We have a wonderful chain of grocery stores in the area called Fortinos. Started by an Italian family and originally catering to other Italian families, it has grown into a popular chain of stores catering to everyone. of course, those Italian roots are strong. Whenever I need an ingredient for an Italian recipe I know I'll find it at Fortinos.
Years ago we noticed an interesting thing - in the weeks after Christmas the store always featured specials for 'sausage making'. This was when giant pig parts would appear in the meat counter. sausage casings. Salt for curing. Slabs of pork fat.
We were intrigued.
Then a few years ago we took a cooking class from a chef who was of Italian descent. She mentioned how her dad and uncles always got together shortly after Christmas and made thousands of sausages. It was what Canadian-Italian men did. What a wonderful custom.
We were more intrigued.
Sausage making isn't that complicated - grind the meat, add the spices, stuff the casings, enjoy. So many sausages we buy are full of fillers and crap, the thought of controlling what when into those casings was a strong pull towards a new project.
It was the grinding and stuffing that stymied us. We had no grinder or stuffer.
Last spring I was at an outlet mall in California when I spied a grinder and sausage stuffer attachment for Kitchen Aid mixers at a kitchen supply shop. I quickly bought it, brought it home, and stored it away until some future time when we might make sausages.
Last week, when the grocery store ads came out, Fortinos featured their sausage making and once again. not wanting a whole pig worth of sausages, I purchased a large pork loin roast and some casings.
Then I had no idea what to do.
Turning to the internet I found a number of helpful websites.
I found this helpful recipe and guide on Simply Recipes posted by Elise's friend, Hank Shaw.
Hank's Sweet Italian Sausage
- 4 pounds pork shoulder
- 1 pound pork fat
- 40 grams kosher salt
- 35 grams sugar
- 20 grams toasted fennel seeds
- 6 grams cracked black pepper
- 4 grams ground nutmeg
- 1 cup minced fresh parsley
- 1 head garlic, peeled and chopped
- ¾ cup dry sherry (I used white wine)
- ¼ cup sherry vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
Special Equipment Needed for basic sausage
- Meat grinder with coarse and fine dies - either KitchenAidwith grinder attachment, a stand-alone grinder, or an old fashioned hand-cranked meat grinder
Additional Equipment Needed for Stuffed Sausage Links
- Casings - hog casings
- Sausage stuffer
- Wooden rack to hang sausages to dry
Method
Make sure your ingredients are laid out, and the meat and fat are very cold (fat can be completely frozen), before you begin (put meat and fat in freezer for 2 hours). Put bowls and grinder in freezer or refrigerator for an hour before using them.
Prepare a large bowl of ice and put a medium metal bowl on top of it. Slice your meat and fat into chunks between an inch and two inches across. Cut your fat a little smaller than your meat. To keep your ingredients cold, put your cut meat and fat into the bowl set into a larger bowl filled with ice.
When the meat and fat are cut, mix them quickly. Pour in most of your spices; I leave out a tablespoon or two of fennel seeds and a tablespoon of black pepper for later. Mix quickly. Add the salt and the sugar and mix one more time. Put into a covered container or top the bowl with plastic wrap and put the sausage mixture into the freezer for at least 30 minutes and no more than an hour. Now you can call back whoever might have bothered you when you started this process.
Meanwhile, mix ¼ cup of sherry vinegar and ¾ cup of dry sherry and put it in the fridge. I know sherry is not traditional in Italian sausage. You can use white wine and white wine vinegar if you’d rather (I save red wine and red wine vinegar for the hot sausages).
If you plan on stuffing your sausage, take out some of the casings (you need about 15-18 feet for a 5-pound batch of links) and immerse them in warm water. (If you are not planning on stuffing your sausage, you can skip this stepAfteryour sausage mixture has chilled, remove your grinder from the freezer and set it up. I use the coarse die for Italian sausage, but you could use either. Do not use a very fine die, because to do this properly you typically need to grind the meat coarse first, then re-chill it, then grind again with the fine die. Besides, an Italian sausage is supposed to be rustic.
Push the sausage mixture though the grinder, working quickly. If you use the KitchenAid attachment, use it on level 4. Make sure the ground meat falls into a cold bowl. When all the meat is ground, put it back in the freezer and clean up the grinder and work area.
When you’ve cleaned up, take the mixture back out and add the remaining spices and the sherry-sherry vinegar mixture. Using the paddle attachment to a stand mixer (or a stout wooden spoon, or your VERY clean hands), mix the sausage well. With a stand mixer set on level 1, let this go for 90 seconds. It might take a little longer with the spoon or hands. You want the mixture to get a little sticky and begin to bind to itself – it is a lot like what happens when you knead bread.
When this is done, you have sausage. You are done if you are not making links. To cook, take a scoop and form into a ball with your hands. Flatten out a bit. Cook on medium low heat in a skillet for 5-10 minutes each side until browned and cooked through.
If you are making links, put the mixture back in the freezer and clean up again. Bring out your sausage stuffer, which should have been in the freezer or refrigerator. Run warm water through your sausage casings. This makes them easier to put on the stuffer tube and lets you know if there are any holes in the casings. Be sure to lay one edge of the flushed casings over the edge of the bowl of warm water they were in; this helps you grab them easily when you need them.
Slip a casing onto the stuffing tube (And yes, it is exactly like what you think it is). Leave a “tail” of at least 6 inches off the end of the tube: You need this to tie off later.
Take the meat from the freezer one last time and stuff it into the stuffer. If all the meat will not fit, keep it in a bowl over another bowl filled with ice, or in the fridge while you stuff in batches. Start cranking the stuffer down. Air should be the first thing that emerges – this is why you do not tie off the casing right off the bat.
When the meat starts to come out, use one hand to regulate how fast the casing slips off the tube; it’s a little tricky at first, but you will get the hang of it. Let the sausage come out in one long coil; you will make links later. Remember to leave 6-10 inches of “tail” at the other end of the casing. Sometimes one really long hog casing is all you need for a 5-pound batch. When the sausage is all in the casings, tie off the one end in a double knot. You could also use fine butcher’s twine.
With two hands, pinch off what will become two links. Work the links so they are pretty tight: You want any air bubbles to force their way to the edge of the sausage. Then spin the link you have between your fingers away from you several times. Repeat this process down the coil, only on this next link, spin it towards you several times. Continue this way, alternating, until you get to the end of the coil. Tie off the other end.
Almost done. Time to hang your sausages. Hang them on the rack so they don’t touch (too much), and find yourself a needle. Sterilize it by putting into a gas flame or somesuch, then look for air bubbles in the links. Prick them with the needle, and in most cases the casing will flatten itself against the link.
Let these dry for an hour or two, then put them in a large container in the fridge overnight, with paper towels underneath. Package them up or eat them the next day. They will keep for a week, but freeze those that will not be used by then.
Makes 5 lbs of sausage, or about 15-20 links.
So we sort of followed the technique. Other sites didn't not call for all of the freezing and that seemed like a lot of work so we left it out. This may have been what killed our Kitchen Aid. More on that later.
On to the photos . . .
The sausage ingredients all chopped, ground, and measured. We're ready to go.
The sausage mixture. The grinding was HARD. I suspect this is because the fat wasn't as cold as Hank suggested. It worked the Kitchen Aid motor a lot and the poor thing whined.
Soaking the casings - they come packed in salt. I soaked them in 4 changes of water. Then you have to rinse the insides. Other sites suggested blowing them up to check for air holes. It was like a big balloon. Yes, it was gross.
As directed EVERYWHERE we cooked a bit of sausage up to check the flavour - WOW This was better than any sausage we had ever eaten. We were happy sausage makers.
This is a casing threaded on the sausage maker all ready to be stuffed. Hank suggests leaving the end open to allow air out. Other sites say 'no, tie it in a not but prick it with a pin to allow that air out'
This is what happens when you don't leave an air hole (we had to learn for ourselves). Oh my. Once the air was allowed to escape all was good.
Well, all was good until the Kitchen Aid motor stopped sounding happy and smoke rose from the back.
Then it died.
RIP Kitchen Aid. You've made thousands of cookies, bread, whipped cream and butter only to die whilst stuffing sausages.
An inglorious end.
We put the sausage mixture in the fridge, opened a bottle of wine, and thought of happier things.
The next day I had a lovely, new Empire Red, Professional Kitchen Aid mixer (with 250 more watts of power than the old one) and proceeded with the stuffing.
I followed Hank's directions for making links and froze the links. We made 26 links in total.
At work on Monday I mentioned my experiment to a foodie friend and she wanted to try the sausages. I brought some in for her and this was the verdict:
'OMG! Just had two of your sausages (spicy, the fennel is perfect) with fresh kamuto tomatoes and nicoise olives. Amazing. Thank you.'
There you have it. A success. In hindsight I don't know if it would have been different if I had followed Hank's directions to the 'T'. Wasthe old Kitchen Aid we had just not powerful enough to handle grinding the meat?
Who knows?
What I do know is I need to experiment with more sausages!!!!
