Sausage Making

You can make excellent sausages at home if you have the right equipment. This includes a grinder, a good meat thermometer and general household supplies. If you don’t have a grinder, you can buy the ground meat from the supermarket. In cases where you have your own game that you want to make into sausages, you can have the butcher grind the meat for you. You can also choose to smoke the sausages and if you wish liquid smoke is available so you can add the smoky taste to the meat.

There is a series of steps involved in making sausages and you have to make sure you pay attention to each step. The first involves selecting the ingredients. The sausages you make will only be as good as the ingredients you use to make them. The meat should be fresh and have a proper high fat to meat ratio. The meat should also be free of any contaminants and bacteria. You should cure the meat with sodium nitrate to inhibit the growth of any bacteria and toxins. Select spices that will compliment the meat and, of course, they should be spices that you like.

When grinding the meat, it is important that it be as cold as possible. You grind the meat coarsely and then add the rest of the ingredients in the mixing process. Make a slurry of the spices by adding them to two cups of water. The water will also help to dissolve the salt used in the curing. Then when you mix all these ingredients together, you grind the meat once again to a finer consistency.

You can form fresh sausage meat into sausage shapes, but most are placed in some form of casing so that they retain their shape. Natural casings are the intestines of animals, with hog casings being the best because they are edible and permeable to moisture and smoke. You can buy casings at a butcher shop, but you do have to do some preparatory work on them. Soak them in lukewarm water for about 30 minutes because casings are preserved in salt. Then flush each one with cold water, running the water through the casing.

Other types of casings you can use include:

Fibrous casings. These are more suitable for summer sausage, but can be used with any type. They are very strong and come in a variety of sizes. You should soak these in lukewarm water for 30 minutes, but no earlier than four hours before you intend to use them. If they have not already been punctured, you need to puncture each one with the tip of a knife.
Collagen casings. These contain the features of natural and fibrous casings. They are specially developed for use in making sausages and are all of uniform size. They are very easy to handle, and are quite strong.

The thermal processing you use depends on the type of sausages you are making. Sausage needs to be smoked in order for it to last and to improve its flavor. The various types of cooking are:

Polish Sausages. Let sausages hang to dry before you start smoking them. Smoke at 120ºF for one hour, 150ºF for another hour and 175ºF for two hours. Then spray them with hot water for 15-30 seconds and flush with cold water. Let the sausages dry for one to two hours before placing them in a cooler.
Summer Sausages. After hanging to dry, smoke at 140ºF for one hour, 160ºF for another hour and 180ºF for two hours. Then you can follow the same procedure as for Polish sausages.
Cooked Sausages. After you stuff the casings, place the sausages into a pan or water and heat the water to 170ºF. Hold the sausages in the water until they reach a temperature of 155ºF. The water should not boil because this will spoil the sausages.