I hate to say goodbye to
summer but it does open the door to a whole host of other ingredients and
recipes to explore. Before we say goodbye let's have one more salute to
summer. Homemade sausage.
Don't be intimidated by it. With a little know-how and the right equipment you could be on your way to making some of the best sausage you have ever had. Best of all you control what goes into it. No guessing what animal parts were ground up and used. You will know exactly what you are eating.
First you will need a grinder. If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer you can find a grinder attachment for relatively cheap. If not I recommend going with a metal manual or motor operated grinder that attaches to your countertop. This is a decent electric grinder that you can pick up for under $70. If you are making small quantities this will be just fine.
Next you will need a sausage stuffer. Kitchen Aid also has an attachment for the grinder that can be used to stuff sausage but I find a manual piston style stuffer to be better. More on that later. Here is a piston style vertical sausage stuffer for under $100. These are the only real pieces of equipment you will need to make sausage. Now you just need your ingredients and a good recipe. If you search the web there are tons of recipes for homemade sausage. Most meat-based sausages are comprised of basic ingredients. Lean meat, fat, additives such as onion, garlic, apples or fennel seeds and seasonings like salt, pepper and ground spices. You have to be sure you have enough of a fat to lean meat ratio otherwise your sausage will not slice nicely and when sliced it will crumble like stale bread. I normally use a ratio of 20% fat to 80% lean meat.
Once you have gathered all your ingredients and measured out everything, all the meat and fat gets ground, mixed with additives and spices and stuffed into a casing.
There are also many types of casings available to use, from real to artificial. I find the real casing to be the better of the two, they give the raw uncooked sausage better eye appeal and cooked sausage a better snap and mouth feel when eating it. They are also permeable to smoke so you can smoke your raw sausage. The artificial casings are also broken down into a few different categories. Cellulose, collagen and plastic casing are all artificial types of casings. Collagen casings are derived from the collagen of beef and pigs while cellulose casings are made with cotton linters and wood pulp and plastic casings are well…made from plastic. Some of the artificial casing will allow smoke to permeate but not all. Real casings are normally sold in a hank and are salted. They do require more prep prior to use. You must rinse them out and soak in cold water (I soak overnight) in order to remove the salt. The salt however does preserve them so only clean what you need for the task at hand. The leftover casings can stay in the fridge for 1 year.
Now that you have you sausage stuffing and your casing washed and soaked you have to stuff it. I spoke before about not liking the Kitchen Aid attachment for stuffing sausage. If you use a manual piston style you load your stuffing in and a piston cranks down and forces the stuffing out of a tube. There is very little friction and heat created and your stuffing will come out looking the same way it went in. The Kitchen Aid uses the grinder attachment with a tube on the end instead of the blade and die. There is a worm that turns and mixes the stuffing before it is forced into the casing. This produces heat and friction and can melt or emulsify your stuffing. You will wind up having a sausage that looks pale and almost one color. Once cooked it will not really affect the taste or texture but it doesn’t look as appealing as one that made with a traditional piston stuffer.
Once you have your stuffer set load it up with stuffing and feed a piece of casing on to the tube. Tie a knot in the end of your casing and slowly begin to crank. A little air might come out at first so hold onto your casing. Once it begins to fill slowly loosen your grip and the casing will begin flowing off the stuffing tube. You can control how “stuffed” your casing is by controlling how fast the casing moves off the tube. Resist the urge to overstuff your casing. It should have give to it. Remember if you're making links you will have to leave room to twist otherwise your casing will break. Once stuffed take a clean pin and poke the casing every few inches. This will allow any air pockets to be released when you start twisting. Twist links in even length twisting on opposite directions each time. Refrigerate, freeze or preferably EAT your creation. Enjoy!
Don't be intimidated by it. With a little know-how and the right equipment you could be on your way to making some of the best sausage you have ever had. Best of all you control what goes into it. No guessing what animal parts were ground up and used. You will know exactly what you are eating.
First you will need a grinder. If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer you can find a grinder attachment for relatively cheap. If not I recommend going with a metal manual or motor operated grinder that attaches to your countertop. This is a decent electric grinder that you can pick up for under $70. If you are making small quantities this will be just fine.
Next you will need a sausage stuffer. Kitchen Aid also has an attachment for the grinder that can be used to stuff sausage but I find a manual piston style stuffer to be better. More on that later. Here is a piston style vertical sausage stuffer for under $100. These are the only real pieces of equipment you will need to make sausage. Now you just need your ingredients and a good recipe. If you search the web there are tons of recipes for homemade sausage. Most meat-based sausages are comprised of basic ingredients. Lean meat, fat, additives such as onion, garlic, apples or fennel seeds and seasonings like salt, pepper and ground spices. You have to be sure you have enough of a fat to lean meat ratio otherwise your sausage will not slice nicely and when sliced it will crumble like stale bread. I normally use a ratio of 20% fat to 80% lean meat.
Once you have gathered all your ingredients and measured out everything, all the meat and fat gets ground, mixed with additives and spices and stuffed into a casing.
There are also many types of casings available to use, from real to artificial. I find the real casing to be the better of the two, they give the raw uncooked sausage better eye appeal and cooked sausage a better snap and mouth feel when eating it. They are also permeable to smoke so you can smoke your raw sausage. The artificial casings are also broken down into a few different categories. Cellulose, collagen and plastic casing are all artificial types of casings. Collagen casings are derived from the collagen of beef and pigs while cellulose casings are made with cotton linters and wood pulp and plastic casings are well…made from plastic. Some of the artificial casing will allow smoke to permeate but not all. Real casings are normally sold in a hank and are salted. They do require more prep prior to use. You must rinse them out and soak in cold water (I soak overnight) in order to remove the salt. The salt however does preserve them so only clean what you need for the task at hand. The leftover casings can stay in the fridge for 1 year.
Now that you have you sausage stuffing and your casing washed and soaked you have to stuff it. I spoke before about not liking the Kitchen Aid attachment for stuffing sausage. If you use a manual piston style you load your stuffing in and a piston cranks down and forces the stuffing out of a tube. There is very little friction and heat created and your stuffing will come out looking the same way it went in. The Kitchen Aid uses the grinder attachment with a tube on the end instead of the blade and die. There is a worm that turns and mixes the stuffing before it is forced into the casing. This produces heat and friction and can melt or emulsify your stuffing. You will wind up having a sausage that looks pale and almost one color. Once cooked it will not really affect the taste or texture but it doesn’t look as appealing as one that made with a traditional piston stuffer.
Once you have your stuffer set load it up with stuffing and feed a piece of casing on to the tube. Tie a knot in the end of your casing and slowly begin to crank. A little air might come out at first so hold onto your casing. Once it begins to fill slowly loosen your grip and the casing will begin flowing off the stuffing tube. You can control how “stuffed” your casing is by controlling how fast the casing moves off the tube. Resist the urge to overstuff your casing. It should have give to it. Remember if you're making links you will have to leave room to twist otherwise your casing will break. Once stuffed take a clean pin and poke the casing every few inches. This will allow any air pockets to be released when you start twisting. Twist links in even length twisting on opposite directions each time. Refrigerate, freeze or preferably EAT your creation. Enjoy!
Chicken Apple Sausage5 lbs. Boneless Chicken Thighs (with fat, very important)
4 oz Leeks, diced
½ lb. Apples, diced
4 oz White Onion, diced
4 c Apple Cider, reduced to a syrup
6 Garlic Cloves, chopped
½ Tbsp TCM (tinted cure mix, pink salt)**
3 ½ Tbsp Salt (4 Tbsp if omitting TCM)
½ Tbsp Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
2 Tbsp Fresh Sage, chopped
1 tsp Ground Ginger
2 Lemons, zested
1 tsp Dried Thyme
1 hank of Natural Hog Casing (you will not use it all and the rest will stay in the fridge for up to a year)
Procedure
Starting with a chilled grinder assembly, grind the boneless chicken thighs with fat into a bowl that is resting on top of ice. Chill the ground chicken in the fridge until later. In a sauté pan start with the onions and sweat (cook gently) in a dab of vegetable oil. Once the onions are translucent, add the leeks and sweat until bright green. Be sure to occasionally stir mixture with a wooden spoon to be sure nothing sticks or burns. Next add the apples and garlic and sweat for 2-3 more minutes. By now the leeks should be soft and the apples still have a slight bite to them. Add in the nutmeg, ginger, thyme, pepper and cook for 20 seconds, then add the remaining ingredients. Transfer the mixture to a cookie tray and place in the fridge to cool down.
Once the vegetable and spice mixture is cool, mix it into your ground chicken. It is important to keep the ground chicken cool so whenever you are working with it, keep the bowl on another bowl of ice.
**TCM or tinted cure mixture is 94 percent sodium chloride and 6 percent sodium nitrite. Sodium Chloride is table salt. Sodium nitrite is a preservative and inhibits the growth of bacteria and disease causing microorganisms. It also has a pink tint to it and will give your sausage a nice pink hue. It can be left out if you cannot find it or if you prefer not to use preservatives.
