Anyone make homemade sausage?

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
A while ago I bought a Kitchen Aid mixer and everytime SO looks at it, he has mentioned how much he would love to make homemade sausage.

So as a surprise, I bought him the meat grinder, package of skins and a cookbook and told him to start looking up ingrediants. He started researching as he had no clue as to what it involved, and is starting to whine already about how he thought it was sooo easy, and how the meat has to be chilled, bla bla bla. We only had homemade sausages when I was growing up, and I don't recall it being all that difficult.

Any tips anyone can share about what not to do or what is the easiest meat to start out with LOL This man is going to make at least one sausage or else.

Marcie
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Marcie, I think Janet has done/does homemade sausage. :)

I'd only try it if it turns out much cheaper than just picking it up at the store. lol
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
We buy a LOT of sausage at Costco - especially the Adele's kind, but really, its not like we have a housefull of sausage eaters. i guess the meat grinder won't go to waste as we can always make hamburger meat.

But then again, this is the man who bought one of those food dryers because he could make his own dried fruit and his favorite, beef jerky. By the time we were done with one batch, we could have bought a case of the stuff it costs so much money. and then having to get the store cut it wafer thin. Of course, he had to go out and buy a slicer so we didn't have to run around. Nothing has been dried or cut since the first batch. His mom is the same way - I have cupboards full of "cooking stuff" from the food network she bought. She never used anything so sent it here.

Marcie
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
The best sausage I've had has all been homemade, but not by me... all by extended family who love to hunt. Wild meet - especially the stronger-flavored meats - make the best sausage, but wild meat is very lean, so they mix it with ground pork to increase the moisture and fat content.

My favorite isn't even "sausage", it's sausage patties... meat ground and seasoned as for sausages, but formed into patties like small hamburgers. It's the absolute best breakfast meat ever!
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
We make sausage but its all deer meat. If we ever actually kept a hog I supposed we would do pork sausage but it wouldnt make sense for us to go to the store and buy pork to grind up...way more expensive.

We do put the fattiest cuts of pork in when making sausage. Like IC said you have to because wild meat is so lean...hence why it is good for you...lol. We also make hamburger with beef fat. I finally found a place that actually still sells it for less than the price of hamburger! I snapped up about 25 pounds of beef fat for 50 cents a pound because the butcher wanted a buck fifty for it...can you imagine?

Unless you have a smoker, you need to do fresh sausage. I have a recipe for the best maple sausage. Yummy. My issue is when we do sausage, we do sausage. My arms cannot take standing there and either loading the feeder tube to push down the tube for an hour or two at a time or sitting there holding and twisting the casings as they come out of the tube. That is an art. You have to hold this tube as it fills up and then twist it at just the right second so it doesnt bust. And let me tell you, it resembles a certain male body part and I have a dirty mind. It never fails that I end up laughing so hard half of them bust. That ends up sending me into even more laughter.
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
Hmm..I live in the suburbs so getting wild meat is out of the question. Venison makes me gag (my father fancied himself a hunter and we would have a deer every winter hanging from the back porch - we were made to eat it while he sat there and had something else because not even he liked venison) and I don't even want to mention wild meat lest SO decide now he has to go hunting.

I guess I am going to have to research this - the cookbook should arrive today but I have a feeling that sausage patties/hamburger patties will be the most we will be making. I don't know really why I went along with his fantasy of sausages - maybe because I have good memories of my uncle and grandmother making them a couple of times a year.

Marcie
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Marcie, while you're at it look up how to make seafood sausage. Evidently "leftover" salmon, cod ??? are stuffed into casings with seasonings and since the recipe varies some restaurants are highly favored. husband and I aren't eating meat much anymore and he loves sausage. Watching Chopped recently was the first time I've ever heard of it. Sounds good to me. DDD
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
Wonderful Idea :) I googled Seafoot sausage and the first thing that came up was Lobster and Scallops - and I don't even have to use the sausage maker :) Just roll it in plastic wrap and boil.

The cookbook just came in the mail - jeeze - almost all of the receipes call for like 20 pounds of meat. We just wanted a few to try out. And there is a lot of them that look like it would call for fresh roadkill. Thats enough to drive me back to packaged sausage

Marcie
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Marcie... that book, if it's any good at all, should give you things like chicken, turkey and/or duck sausage - and yes, domestic duck, the kind you can buy at the store, does make really, REALLY good sausage.

So does bison. And ostrich. And all sorts of other "exotic" meats. It doesn't require wild game to make good sausage.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
All I know about sausage is that you can't use lean meat. I make bulk (not encased) sausage using equal mixture of ground beef and ground pork, seasoned salt, a pinch of pepper flakes, fennel, pepper, a little granulated garlic, and some italian seasoning. It turns out really well.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Around here you can buy the sausage making spices in the grocery store, already pre-packaged. This is a big deer hunting area and a lot of people make their own sausage out of their extra deer meat. Mostly it's made in to patties, not sausage links. There are also "processing" places where you can leave a freshly killled deer and they will butcher it and cut it and wrap it so all you have to do is put it in the freezer. They will also make bulk sausage out of some of it, ready for the freezer. The absolute best sausage I've ever had is made by the husband of a friend of mine that I worked with. They live in a rural area and he runs a small hog farm on their property. They do it all themselves and he sells and ships the finished sausage all over the country. It's WONDERFUL!
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
Insane, the book is called Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas. It seems to be really comprehensive and informative, with lots of photos and ton's of receipes from all round the world (although to be truthful some of them were making me sick and decided we would not be doing the Tongue and Blood Sausage one - yuck)

DDD, the first thing I am going to try is that Seafood Sausage. If it is good, will keep it and do it as a "treat" cause with the price of fresh Scallops let alone Lobster I can easily see me having to sell one of the kids to make it more than once or twice a year LOL

Marcie
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I'm always really careful with seafood but I was wondering if the scrap ends would work as filler. Since my health issues we eat fresh saltwater seafood as much as possible and usually I "square off" the fillets. Just thinking that if one were really careful about freshness maybe those bits and pieces could be frozen for later use as filler for sausage. Come to think of it maybe even some canned salmon or sardines or tuna? Hmmm....wonder if quinoa flakes would work to stretch out the expensive ingredients. DDD
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Im sure they could DDD. Tony filets all our fish. He is so proud of his new electric filet knife...lol. He gives the scraps to the local cats but I see nothing wrong with freezing them. We freeze large quantities of fresh saltwater fish. Best way to do that is in water and the put in a freezer container.
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
DDD, here is the receipe
[h=3]Lobster and Scallop Seafood Sausage[/h]Makes 6 servingsIngredients:
1/2 pound scallops, patted dry
1/2 pound peeled and cleaned lobster
2 egg whites
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch salt and pepper
2 teaspoons snipped chives
1 tablespoon tarragon leavesDirections:
1. Combine scallops and lobster in a food processor. Pulse until mixture is ground. Add egg whites and pulse, then add cream and continue pulsing until combined.2. Season seafood mixture with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in chives and tarragon.3. Using a pastry bag, pipe seafood mixture onto a large flat piece of plastic wrap in a long log. Roll plastic wrap up and shape into a long log and twist to form 2 or 3 links.4. Heat a large pot of water to a gentle boil. Place sausage in pot and cover with a lid. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat. Shut heat off and allow sausage to continue cooking for 10 minutes with the lid on. Remove sausage from pot, unroll from plastic wrap, and serve.

The more I look at the receipe the more I want to try it LOL Seems simple to make although I don't even want to think of the calorie count with the cream.

Marcie
[h=3][/h]
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
DUH ALERT...LOL! The recipe sounds easy for sure. I just can't picture saran wrap not coming loose in the water. I also am not picturing the subdivision of links. Hmmm. I'd feel better using kitchin twine. It would break my heart if the contents started floating out of the saran. I'll let you know if I give it a try first....you do the same, ok? Hugs DDD
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
Deal - I was wondering the same thing about the saran wrap, but thought I would use some of those twisty ties - gawd knows i have scads of them :)
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
I'd be wary of boiling anything in saran or other plastic wrap. Ideally, anything plastic is not heated - definitely not "cooked in". That's why there's special sausage casings.
 
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