ITALIAN SAUSAGES Makes 10 to 18 links, depending on size. By Dennis W. Viau; modified from a recipe in Mastering the Craft of Making Sausages by Warren R. Anderson. I had been wanting to experiment with making sausages at home for several reasons: I can control the amount of fat, avoid chemicals, and season them the way I want. The equipment is expensive (if you buy the good stuff), but the project is fun and satisfying. Ingredients: 1 or 2 hog casings (See Notes at end.) 2½ pounds (1.1kg) pork shoulder, preferably about 20% fat (See Notes at end.) Seasonings and other ingredients: 2¼ teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons black pepper, coarsely ground 2 teaspoons ground coriander (See Notes at end.) 2 teaspoons anise seeds, cracked or ground 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, cracked or ground 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1½ teaspoons paprika ¼ teaspoon cayenne (optional, more if you like your sausages hot and spicy ¾ teaspoon thyme, ground or whole 1/8 teaspoon bay leaf, ground ¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice 3 tablespoons light corn syrup ½ cup (40g) dry instant milk powder ¼ cup (60ml) cold water Directions: If possible, store your meat grinder in the refrigerator overnight. The cold will help the fat in the meat pass through the grinder more easily. (This works best if the grinder is all metal.) To prepare the pork for grinding, cut it into 1-inch (2.5cm) cubes. Placing it in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes will help it pass through the grinder better. Grind the pork with a medium (8mm) or smaller plate, then refrigerate the ground meat while you prepare the spices. Combine the seasonings and other ingredients in a large bowl. Add the ground meat and gently mix thoroughly with you hands. Wear a rubber glove if you want to keep the fragrance of the spices out of your skin. Don t crush the meat with your hands, just mix gently for a few minutes until the seasonings are thoroughly and evenly distributed. Cover the bowl and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours to let the seasonings flavor the meat. Or refrigerate overnight. (Assemble your grinder/sausage stuffer and refrigerate it.) Prepare the hog casings by removing from the package, rinsing well, and then soaking in clean water for 30 to 45 minutes. Rinse again and run plenty of water through the casings to rinse the inside. Carefully thread the casing onto your grinder s sausage tube, leaving about an inch hanging off the end of the tube. Start pushing the seasoned meat through the grinder and stop when the meat starts to enter the casing. Tie the casing closed with a piece of kitchen twine, pushing out the excess air. Continue stuffing the casing(s), filling each casing to a smooth rounded shape without filling it so much that the skin will burst. When you get to the end, tie it off with another piece of string. 1 20160410
2 To shape links, squeeze the filling casing in two places about 5 inches (13cm) apart and twist the link in between a couple times. Pierce air pockets with a pin to squeeze excess air as you continue shaping links. Refrigerate an hour or two to let the meat rest, then cut and cook, cooking the sausages thoroughly (see Notes at end). They can be refrigerated up to 2 days. For longer storage, freeze them. 1 STEP-BY-STEP Soft-freezing the cubed pork by placing it in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes before grinding will help keep the fat solid as it passes through the grinder. Refrigerate the grinder attachment overnight as well. 2 Assemble your grinder and start grinding the meat. Cover and refrigerate the ground meat while you prepare the spice mixture.
3 3 Combine all the seasoning ingredients in a large bowl and blend well 4 Place the ground meat in the bowl with the seasonings and gently stir and turn the meat to distribute the spices evenly. You can wear a rubber glove if you d prefer to keep the fragrance of the spices off your hands. (I was going out with friends and I wasn t sure how the spices might affect my hands.) Be gentle with the meat. You don t want to crush the texture. Cover and refrigerate a few hours, preferably overnight, to allow the seasonings time to flavor the meat.
5 4 Hog casings are available on line. I ordered these from Amazon. Be aware that they have a natural and characteristic odor, like some cheeses have. 6 Rinse 1 or 2 casings well, then place in a bowl of water and allow to soak 30 to 40 minutes. Then rinse well again, running water through the casings to rinse the inside clean. Assemble your stuffer attachment and carefully feed the casing onto the tube, leaving a little dangling off the end of the tube.
7 5 When the ground meat starts to exit the end of the tube and fill the casing, stop the machine and tie off the end of the casing with a piece of string. This will help hold the meat inside as you continue to fill the casing. 8 Making sausage might require a little practice. The goal is to fill the casing with enough meat to make sausages with a smooth surface, but not so much filling to burst the casing. As you fill the casing, hold it back a little on the tube, allowing the ground meat to fill it, before releasing it to fill another section of casing. Work as slowly as you need to. It isn t difficult, but it does require the right touch. When you get to the end of the casing, tie it with a piece of string.
9 6 Here is my filled casing. It isn t perfect, but for a first attempt at making sausages it doesn t look too bad. 10 To shape links, pick two places about five inches apart and squeeze the casing with your fingers. Spin a link a couple times with your fingers. There will probably be air pockets in the casing. You can pierce the skin with a pin as you shape the links, squeezing out excess air.
11 7 You can be creative with the lengths of your sausages. I shaped a couple short ones to cook and place on the side of a plate of pasta (that s in another recipe and video). 12 Here are my finished sausage links. Not bad for a first attempt. The 2½ pounds of pork was enough to fill two casings. I filled one and froze the remaining meat to be used for other recipes (such as pizza).
8 Conclusion I cooked two of my fresh sausages for tasting (freezing all the others). The flavor is better than the Italian sausages sold in the store (which are probably only seasoned with salt and fennel or anise seed). The additional spices added depth to the flavor and the texture was meatier (because I used less fat), which is probably healthier too. Notes Bacteria can be an important consideration with all ground meat. A solid roast, such as a leg of lamb, has most of its bacteria on the outside surface. You kill the bacteria when you brown the meat and/or roast it in a hot oven. Therefore, the meat is safe to eat rare or medium-rare. Ground meat has the bacteria distributed throughout the meat. Therefore, it must be cooked all the way through, preferably to a temperature of at least 160 F (71 C) to be safe for eating. Natural hog casings are the skin from the digestive track of hogs. Yes, intestines. The skin has been properly cleaned and well salted for preservation. Be aware that casings have a characteristic odor they smell like rotten fish. They re safe. After soaking and rinsing, the odor will be almost completely gone. Think of it this way: Some of the cheeses we love also have a characteristic odor, but we eat them anyway. 20% fat in the pork is recommended. However, you can use leaner pork. The sausages will be denser and be less juicy, but they will be healthier to eat. I prefer leaner sausages. Don t avoid all fat; the sausages would be dry and tough to chew not at all enjoyable. I have a second coffee grinder that I use for grinding spices. The grinders are inexpensive and useful when you can only find whole spices, such as fennel seeds. If you want to seriously take up the craft of making your own sausages, I highly recommend books such as Mastering the Craft of Making Sausages by Warren R. Anderson and the Complete Sausage Book by Bruce Aidells. They contain a wealth of important and useful information. They are available on Amazon.