How the sausage gets made

Well? How does your sausage get made?

I usually, but not always, start with a base of Soylent Green and just follow what Ruhlman has in his book.

Pork Butts boned ( try to keep 30% fat roughly )and Cubed–Keep it cold
Pick you grind–I use a coarse
Pick your casing-Natural packed in salt for us ( wash the inner casings )–I use hog, but if you do lamb you have a thinner skin
You grind first-- season ( what you like, good amount of salt,pepper, wine, cracked fennel, hot pepper flakes ) -this is for italian-- no recipe ,it s at home
Extrude into casing make links or leave in roll to cut later?

Anybody use the kitchen aid attachment? If so, which one? I saw some in a kitchen store that were at least part plastic. Much cheaper than the all metal one I saw online. Any good?

KA attachment works well.

Have not made sausage but in reading about it, I like how it is recommended to cook a small portion prior to filling the casings to “test the seasonings”

I have had good luck with my Kitchen Aid attachment as well. I will second Paul’s comment about keeping things as cold as possible. I usually put the attachment in the freezer for a little while prior to grinding. I will put the cubed meat on a sheet pan and put it in the freezer for a few minutes before grinding as well.

This.

I have not done it, but a trick of the big boys is to put crushed dry ice into the bowl while mixing. Not sure if it is practical for the home operation or not.

First, I have to buy a few drinks. Sometimes even dinner. Then some sweet talk about how much I care. And of course, $100.

Always. Same with Pate

KA grinder works great. I’m not a fan of the sausage stuffer. I just started using this (http://www.amazon.com/LEM-Products-Stainless-Vertical-Sausage/dp/B000SQDTRC) and couldn’t be happier with its performance. The stuffer is built like a tank and stuffs much faster than the KA stuffer. Also, the KA stuffer is poor at stuffing emulsified sausages.

Here is one Italian Sausage Recipe!!

20# Cut Butt
3T Crushed Red Pepper
2T Cracked Fennel-- I will use whole at times, some people don’t like to bite a whole seed thou
1T Fennel Powder
5T Cracked Blk Pepper
10T of Salt
2C H20
1C Piasano–yep the cheep shit… old dagos… love this stuff

Cheers

What is it?

Can you still buy that shit in a 4L bottle?

I like the looks of that recipe, though I’ll have to cut it down. Got no room for 20 pounds of sausage.

I keep finding recipes for “Italian” sausage that have coriander and even baking spices in them, and those have kept me from making my own. I also made the mistake of reading the label on supermarket sausage the other day.

http://www.carlorossi.com/the-wines/reds/Paisano.html

Kudos to everyone who can buy casing. I tried to make Greek loukaniko years ago and nobody local would sell me the casings. I did find a butcher shop willing to make it for me if I provided the seasoning. It was a pretty good deal, about 1/2 the cost of Whole Foods sausage with 10 pound minimum order.

If you can get caul fat, making it crepinette style requires no machinery, you can add bigger chunks of ingredients (like larger pieces of chopped olives, for instance), and you get the added bonus the caul fat envelope rendering into the patty.

Bob,

The only other changes that I make to sausage is sometimes , the addition or modification, by adding anise.

Any other additives in italian sausage, never happens @ our house.

Cheers
Wishing you a well New Yr.

Paully

I tried the KitchenAid attachment, and didn’t love it. It wasn’t horrible, but I’ve moved onto other equipment that I like better. Just plain old hand-powered grinder and this stuffer: 5 lb. Sausage Stuffer-Vertical at Grizzly.com . I typically grab a couple of friends and we crank out 30-50 lbs in an afternoon. Salami takes a little longer. I’m lucky in that my butcher shop is happy to coarse grind my pork shoulder for free, if I’m ordering enough. If I want a coarser textured sausage, I won’t even pull out my grinder.

I have a 1/2 horse Cabela model… pretty awesome machine!! It was on sale a few yrs ago on Friday after Thanks giving.

When we made 2500 lbs for our italian club… we pull out the big boys!!

I’m planning to make some salami in the next couple of months. I’ve been reading about it in Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing.

I think I have a pretty good understanding of the process but have never worked with cultures. The book says to use 10 grams for 5 pounds but the package says that 25 grams is good for 200 pounds. Seems odd to me. Any pointers on working with cultures and any salami specific tips would be appreciated.