sort of application! My beef is really lean, and even the ground pork was too, from my other farmer.

Took a really long time to stuff them with that damned kitchen aid. A lot longer than it should have taken.

Very good first experiment! But now I want to buy a proper stuff - any recommendations?

2010 Mar 27
First video
Second
Third

2010 Mar 27
zym i've been doing a ton of reading up on this, and the LEM 5lb/10lb vertical stuffers are the standard and best bang for the buck. they have metal gears vs nylon/plastic.

i've seen them closer to to ~$120 on sale before.

next on my wishlist. i can't buy any more toys right now or i may find myself a single smoker ;)

www.lemproducts.com
www.amazon.com

2010 Mar 27
Thanks monty. I'm going to go to Preston Hardware this week to see what they have. Would like to get something locally if I could, but other than there I'm not sure where I'd check.

2010 Mar 28
BTW monty, if this were brewing we'd say "you are out of beer bullets". I don't really understand the expression myself but it has something to do with every time you do something brewing related you fire off a bullet, and sooner or later all you hear is "click, click" and SWMBO calls you on it :-) You need to reload there buddy :-)

2010 Mar 28
ever check out the "knife sharpening store and supplier" on a side road off preston, between rochester. They have a TON of used kitchen equipment. might even be able to find a machine there.

2010 Mar 28
Will do that - thanks!

2010 Mar 29
Zym,

I use this mince from a Thai-spiced sausage recipe as the base for my pork burgers. I assume they would be amazing in their original form as sausages.

14 oz lean ground pork
4 tbsp cooked rice
1 garlic glove, minced
1 tsp red curry paste
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

-knead together until mix evenly...

2010 Mar 29
EastC. Do you know the name of the street off Preston? I've lived in the area for 3 years now and the only kitchen equipment place I can think about is Russell on Preston...

2010 Mar 29
capital cutlery 54 norman street