I was naturally intimidated by the thought of making sausage from scratch it seemed like such a hard and tedious task. After testing out different flavors I developed my own recipe for the filling that makes a juicy and flavorful sausage.
The most important tips for successfully making sausage at home comes down to keeping meat fat cold. That being the most important step, but choosing your meat is a close second. Pork is widely used in sausage as it has a high-fat content making it the perfect meat for sausage. I added chicken into mine but you can add any meat as long as the total is 10 pounds of meat with a high-fat content. You want your sausage to have a fat content of 15-30 percent.
Don't be intimidated you can do this and the results will be so good you will be glad you did!!!
Ingredients you will need:
***you can easily adjust, add or omit any of the seasoning other than the salt and pepper***
How to prepare homemade sausage?
Prepare sausage casing by placing it into a bowl with warm water for it to soften.
Preparing the meat filling:
Clean chicken thighs from yellow fat (optional but I recommend as chicken fat is yellow and will not look appealing in the casing) and cut pork into manageable pieces that will fit into the meat grinder. Lay onto a lined baking sheet and place it into the freezer for 30-45 minutes. After the meat is hard on the outside but not frozen through. Prepare a bowl of ice and place a second bowl on top like pictured. It is very important to keep the meat as cold as possible if the fat gets warm and blends with meat while you grind your sausage will turn out dry. Take the meat out of the freezer in batches to avoid it from getting too warm. Grind meat the fat shouldn't blend with the meat, you should be able to see the white pieces coming out with the meat like pictured.
After all, meat is ground place into the refrigerator while you prepare the marinade. In the grinder (you don't have to clean it) grind 1 large onion, cleaned garlic cloves, and ½ bunch of parsley into a bowl. Add remaining seasonings and bacon fat. Mix marinade into the meat with a spatula NOT by hand, your hands radiate heat which will make the fat prone to melting.
Filling the Sausage casing with meat
After the marinade is incorporated evenly through the meat set up the meat grinder with the sausage tip. Rinse casing in warm water and fit the casing over the tip until the casing is fully on.
Place the bowl with the meat back onto the bowl of ice. Working in batches stuff meat through the meat grinder into the casing until all meat is in the casing. You can either make circles like I did, I made them as big as my cast iron skillet which was like 10". Or you can make brats sausages by twisting the casing a few times when you have reached your desired length.
Cooking the Homemade sausage
You can pan-fry, bake or grill the sausage. I like doing it in a cast-iron skillet and broil for a few minutes.
Before cooking the sausage poke tiny holes with a knife every few inches to prevent the sausage from bursting. Heat a cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and on medium heat place your sausage and cover with lid let cook for 10-15 minutes per side. If making the large ring/circle place in the oven to broil for about 10 minutes.
How to Storage your cooked sausage:
Other recipes that you might enjoy:
CUCUMBER CHICKEN SALAD BITES
AVOCADO APPETIZER
HOMEMADE SAUSAGE
Equipment
- meat grinder
- sausage stuffer
Ingredients
- 8 lbs pork shoulder
- 2 lbs chicken thighs
- 1 large yellow onion grated
- 1 garlic head
- ½ bunch parsley
- 2 tablespoon bacon fat
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- sausage casing
Instructions
- Prepare sausage casing by placing it into a bowl with warm water for it to soften.
- Clean chicken thighs from yellow fat (optional but I recommend as chicken fat is yellow and will not look appealing in the casing) and cut pork into manageable pieces that will fit into the meat grinder. Lay onto a lined baking sheet and place it into the freezer for 30-45 minutes.
- After the meat is hard on the outside but not frozen through. Prepare a bowl of ice and place a second bowl on top like pictured. It is very important to keep the meat as cold as possible if the fat gets warm and blends with meat while you grind your sausage will turn out dry.
- Take the meat out of the freezer in batches to avoid it from getting too warm. Grind meat the fat shouldn't blend with the meat, you should be able to see the white pieces coming out with the meat like pictured.
- After all, meat is ground place into the refrigerator while you prepare the marinade. In the grinder (you don't have to clean it) grind 1 large onion, cleaned garlic cloves, and ½ bunch of parsley into a bowl. Add remaining seasonings and bacon fat. Mix marinade into the meat with a spatula NOT by hand, your hands radiate heat which will make the fat prone to melting.
- After the marinade is incorporated evenly through the meat set up the meat grinder with the sausage tip. Rinse casing in warm water and fit the casing over the tip until the casing is fully on.
- Place the bowl with the meat back onto the bowl of ice. Working in batches stuff meat through the meat grinder into the casing until all meat is in the casing. You can either make circles like I did, I made them as big as my cast iron skillet which was like 10". Or you can make brats sausages by twisting the casing a few times when you have reached your desired length.
- You can pan-fry, bake or grill the sausage. I like doing it in a cast-iron skillet and broil for a few minutes.
- Before cooking sausage poke tiny holes with a knife every few inches to prevent the sausage from bursting.
- Heat a cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and on medium heat place your sausage and cover with lid let cook for 10-15 minutes per side. If making the large ring/circle place in the oven to broil for about 10 minutes.
- Serve with your favorite mustard.
- You can also freeze the sausage for later in a freezer Ziploc bag and suck the air out with a straw.
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