Pork Sausages

With the butchering of four pigs, came plenty of meat that was only good for sausages. Offcuts, trimmings and thick, tough neck meat.  Most of the trimmed fat (except for the fat around the shield) had gone into the sausage bucket too.

I have previously written about some of my trials making sausages, this time I was hoping to do things a little better and also hoping that I've learned a few things since then.

I had to buy some more sausage casings.  No idea what happened to the previous leftovers, they'd probably gotten old and been thrown out.  My awful dry sausages (some that no amount of gravy or sauce could make pleasant eating) had put me off sausage making.

While I was waiting for the casings to arrive, the sausage meat was bagged and frozen.  This was actually quite beneficial to the process.  If the meat and fat is partially frozen it tends not to render when it's being minced.

Dad had gone through his pantry and cupboards since Mum went into care.  If he comes across something he thinks I might find useful but he doesn't use, he brings it over.  Included in this was a mincer attachment that fits the old cake mixer he'd previously given me.  He thinks the mincer was Grandma's as he doesn't remember ever having or using it, and it has a piece of the foot broken off, so it's clearly had some use.

I am in love with this mincer.  It doesn't clog up when you're mincing meat.  It just keeps going and clears itself out.  I can put 2kg of meat through it in a very short amount of time and it does a great job.  There only seems to be one blade for it though, so everything is coarse or goes through the mincer several times.

The sausage stuffing attachment (a kind of large plastic funnel) from my old cheap mincer didn't fit this one, so Hubby and Dad decided to trim it down a little to see if they could make it fit.

No.  The outside edge of the funnel shape was too wide for the ring.  Now they've trimmed the edges down on it, it doesn't stay on the old cheap mincer either, so I have to stuff sausages by hand.  It's a little frustrating but I can cope.

So these days, I take about an hour to make 5kg of sausages from start to finish.  The sausages are much better than they were previously, although, I find that I don't really like the texture of the skin if it hasn't dried up completely in cooking.  It's a little thing though.

I wondered if I'm not drying them properly before I freeze them.  A later batch (since I first wrote this piece) was hung to dry in my pantry overnight.  They were far better and the pantry smelled amazing.

I've also learned that it pays to put the casings onto the sausage stuffing attachment approximately a metre at a time.  If you put too much on, it can dry out before you've finished.  The casings tend to break then and you waste a lot of them.

One last comment to make before I hit the recipes - I have learned to read the recipes completely several times before I make the sausages.  Some give the spice mix first in specific quantities, but it's easy to overlook that you are only using a small amount of your made up spice mix to x volume of meat.  My first batch of English Bangers are not for the faint hearted, the spice mix is mostly white pepper and there is at least three times the amount there should be.



English Bangers

Spice Mix
5 tsp ground white pepper
2 1/2 tsp mace
2 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Sausage
1 kg lean pork shoulder
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
1 1/2 C dry bread crumbs
1 1/4 C chicken broth (I make up a stock cube)
3 1/2 tsp Banger Spice Mix

Grind pork and fat together.
Add Spice Mix and other ingredients and mix well.
Grind again.

Stuff the mixture into casings and tie in 4-5 inch lengths.

Chorizo

I've found lots of variations in recipes for chorizo.  Rick Stein always talks about the paprika in it, but half the recipes don't seem to contain any.  The notes on sausages that I got somewhere (I never noted down the source) speak of the differences between Mexican and Spanish chorizo and also say that the casing should be removed and the sausage crumbled before cooking.  I can't speak to the authenticity of such a statement.  It doesn't fit most of the times I have seen chorizo cooked.

This recipe might not be authentic, but it's my blend of several and works for us.

1 kg lean pork trimmings
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
vinegar
2 medium onions, quartered
8 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 C cider vinegar
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground oregano
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Rinse the inside of the casings with vinegar before using.
Grind the meat and fat.
Grind the onions and garlic and mix with other ingredients to taste. Mix into meat.
Grind all again together.
Stuff the casings and lay them out on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper and refrigerate.  Allow flavours to develop for at least 8 hours before using.

Pork and Thyme Sausage

1 kg lean pork trimmings
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
2 medium onions
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp dried thyme

Grind meat and fat together.
Grind onions and add to meat mix with other flavours.  Mix well.
Grind again.
Stuff into casings.

This recipe works as a lovely breakfast sausage.