Make it Yourself: Sausage Step by Step
by Rachel Tayse • March 18, 2010 • Make it Yourself, Meat • 5 Comments
I was writing this basic sausage making post and looking at pictures I took. I noticed Devie in every.single.picture! She has been an integral witness to all sausage making events so I thought it would be fun to narrate from her perspective.
Sausage making is awesome. Every time the bald guy (Alex) brings the meat grinder up from the basement, I rise from my day long nap to watch the happenings and wait for the humans to make a mistake. Someday they will drop the entire batch on the floor and I will be ready to gobble it up.
First, the bald guy gets out the fresh pork. He chops it into chunks and puts it in the freezer for a little while.
Next comes the grinding. The very cold pork is forced through the very cold grinder.
The meat goes back in the freezer while the bald guy prepares any seasonings and prepares the Kitchen Aid for mixing.
Chilled ground pork is mixed with seasonings and binders according to the recipe. The bald guy always yammers on about the salt ratio so it must be important.
Sometimes the bald guy stops there and forms the sausage into fresh rounds.
Other times he gets out the stuffer. He loads up the stuffer with rinsed casing. Usually the tattooed lady (Rachel) has to help stuff the mixed meat into the casing. I don’t think she eats meat, so I guess it’s ironic that she helps make sausage.
The bald guy likes to make one long stretch of sausage and twist it into links at the end. If it’s a fresh sausage, the bald guy packs it into vacuum sealed bags right away.
For an aged sausage, he hangs it in the basement for a week or two. Oooh does aging sausage smell good!
If I’m really lucky they will cook some sausage for me as a treat. Sometimes I get scraps of meat along the way by helping myself. The bald guy and tattooed lady don’t seem to like that.
After all this meat observing activity, I have to sleep for the rest of the day. Watching the people cook is exhausting!
Stay tuned for Alex’s view of sausage making including sources and references.
This is awesome!! I would love to learn to do this…but I don’t have a kitchen aid or the meat grinder attachment…hmm…I have a really old meat grinder. Where do you guys buy the casings?
Ha! That’s too funny that your dog made it into every picture. He sure looks like he’s paying close attention.
.-= erin´s last blog ..30 Days of Happiness: Day 27 =-.
That last pic is really cute.
I wish we had the sausage stuffer attachment. We have the grinder, and make our own bulk homemade breakfast sausage. But it would be nice to do some real sausages like kielbasa or bratwurst.
Tell us more about hanging the sausage to age in the basement.
.-= Nate´s last blog ..Belacan Fried Chicken =-.
Dried sausage is almost exactly the same. The only really big difference is that you have to at least add Sodium Nitrite to the mix. This helps preserve the sausage in the aging process and retard the growth of harmful bacteria. the only other thing to make sure of is that the drying environment is somewhat humid so that the sausage doesn’t dry out too quickly.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..Make it Yourself: Sausage Step by Step =-.
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