Homemade Pork Sausage Recipes

QUICK & EASY PORK SAUSAGE

Steps:

• TO MAKE BASIC PORK SAUSAGE RECIPE: Place ground pork into a large bowl. Measure and distribute ingredient items evenly over pork. Wearing kitchen gloves, combine mixture using hands until thoroughly blended. Brown pork sausage in skillet, or cook according to recipe directions.
• TO MAKE VARIATION SAUSAGE RECIPE: Add specified additional ingredients before mixing. Brown in skillet, or cook according to recipe directions.

HOMEMADE PORK SAUSAGE

Steps:

• In a bowl, combine all ingredients; mix well. Shape into eight 4-in. patties. In a skillet over medium heat, fry patties for 3-4 minutes per side until browned or until no longer pink in the center.

BREAKFAST SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Combine diced pork with all other ingredients and chill for 1 hour. Using the fine blade of a grinder, grind the pork. Form into 1-inch rounds. Refrigerate and use within 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months. For immediate use, saute patties over medium-low heat in a non-stick pan. Saute until brown and cooked through, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

GARLIC AND FENNEL SEED SAUSAGE RECIPE

Steps:

• Set the bowl into which the meat gets ground on ice.
• Assemble the grinder attachment onto the Kitchen Aid
• Take a portion of the meat out of the fridge/freezer. We divided our meat into 3 batches so we could have 3 different sausage flavors; each batch was 2.5-3 lbs. The specific recipe above is for one of these batches.
• Make sure everything is very, very cold. This will make the grinding process easier and is better for health and sanitation reasons (bacteria multiplies in warmth). I cut the pork into slices, laid it on a sheet pan and put it in the freezer for about half an hour. This made it very firm and much easier for us to cut into the 1" cubes. We then laid the cubes of meat back on the sheet pan for another 1/2 an hour to get them firm again. I also put the metal grinding blades in the freezer.
• Follow the instructions with the kitchen aid and be careful. The wooden pusher comes in really handy. If you are short, like we are, you may have to stand on something to get enough leverage to push down on the meat.
• Make sure you have a good mix of meat and fat as you push it through the grinder. Watch your fingers!
• Once the ground meat and fat are in the bowl, combine with seasonings and liquid using using the paddle attachment and bowl of the Kitchen Aid mixer. Mix on medium for about 2 minutes and chill the ground meat again until very cold.
• NOTE: We ground the meat into the bowl, added our seasonings, then mixed it with the paddle attachment for about 2 minutes as per the instructions in Charcuterie. What we did not do was season the meat before grinding it, as the book suggests. I don't think skipping this step changed anything as we let the seasoned ground meat rest overnight.
• Once the meat was seasoned, we cooked up a little patty so we could taste it and check. This is an important step. With each batch, we added seasonings to correct to our palate.
• Put the casings on the extruder tube. This was a bit arduous as the natural casings have variations which make it difficult at times to slide them onto the tube. Many jokes of questionable taste were made during this process.
• The stuffing process definitely had a learning curve to it. This is where it pays to have two people; one to push the meat into the extruder and the other to pull the sausage off at the same rate it's being extruded. It is possible to twist the sausage into links as it comes off, but this is not a skill we mastered the first time around. Instead, we let it coil into one long length and then formed the links later.
• To link the sausages, tie off the end and twist a length (4' to 6") of filled sausage one direction. To make the next sausage, twist the next length in the opposite direction. Repeat.

HOMEMADE PORK BREAKFAST SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Heat a little oil in a skillet over medium heat.

HOMEMADE PORK SAUSAGE

Steps:

• In a bowl, combine all ingredients; mix well. Shape into eight 4-in. patties. In a skillet over medium heat, fry patties for 3-4 minutes per side until browned or until no longer pink in the center. Yield: 8 servings.

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Start with very cold ingredients and equipment: Make sure your ingredients are laid out, and the meat and fat are very cold (fat can be completely frozen), before you begin (put meat and fat in freezer for 2 hours). Put bowls and grinder in freezer or refrigerator for an hour before using them.
• Cut the fat and meat into chunks and keep cold in a bowl over ice: Prepare a large bowl of ice and put a medium metal bowl on top of it. Slice your meat and fat into chunks between an inch and two inches across. Cut your fat a little smaller than your meat. To keep your ingredients cold, put your cut meat and fat into the bowl set into a larger bowl filled with ice.
• Mix the meat and fat, add most of the spices and chill: When the meat and fat are cut, mix them quickly. Pour in most of your spices; I leave out a tablespoon or two of fennel seeds and a tablespoon of black pepper for later. Mix quickly. Add the salt and the sugar and mix one more time. Put into a covered container or top the bowl with plastic wrap and put the sausage mixture into the freezer for at least 30 minutes and no more than an hour. Now you can call back whoever might have bothered you when you started this process.
• Mix the sherry vinegar and the dry sherry and chill: I know sherry is not traditional in Italian sausage. You can use white wine and white wine vinegar if you'd rather (I save red wine and red wine vinegar for the hot sausages).
• Immerse the casings in warm water: If you plan on stuffing your sausage, take out some of the casings (you need about 15 to 18 feet for a 5-pound batch of links) and immerse them in warm water. (If you are not planning on stuffing your sausage, you can skip this step.)
• Set up the grinder: After your sausage mixture has chilled, remove your grinder from the freezer and set it up. I use the coarse die for Italian sausage, but you could use either. Do not use a very fine die, because to do this properly you typically need to grind the meat coarse first, then re-chill it, then grind again with the fine die. Besides, an Italian sausage is supposed to be rustic.
• Push mixture through grinder and chill: Push the sausage mixture though the grinder, working quickly. If you use the KitchenAid attachment, use it on level 4. Make sure the ground meat falls into a cold bowl. When all the meat is ground, put it back in the freezer and clean up the grinder and work area.
• Add the remaining spices and sherry mixture: When you've cleaned up, take the mixture back out and add the remaining spices and the sherry-sherry vinegar mixture. Using the paddle attachment to a stand mixer (or a stout wooden spoon, or your VERY clean hands), mix the sausage well. With a stand mixer set on level 1, let this go for 90 seconds. It might take a little longer with the spoon or hands. You want the mixture to get a little sticky and begin to bind to itself - it is a lot like what happens when you knead bread. When this is done, you have sausage. You are done if you are not making links. To cook, take a scoop and form into a ball with your hands. Flatten out a bit. Cook on medium low heat in a skillet for 5 to 10 minutes each side until browned and cooked through.
• Chill the sausage mixture: Put the mixture back in the freezer so it's chilled for stuffing in the casings.
• Run warm water through the casings and set up sausage stuffer: Bring out your sausage stuffer, which should have been in the freezer or refrigerator. Run warm water through your sausage casings. This makes them easier to put on the stuffer tube and lets you know if there are any holes in the casings. Be sure to lay one edge of the flushed casings over the edge of the bowl of warm water they were in; this helps you grab them easily when you need them.
• Slip a casing onto the stuffing tube: (And yes, it is exactly like what you think it is). Leave a "tail" of at least 6 inches off the end of the tube: You need this to tie off later.
• Add the meat to the stuffer and start cranking the stuffer: Take the meat from the freezer one last time and stuff it into the stuffer. If all the meat will not fit, keep it in a bowl over another bowl filled with ice, or in the fridge while you stuff in batches. Start cranking the stuffer down. Air should be the first thing that emerges - this is why you do not tie off the casing right off the bat.
• Let the sausage come out in one long coil and then tie-off: When the meat starts to come out, use one hand to regulate how fast the casing slips off the tube; it's a little tricky at first, but you will get the hang of it. Let the sausage come out in one long coil; you will make links later. Remember to leave 6 to 10 inches of "tail" at the other end of the casing. Sometimes one really long hog casing is all you need for a 5-pound batch. When the sausage is all in the casings, tie off the one end in a double knot. You could also use fine butcher's twine.
• Pinch and spin the links: With two hands, pinch off what will become two links. Work the links so they are pretty tight: You want any air bubbles to force their way to the edge of the sausage. Then spin the link you have between your fingers away from you several times. Repeat this process down the coil, only on this next link, spin it towards you several times. Continue this way, alternating, until you get to the end of the coil. Tie off the other end.
• Hang the sausages and prick air bubbles with sterilized needle: Almost done. Time to hang your sausages. Hang them on the rack so they don't touch (too much), and find yourself a needle. Sterilize it by putting into a gas flame or somesuch, then look for air bubbles in the links. Prick them with the needle, and in most cases the casing will flatten itself against the link.
• Let dry an hour or two and then chill: Let these dry for an hour or two, then put them in a large container in the fridge overnight, with paper towels underneath. Package them up or eat them the next day. They will keep for a week, but freeze those that will not be used by then.