Anyone else make sausages?

[haaammit]

Hey - I've done this a few times in the past. Made another 10lb batch of Cumberlands today and wondered if anyone else has made their own before?

Rough quantities for 10lb of sausages are 5lb lean pork (loin) 2 1/2lb fatty pork (shoulder or belly - I used shoulder today) 3/4lbs pinhead rusk 1 1/2 lb ice cold water 1/4 lb seasoning - salt, herbs spices etc (salt is about 1.7oz ish of the seasoning weight)

You must keep everything as cold as possible - this stops the fat from smearing and causing a less desirable mouth feel. I put the grinding equipment in the freezer a while before grinding, and put the meat to be ground in the freezer for about 30 mins before grinding.

Cube your meat, then grind it all up. Mix thoroughly with the rusk, water and seasoning. I have to mix in two batches, as my mixer won't do 10lb in one go! Fry up a bit of the sausage mix to test for flavour, as it's easier to change now that it will be once it's all inside the skins lol!

Then take your natural casings - hog casings in this instance, and put them on your sausage horn (quiet at the back). Pump the sausage mix into the skins. Make one continuous sausage then form the links after you're done. The casings are ~12 foot. Once you've formed the links, let them "bloom" in the fridge (develop the flavours and let the rusk and herbs rehydrate) for 24 hours before eating/packing them up. Enjoy!

I made this batch today with the kids. The meat is sourced from a local butcher and is free range. It's good that the kids can see how different foods are made. The casings are 100% natural hog casings (pig intestines). I tried a pre-done seasoning mix today for ease, as I had some other stuff I needed to order from Weschenfelder (A company that supplies all types of charcuterie supplies - curing salts for bacon, rusk, sausage casings, machines - the list is amazing) and they've come out pretty good. I would add more white pepper and mace to this if it was for me, but this is for a friend's party this coming weekend. That's another reason they've been made into links and not one continuous ring (snigger).

Metric weights (approx) 2280g Pork 1140g Fat Pork 342g Rusk 684g Ice Water 114g Seasoning of which 57g salt.

Really looking to trying one of them properly tomorrow!

A few potato pics - laters o/

Shoulder


Loin


Grinding the shoulder


And the loin


Final mix


Final product



^^That's 9lb of sausage - I've kept back 1lb of sausage meat to make some sausage rolls!!

 

[haaammit]

Nice work. I’ve done this a few times but never to my satisfaction, first few times was before I knew about chilling everything and doughing in.

Also done air dried chorizo which didn’t kill me which I put in the positive box.

Seeing this inspires me to have another go this winter maybe not 10lbs though.

Nice re the Chorizo - I did some salami last year. The end result was incredible but it was a real faff trying to keep it at 22°C 80%RH for 24 hours, 16°C 65%RH for 72 hours and 12°C 70%RH for the last 4-6 weeks drying!

The only reason I do 10lbs at a go is there is a fair amount (2 sausage's worth ish) of wastage when I stuff the skins left in the grinder/stuffer screw. Not too bad if I'm doing sausage rolls as well, but I *might* look into getting a dedicated stuffer as the Kenwood attachment I have is "ok". Actually, the grinder part is also just "ok" so might look for a better mincer too. I used to have a hand cranked one - that was awesome!!

A lot of respect for this. At least you know exactly what went into them. Always wanted to do this.

I hope they are great!

Cheers - that's the great thing - the meat is actually all meat, not random odd bits of left over animal. As you say I know exactly what goes into them. I'm really looking forward to the final taste test tomorrow!