Sausage
Home Recipe
My dad was a butcher. He made sausage for his meatmarket. Today you can use the butcher's help with the grinding and no other equipment. Or you can invest in a sausage grinder and stuffer.
Classic sausage is made of ground pork, 1/3 fat to 2/3 lean. Bologna was considered mixed beef and pork ground meat. Old recipes were made from cured meat and highly seasoned to preserve it. Today you could season it lightly.
I know my dad would mix the seasonings into the pork with his hands, and taste the raw meat to see if it was right. I would warn you not to do this today. But you can fry a small pattie to check the flavor and seasonings.
Put your ground pork into a large bowl, wash your hands and arms as if your going into surgery, and sprinkle salt and pepper into your meat. Lift the meat up from the bottom and pull it over to the center and punch it down.
My dad would add ground (or finely minced onion) and nutmeg. He didn't like the artificial smoke flavors, nor the MSG, nor the preservatives of the commercial seasonings.
PLAIN PLAIN
About 1/4 fat instead of the classical 1/3, season with salt, pepper, onion, nutmeg and a little sage.
PLAIN SEASONED
For 8 pounds of ground pork, add 10 teaspoons of salt, 8 teaspoons of sage, 4 teaspoonsful of ground pepper, 1 teaspoon of ground cloves (or thyme, or allspice, or nutmeg)
POTATO SAUSAGE ... A more up to date recipe 4 pounds of ground beef
2 pounds of ground pork
peel and grate to get a quart of potatoes
Add some of the liquid from the grated potatoes to make a meat loaf like mixture.
Grind 3 onions, and add, with salt, pepper, and ground allspice. 1/2 teaspoonful should be enough, flavor should be subtle. You can stuff this mixture into casings, or make it in patties. These are simmered in water for 1/2 hour, and then frozen. To cook use a shallow pan and brown at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.
Making your own natural casing is hard, tedious, cold, work and not for the squeamish.
