One of the perks of making your own sausage is that can determine the amount of fat you want to add. We made ours on the lean side. A few days before I picked up some casings from a local butcher. I knew what they were made of but I was not sure what animal they came from.... anyone know or want to take a guess? My kids were a little grossed out but quickly got over it when I told them, "that is what hot dog casings are made of" and reassured them they were cleaned out really good.
We used our electric grinder that we have had for years. It has a sausage attachment that goes out the side. Some time soon we will need to upgrade to a heavy duty grinder. My ultimate goal is to have a meat cutting area/canning kitchen in the shed.....maybe someday. John will be building a chicken plucker in the near future. He will use the book that Angie gave us to guide him. Her husband Eric built one last year. I have attached a link to you tube if you have any interested in seeing how a whiz bang chicken plucker works.
Ha, gotta love the bud light Luke got in the picture below. If you noticed in the picture of my watch (2 pictures back) the time was 19:54, which is 7:54 pm in standard time. I still have my watch set at military time from when I worked nights. He started this project at 5 am and a couple bud lights helped to ease the pain.
below is the later of the two. We made enough for 2 - 10lb batches.
Breakfast Sausage
2 pounds pork butt (2 1/2 pounds with bone), diced into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 pound fat back, diced into 1/4-inch pieces
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 pounds pork butt (2 1/2 pounds with bone), diced into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 pound fat back, diced into 1/4-inch pieces
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Making the sausage was certainly the highlight event for the kids. They were fascinated by the process. The final post will be "Making Bacon". We did not make hams this time around but plan to in the future!
P.S. We have the greenhouse! It took us 5 hours to disassemble and move. Thankfully my brother showed up with a tool we needed and helped us with the big stuff. Big THANKS to Steve once again!!! I will post on it when we get it up. I am afraid it may not be up until late summer with all we have (GARDENS, animals) going.
So cool! We just left ours ground up. When you find out what kind of casings they are.. post it. I would love to know!
ReplyDeleteA couple of Bud's definitely help with the sausage-making. :)
ReplyDeleteThose are likely the small intestine of a hog, the most common. Small casings are likely sheep intestine, huge ones are likely cow.
A question though... why didn't you guys just use the intestines that were already in the hog? :)
I'm hoping next time we make sausage I'll get around to motorizing my manual grinder. 60 lbs of meat is too much to double-grind by hand!
Ron
OMG, that is so neat! Thats what I want to do. I would have to buy the meat but I hope to make that before the end of the year. It looks great.
ReplyDeleteVery Cool, and thanks for posting the recipe.
ReplyDeleteVery Cool! I LOVE sausage....Got some good stuff from the local Farmer's Market and need to get more!
ReplyDeleteLordy, Lordy, that's a lot of pork! These are family experiences that your children will never forget!
ReplyDeleteWe got some of the best brats I've ever eaten at the farmer's market last summer! I'll have to figure out how it's done. I have the grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer but don't have the sausage stuffer- not that I couldn't get one. One more thing on the list... Goodness,I'd better live to be 100 to get everything on my list done!!!
ReplyDeleteJudy
Oh man...I love fresh, homemade sausage soooooo much. I am def jealous! I am proud of how brave you were to tell your kids what casings are made of...impressive!
ReplyDeleteTHANKS FOR ALL YOUR COMMENTS!
ReplyDeleteSB, they are hog casings.
Ron, you are right we should have used those but John did not want to mess with them....may next time.
That is just awesome! Thanks for sharing your experiences Kim and MM.
ReplyDeleteYour kids will never forget the experience. Just looking at your pics brings the memories back for me. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWith all the new things you all are trying, you need that meat cutting area/canning kitchen.
I can't wait to see your bacon post. That's one part of the pig that I *have* to have, but I'd love to do it myself instead of having it done by the butcher so that we can use ingredients we want.
ReplyDeleteYou need to get yourself a kitchen aid. There's an attachment you can get for grinding and stuffing sausage. (I've seen used ones on craigslist! - can you tell I like craigslist?? lol).
ReplyDeleteAnd I would have needed a few Bud Light's, too. ha
You make me want to grow pigs. But I don't think I'm quite ready for that. :-)