Making Sausage: Smoking Meat, Making Sausage, Making Cheese, Making Jerky, Brewing Beer, Canning, Dehydrating

Making Sausage

Sausage. That’s the kind of word that makes your mouth water and your tummy rumble. A wonderful mixture of meats and spices blended to perfection, slipped into a casing to be fried, baked, boiled, grilled or smoked. However you cook it - it’s wonderful stuff!

A lot of people stay away from sausages these days because of the high levels of salt, fats and who knows what else they put in it. Well there’s only one way to be sure what your eating and that’s to make your own! You need to learn how to control what you eat!

I love sausage but I don’t like all the fat and salt they put in it today. I’ve been making sausages since I was a kid. I remember the first time helping my Mama and a neighbor cranking away on the old bolt on the table grinder they had and what a pain that was. It wasn’t great sausage and they only tried it once but it was good and it was also a lot of work! Now we have electric grinders and vertical or horizontal stuffers to make the job very simple and easy to do.

Making home made sausages is easier than you might think BUT like most meats handle them with care!

Making sausage can be as simple and buying ground beef, pork, turkey or lamb from the local supermarket and mixing in some herbs and spices, making patties and cooking them. I did it that way for years!

You can purchase a grinder and stuffer, grind your meats, mix in herbs and spices and stuff them into casings. Most grinders can also be used as stuffers so you can also go that route to get started. It’s all up to you! Making sausage might not be your cup of tea so why spend the money on all that equipment before you figure out if you like it? To get started unless you already have or have access to the grinders and stuffers I recommend buying the meat already ground from you local market. Most good store will grind meat for you if you ask.

Okay, if you’ve made it this far you’re probably already hooked on the idea of making your own sausages so I am going to show you the basic steps of how to prepare and grind meat for making sausage.

Most sausages are made of pork or a mixture of pork and beef. Let’s face it pork fat rules! It not only adds moisture to the sausages but flavor as well so protecting the fat is a key element in making sausages. The meat especially the fat needs to be nearly frozen or it will mash into lard and not slice into small chunks with the rest of the meat.

We will start by buying a nice big pork butt, this is also called a Boston butt in most areas. This cut actually come from the shoulder of the pig not the hind end. So why do they call it a Boston Butt? Time for a little history here straight from the National Pork Board …

"In pre-revolutionary New England and into the Revolutionary War, some pork cuts (not those highly valued, or "high on the hog," like loin and ham) were packed into casks or barrels (also known as "butts") for storage and shipment. The way the hog shoulder was cut in the Boston area became known in other regions as "Boston Butt." This name stuck and today, Boston butt is called that almost everywhere in the US,… except in Boston.

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1) First remove the meat from the package

2) Wash the meat thoroughly in clean fresh water then dry it with paper towels.

3) Use a good boning knife to remove the T shaped bone from the center.

4) Here are two bones removed from the butt. The top bone was removed from a 5 pound butt and the bottom from a 9 pound butt.

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5) Cube up the meat into chunks small enough to fit down the throat of your grinder 2 inch is good. Weigh the meat and write down the weight. Now place the meat into the freezers and wait until it gets stiff – protect the fat!

6) While the meat is chilling you can measure out your spices and mix then well in a bowl.

7) Place semi frozen chunks of meat into the grind and push down if needed with the plunger.

8) Finish grinding the meat

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9) Mix the spices with the meat per recipe instructions.

10) Make up a patty and fry it and try it. Does it need more salt, pepper or other spice? This is the time to decide if you want to add something more to your sausage. After adding fry another patty and try it!

11) I am using the grinder here as a sausage stuffer. The texture will be smoother and less chunky but it will Work if you don’t have a stuffer. Slip the casings onto the stuffing horns, tie a knot it the end of the casing, put meat in the hopper and stuff until you either run out of meat or run out of casing. These are hog casings.

12) Finished batch of fresh sausage ready for packaging. I highly recommend a vacuum sealer for freezing sausages, they will last longer without freezer burn.

If you already have a stuffer…

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11B) This is a vertical stuffer. I have a small 5 pound capacity model. They can be as big as 20

pounds.

12B) Remove the plunger

13) Add the meat mixture to the canister. Try to squeeze out any air then put plunger back on.

14) Slip casing over the stuffing tube This time I am using collagen casings

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15) Tie the end of the casing with butchers twine collagen casings are very paper like

16) Begin stuffing until you either run out of casing or meat.

17) Tie the end of the casing with butcher twine. Finished length of fresh sausage ready for packaging.

That’s all there is to it!

Need recipes? Check out the DSP Forum and my 92 sausage eBook!

If you’ve search the net looking for supplies you’ve noticed there are several different sizes of sausage casings available to make your sausages in. Most of them are listed in millimeters. What size sausage tube do you need for a certain size and type of casing? It can be a bit confusing and it’s not the same size as the casing or it would split wide open! We don’t want that so here’s a handy little chart I made to help:

Sausage Tubes and Casing Sizes
Stuffing Tube Size		Straight Stuffing Tube			Tapered Stuffing Tube
inches	mm	Collagen Casing	Hog Casing	Sheep Casing	Collagen Casing	Hog Casing	Sheep Casing
	8 mm	13 mm 14 mm 15 mm
3/8	9.5 mm	16 mm			16 mm
7/16	10 mm	16 mm 17 mm 18 mm 19 mm 21 mm	17 mm	18 - 20 mm 20 - 22 mm	19 mm 21 mm
	12 mm	22 mm 23 mm	21 - 23 mm	21 - 23 mm	22 mm 23 mm	21 - 23 mm	21 - 23 mm
1/2	13 mm	21 mm 23 mm		20 - 22 mm 22 - 24 mm	21 mm 23 mm 28 mm 30 mm		22 mm 24 mm
9/16	14 mm	24 mm 25 mm 28 mm 30 mm 32 mm	29 mm < 30 - 33 mm 31 - 34 mm	22 - 24 mm	24 mm 25 mm 28 mm 30 mm 32 mm		22 - 24 mm
5/8	16 mm	32 mm	30 - 33 mm 31 - 34 mm	24 - 26 mm	32 mm		27 mm 28 mm
11/16	17 mm	32 mm	31 - 34 mm 33 - 36 mm		32 mm		29 mm
3/4	19 mm	35 mm 38 mm	33 - 36 mm 35 - 38 mm		35 mm	32 mm 35 mm	24 - 26 mm
	22 mm	34 mm to 40 mm			34 mm to 40 mm
1	25 mm	50 mm	35 - 38 mm		50 mm
1 1/4	32 mm	65 mm	37 - 40 mm 41 - 44 mm		65 mm
1 3/4	45 mm	90 mm	41 - 44 mm		90 mm

NOTE: Tube sizes listed on the chart represent the largest tube recommended for a specific size casing. A smaller tube than that listed may also be used, but not a larger one. _Ó_{Deejay 2007}