In the Kitchen at Bungalow Beauty

Hey everybody it's your favorite homeowner Rock Strongo coming at you with a brand new blog! Now you may remember me from such blogs as bungalowbeauty.blogspot.com and now I've spun off another blog to fill in the gaps when I'm not posting on the bungalowbeauty website. I figured what would be better than a blog on cooking and kitchen related crap since I do tend to cook quite a bit? So here we are with the first recipe of the season. Today I bring you Italian sausage making 101. I've been making Italian sausage for the better part of 15 or so years. I started when I was young by helping my grandfather make sausage. I got to poke the wholes in the sausage to let the air out as he stuffed. Later I got to move up to tying off the links with butchers string. Finally after what seemed like years I got to actually stuff! Pigs- what magical animals- sausage, pork chops, ham, bacon, pulled pork, ribs, the list goes on and on.



Now you may think I'm a little crazy but come on it's sausage! Nothing is better than making your own. You know exactly what's going into it; you can control the salt, fat, and seasonings. Believe it or not, it's really easy to make; watch I'll show you.



First we start with the meat- pork butts, sometimes called Boston Butt or pork shoulder; here I have a little over 12 pounds; it was on sale for 99 cents a pound. Now you tell me- for 99 cents a pound how can you not make your own sausage?




First thing you need to do is trim off the fat. There's a thick layer right on the top and it comes off pretty easy with a sharp knife. You're going to want to cut the pork in about 2 inch cubes. Trim off any large amounts of fat and make sure you get most everything around the bone.




As soon as I'm done cutting up one of the pork butts I put it in the freezer to chill before grinding. You need to keep everything cool- cold is key throughout this whole process. I grind in two batches; each one is about 5lbs after trimming off the fat and removing the bone. Here's a shot of everything that's left over- I show it for two reasons:



1)You should save it! Why? Well for one thing toss the bones in your sauce the next time you make some and it'll give it some great flavor and the pork fat? Well there a whole list of things you can do with pork fat that I won't even go into in this post. Pork fat does rule.

2)I'm trying to be more healthy these days- I threw it all out. Aren't you proud of me? I thought so.








So while the meat is in the freezer chilling I take this time to prep my casing. I user natural hog casing; they're nature's best- I know because the label on the package says so. Believe it or not it's pretty easy to find natural hog casings in most major supermarkets. If you can't find in the grocery store go to an old tymey butcher, if he doesn't have it order it off the internet. The casing comes packed in salt which you need to wash off completely before stuffing. I run it under cool water for a bit to flush out the inside of the casing, run water all over the outside to clean that up, and then I actually hold the end of the casing upside down under the water to make the force of the water turn the casing inside out. You can then be sure that it's clean both inside and out. Now to me this is the most time intensive part of the whole sausage making process and if doesn't appeal to you you can always buy collagen casing off the internet. It comes clean and ready to use; but if you think hog casing is disgusting I'm not going to even tell you where the collagen comes from! Back on topic- the casing is cleaned and left to sit in a bowl of cool water in the refrigerator with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice added to the water. The lemon juice or vinegar will help to keep the casing soft and a bit clearer so your finished product looks better. On the left is the salt packed casing and on the right is the now cleaned and ready to stuff casing






the next step is to grind and if the meat is too warm the fat in it gets all mushy and gums up the blades in your grinder. So keep it cold; 20 or 30 minutes in the freezer is enough to firm it up but not freeze it. To grind the meat I use the course plate in the grinding attachment on my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (the mixer was a Christmas gift from my wife the first year we were dating- can she pick a gift out our what?!)







After we're done grinding the meat goes back into the freezer for chilling. This gives us time to setup our stuffer. There are many different types of stuffers out on the market and they haven't changed much in a long time. I have an attachment that fits on the end of my Kitchen Aid's grinder but the problem with that is that it's way up in the air; not very practical. I have a handheld funnel that works great if you're only doing a few pounds. In fact that was all my grandfather ever used even if he was making 25 or 30 pounds! There are also crank types, water assisted types and the small plunger type that I have here. I mounted mine on a piece of wood for some added stability and tossed on some rubber feet to keep it from sliding on the counter.






Next comes the mixing part- I like to use a Rubbermaid type container and mix about 5 pounds at a time. This is a sweet Italian sausage I'm making here. The recipe is pretty simple:

2 1/2 Tablespoons of Kosher Salt
2 Tablespoons of toasted Fennel Seed
1 Tablespoons of coarse ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon of toasted anise seed
1 1/2 Tablespoons of paprika
1 Cup ice water







The only way to really mix it well is with your hands. Sorry but there's no way around it you have to get in there and work it all together. Once you have it mixed well fry some up so you can make sure your seasoning is where it should be. If you think it's missing something adjust your seasonings, mix, fry, and eat.




After you have your seasonings all straightened out it goes back into the freezer to chill while you prep your stuffer. Prepping the stuffer is pretty easy, just slip the casing onto the end of the funnel. It slides on easier if it's a bit wet still. Once the casing is on the horn it's time to fill the stuffer. With this particular stuffer you can't completely fill it; if you do you'll never be able to pull down the handle- trust me- I've tried.






Pull down on the handle and you'll start to push the meat out the horn. Once you have about an inch or so extruded you'll want to tie off the end with some butchers twine. Push out some more meat and as it comes out you have to control how fast the casing comes off the horn. The speed that the casing comes off is directly related to how hard you're pulling down on the plunger to extrude the meat and how tightly you're holding the casing to the horn. It takes time and practice to get it right; if you let the casing off too fast your sausage is all loose and lame looking, too slow and the casing will burst. Also you'll have to remember to poke holes anywhere you have air pockets to prevent bursting. I fill the whole casing first and then I come back and turn links. There are two ways you can do links, one way is with a butchers twine. Simply tie a knot everywhere you want a link. The other option is to pinch at two places and twist into a link, the trick there is to alternate your twists so you don't unravel the previous link. I usually tie off the ends with butchers twine and then pinch and twist the links in the middle. If a link bursts- and yes it even happens to me; I just tie off on both sides next to the break. You may end up with a smaller sausage but don't worry, someone will always eat it.






Once all your stuffing is done leave the sausage in the refrigerator for at least a couple hours for the flavors to meld. Beyond that- eat it usually within a couple days or freeze it. I like to keep some of my sausage in bulk (not in the casing)for when I make pizza. The rest gets vacuum sealed and put in the freezer.



So as you can see it's pretty easy to make Italian sausage; but don't stop there- there are tons of different encased meats you can make. But remember also that you don't even have to stuff it. You can buy ground pork from the grocery store, season it and you're done. Give it a shot- it's not as hard as you may think. Check out the links in my cookbook section for two books on sausage making that i think cover the topic pretty damn well.



And that my friends is all.