Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.

When it comes to most commercially made, mass-produced sausages, this is probably true. Sausage was invented as a way to use up various meat scraps...much like the related product called "scrapple", which first gained popularity in Philadelphia, PA. You don't really want to know what parts of the pig they might put into THAT!

Sausages come from all over the world...there is German bratwurst, Polish kielbasa, and the ever-popular Italian sausage with fennel. Italian sausage has become a staple at baseball games here...it is served grilled on a roll with peppers and onions. And there is also spicy andouille, which celebrity chefs like Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse made well-known at their Louisiana restaurants.

The list goes on and on, and there is much history surrounding the humble sausage. But I won't go into that now, because "I'm not a nutritional anthropologist". (waiting now for Deb Duchon, an actual nutritional anthropologist, to appear out of nowhere, as she often does when Alton Brown utters those very words on his TV show, "Good Eats".)
----------
Today, I am going to show you how I make sausage at home. It's really easy, fun, and the best part is that you have complete control as to what goes into it. No *mystery meats* or weird, unidentifiable fillers!

I use a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, which many of you might already own. I love this appliance, because it is built like a tank, and wil last a lifetime. Also, you can buy all sorts of nifty attachments for it, including the two that you need here...a meat grinder and a sausage stuffer. Now, you CAN make fresh sausage without these things, if you don't plan to stuff it into casings and smoke it. You can use a regular meat grinder with sausage attachment that is not connected to a stand mixer. You can also buy pre-ground meat, or, if you have a good butcher, pick a nice hunk o' meat and ask him or her to grind it up for you.

Here, we're making fresh (non-smoked) kielbasa, which will be stuffed into casings. Pictured below are the basic ingredients for this:

In the silver bowl, I have the casings soaking. What you also want to do with these salt packed casings is to stretch one end over the faucet of the kitchen sink, and run water through it, to rinse out the salt. Very entertaining! :lol: After that, it needs to soak for an hour or so to make it more pliable.

How much casing? A general rule is to allow about 2 feet of the medium hog casings for each pound of meat. You can either get casings from a good butcher shop or well-stocked supermarket, or via mail order.

The other ingredients: 2 1/4 pounds pork shoulder, 3/4 pound pork fat back, 2 Tablespoons finely chopped (or put through a garlic press) fresh garlic, and a seasoning mix. The seasoning mix here consists of: 1 Tablespoon Kosher salt, 2 teaspoons dried marjoram, 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon dry mustard. and 1/2 teaspoon dried coriander. You will also need 1/2 cup water.

The meat and fat back should be cut into pieces small enough to fit into the opening of the meat grinder.

Attach the meat grinder attachment to the mixer per the manufacturer's instructions. This (and most other types of meat grinders) comes with two different sized grinding plates (3/8" and 1/4" holes), here we are using the 1/4". Most sausage recipes will say what size plate to use for whatever meat grinder you have.

Once the meat is all ground, add the water, garlic and spice mix, and combine well with your hands.

VERY IMPORTANT: the meat MUST be kept cold right up until you are ready to start grinding. This not only makes for easier grinding, but will greatly reduce the chance of spoilage. Once the meat is ground and mixed with the spices, put it back in the fridge while you get the casings ready to go.

Here, we've started stuffing the casing. After grinding the meat, remove the plate and knife from the meat grinder attachment, and attach the sausage stuffer to it. NOTE: you can't use the Kitchen-Aid sausage stuffer attachment without the meat grinder attachment. If you do not plan to stuff the casings immediately after grinding, you will want to remove the whole shebang and wash it, so that nasty germies won't be a-growing in there. I usually just stuff the casings right away, to avoid the second washing.

Slip one end of the casing over the sausage stuffer, and gently work it so that the whole length of it is gathered onto the tube. Leave about 4 inches dangling, and tie a knot near the end. Turn the machine onto the low speed, and start feeding meat into the chute, using the wooden pushy thing. Use one hand to feed the chute, and the other to hold the edge to the tube, to control how the meat is going into the casing. You don't want to stuff the casings too tightly, or else they will burst. I use a toothpick or skewer to prick any air pockets that might appear.

Keep stuffing until you end up with a big long link that looks something like this.

Now start linking. Decide how long you want each link to be, and pinch off that much from the end. Then pinch off a second length. Take this second length and turn it so that the casing on either side of it twists. Basically, you are pinching off two links and twisting every other one. Keep doing this until the whole thing is done, then cut the links apart with kitchen shears or a knife.

The next step is to *mature* the sausage, to let it sit so that the flavors develop and meld. Since this is a fresh sausage, and we've not added any preservatives, this maturation MUST be done uder refrigeration. Place the sausage links on a wire rack over a baking sheet, and put in the fridge, uncovered, The wire rack is necessary so that air can get to all of the surface of the sausage. This step is important whether you are making fresh of smoked sausage. The sausage should be left to mature and air-dry overnight; then it is ready for cooking or smoking.

You can pan-fry or grill these just as you would any store-bought sausages. If you don't want to bother stuffing them into casings, just shape them into patties and pan-fry. This recipe makes about 3 pounds, anything you can't eat right away can be frozen.

If you have a covered kettle grill or some sort of smoker, you can certainly smoke these, for a different flavor. I don't have a good place outdoors to do this, as we live in an apartment, so I often use the Camerons Stovetop Smoker. This works very well, doesn't smoke up your house, and you can choose from many flavors of wood chips to use with it. I originally bought this for smoking sausages, but I've found many other uses for it, as well. I just love this thing!
----------
For further reading, I suggest the following:

"Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book" (Aidells & Kelly)
"Home Sausage Making" (Perry & Reavis)
"Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" (Kutas)
----------
So now, you see that sausage need not be a scary, *mystery meat* sort of thing. Why not give it a try? Experiment with different seasonings, and have fun!

I'd still rather not watch laws being made, though! I might just die from Teh Stoopid!
----------
Christine authors several blogs, most notably The Passionate Ailurophile, and Tales From The Ballpark. She resides in the Boston, Massachusetts area, with one husband and seven cats, all of who eat very well.