Hey, hit me with your best sausage recipes

I just got done grinding 20 lbs of venison.  10 lbs went into summer sausage (already stuffed, just need to smoke it).

I added 1 lb of beef NY strip and brisket fat trims to 5 lbs to make burger

I added 2 lbs of pork belly to the remaining 5 lbs in preparation for sausage.

I'd like to do two recipes; one sweet italian/fennel-ish, and one something sagey/breakfasty

Hit me.  Best sausage recipes.

I have no useful input and I've never tried to make my own but here's a great show with a seemingly great recipe that starts at the 12:50 mark.  Texans love this guy and his restaurant.

https://www.pbs.org/video/bbq-franklin-episode-2-sausage/

I buy premixed sausage seasoning from the local butcher and doctor it with some red pepper to heat things up for breakfast sausage and liver pudding. You might touch base with the butcher and see what he has. 

I got nothing for Italian sausage. 

I hit up my butcher and his response was salt/pepper/fennel for italian, and salt/pepper/sage for breakfast.

I found some recipes online and whipped up some.  It's pretty good, but not a ton of flavor.  I did sage, marjoram, salt, pepper, thyme, and a bit of maple syrup for the breakfast.  I did garlic, salt, pepper, fennel, pepper flakes for the italian.

I pulled a little from each batch and cooked up a wee patty of each.  They're yummy, but it's hard to tell what they'll taste like after the flavors mingle.  Right now they're a touch bland, but I can doctor each batch a little before I cook them.

Try some south african Boerwors (farmers sausage).  It is godly. I don't have my own recipe, as my South African father in law won't give it up, but I will be making some this weekend based on this recipe I found in an old South African cook book.

1.5kg beef or venison

1.5kg pork 

500g speck 

25ml salt

5ml milled pepper 

50ml ground (toasted) coriander 

2ml fresh grated nutmeg 

1ml ground cloves 

2ml ground dried thyme 

2ml ground allspice 

125ml brown vinegar 

1 clove garlic, crushed 

50ml worcestershire 

85g sausage casings 

Says- make the sausage like you make sausage. Veal/venison/lamb can be substituted for the beef.

I buy my seasonings premixed from LEM.

I used to mix my own, but their stuff is great and you end up with a consistent product.

Kinda goes against my do it all from scratch mentality, but it works.

With me being 50% Italian there was a lot of "I've got your Italian sausage right here, pal" in my life.

Even funnier if you are making homemade sausage with a piece in your hand. Hopefully your grandma isn't there cause that creeps it out.

Sorry to thread jack.  

if I need sausage.. I go see cathy..

http://www.mackenthunsmeats.com/index.html

Teh E36 M3 said:

Try some south african Boerwors (farmers sausage).  It is godly. I don't have my own recipe, as my South African father in law won't give it up, but I will be making some this weekend based on this recipe I found in an old South African cook book.

 

1.5kg beef or venison

1.5kg pork 

500g speck 

25ml salt

5ml milled pepper 

50ml ground (toasted) coriander 

2ml fresh grated nutmeg 

1ml ground cloves 

2ml ground dried thyme 

2ml ground allspice 

125ml brown vinegar 

1 clove garlic, crushed 

50ml worcestershire 

85g sausage casings 

Says- make the sausage like you make sausage. Veal/venison/lamb can be substituted for the beef.

I watched a cooking show where an African chef made Boerwors.  It looked heavenly.  

You inspired me to make some Saturday. It's sooooo good. One of those things that all farmers' wives make, and each of them has a "secret" recipe, but the general sense is that the toasted coriander is the baseline. Lots of fat (speck) when you use lean meat like Bokkie (any horned deer like creature, as I understand it). 

We spent a glorious Christmas break outside of cape town in the wine region--- Boerwors, my brother in law's wine, and a huge pool amongst wine grapes are a glorious combination. 

In reply to Teh E36 M3 :

Good lord take me with you next time.

Wow, talk about timing and relevant to my interest. SWMBO just got a sausage stuffer/meat grinder attachment for her KitchenAid mixer and wants to try making sausage. We need to buy the skins and seasoning to attempt sausage. Suggestions?

She's been on a kick lately about buying gadgets that can make so food items she used to buy pre-made. For example egg roll wrappers. She has the gadgets to make the wrappers homemade. Several other gadgets for different Asian, mainly Korean dishes.  Sometimes she tries a gadget out to make something not design for. Like she used the sausage maker to attempt to make rice rolls. Kinda worked but a lot of waste and cleanup was a b*#$%, rice dough is very very sticky and hard to wash off.

She loves her kitchen gadgets. I tell her she can't complain about my garage gadgets with all her kitchen gadgets.

I suggest starting with cellulose casings.  They're a little more forgiving.  Natural casings are fine, but because they are a body part they have natural thicker and thinner spots.  Until you get the hang of it you might have a lot of exploded intestines.  Your first ones might be ugly, but that doesn't change how they taste.

Using a nozzle that closely matches the size of your casing is really helpful at keeping air out of your links.  If you're doing a cured link, do some really good research on the ratio of Nitrates.  Too much and you have a hot dog.  Too little and it won't cure properly.

I prefer my sausage with a bit coarser grind.  Most of my ground meats (burger, bologna, etc) I will run through once with a 3/8" plate and a second time with a 3/16" plate.  Sausage I just run through the 3/8" and call it good.  For pork sausage, just start with a picnic or a butt.  That has about the right fat ratio as-is.  For leaner sausage I have also done a pork loin and added a little belly to tailor the fat content to what I want.

Just did these last night.  Technically it's called summer sausage, but round here we just call it Deer Bologna.  I was going to smoke it at about 150 degrees, but my charcoal smoker developed a rust hole in the bottom and was getting too much air.  I couldn't keep it below 250-300.  So I baked in the oven at 170 for about 4 hours, then finished the last hour in the hot smoker with a bunch of hickory.

Tasty.

All this has me interested in trying to make some sausages especially since I have been really enjoying cooking at home recently. I guess I need to get some sausage attachments for my Kitchenaid. 

In reply to Vajingo :

And mine is 17" long and 2.5" in diameter.  Whatchu got.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Vajingo :

And mine is 17" long and 2.5" in diameter.  Whatchu got.

Not to mention that you "allegedly" have 4!  (According to photo above...) 

... and sadly, none of them get "smoked" as often as a sausage should be 

In reply to 93EXCivic :

Amazon has a huge selection. We got an all metal GVODE with 3 sizes of sausage tube for $60.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Vajingo :

And mine is 17" long and 2.5" in diameter.  Whatchu got.

Workin' what God gave me man. 7", 1.5" girth. All natural philistine here. 

Giving the wife a big sausage for v day. 
 

PS: that got weird all of a sudden. 

I'm dragging this zombie back. 

I'm looking for book recommendations about sausage and charcuterie. 

Ooo... I had a book that I gave to someone.  I forget the title, but it was an entire recipe book about charcuterie boards.

Here it is:  

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1954210000/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just titled "boards" by Elle Simone Scott

My brother is a meat cutter and just made some Maple-Blueberry breakfast sausage.  I'll ask for the recipe.   I will say is Chipotle-Bourbon is wonderful.