Homemade Sausages, Brats, Italian & Sage

Top Left: Hot Italian, Top Right: Pepper and Sage (Breakfast Sausage), Bottom: Brats

Recipe by: Chef John V.
History: I've been making sausage for years, especially trying to duplicate a breakfast sausage of my childhood. Dingman's Market made the best fresh ground sausage I've ever had. It wasn't stuffed into casing, so you could just make patties as needed. The three recipes are for Brats, Hot Italian and my version of Breakfast Sausage, (Sage and Black Pepper.)
Serving size: 4 lengths or about 32- 4 inch sausages
Preparation time: 1:30

Need to Know: A Boston Butt or a Pork Butt is the rectangular upper portion of the pork shoulder. (The lower portionis the pork picnic.) It weighs anywhere from 6-10 pounds, with an average weight of 8 pounds with the
blade bone still in. Since you need boneless meat to grind, it is important to remove the bone. This will decrease the weight of an 8 pound Boston Butt to 7 pounds. On average, the removal of the blade bone will decrease the total weight by 1 pound.

So buy it with the bone in and remove it yourself or buy a boneless butt. I'd rather have the butcher do the work for me, and you can even ask them to cut it into 1 1/2 inch chunks for no charge. For making sausage it is the perfect cut of pork because the ratio of fat to meat is ideal, about 75% lean to 20% fat. This is even leaner than most hamburger meat! If you want to trim even more fat away you can, but be aware the if the meat is too lean, then the sausage will be dry and a bit tough. I'm a fussy eater and don't like to eat a lot of fat, but with this ratio I'm totally satisfied with what I'm eating.

Over-mixing of the meat creates a rather rubbery sausage, but if you don't have a grinder you can ask your butcher to grind it too, and then you just have to season it and fill the casing or make it into patties if you don't have a sausage stuffing device. Important Note: These recipes don't explain how to stuff sausage casings. Go to the sites listed below to learn how, or search the web for more information on the process.

http://www.sausagemaker.com

http://www.sausagemaking.org/

Amount/Measure/Ingredient:

7 pounds Boston Butt, boneless, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

For Brats add---
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. mace
1 1/2 tsp. ground white pepper
2 tbsp. Kosher salt---if you don't have any, buy some as it makes a big difference!
2 tbsp. clear corn syrup, Karo Syrup
1/2 cup ice
1 cup white bread crumbs, made from Pepperidge Farm or other firm white bread, trimmed of the crust

Preparation:
Marinate the cut pork with the seasonings for 12 hours. Just before grinding, add the ice. Prepare your natural casings, washing well. Push them onto the sausage stuffing tube and then fill them as the directions explain, as you grind the pork. (You are grinding the pork and filling the casings all in one step) They should fill naturally as you move the casing off the tube, if you slow down the procedure you run the risk of overfilling and breaking the casing.

For Hot Italian add---
2 tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. chopped garlic, fresh peeled
1 1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
2 tbsp. Kosher salt---if you don't have any, buy some as it makes a big difference!
2 tbsp. clear corn syrup, Karo Syrup
1/2 cup ice Preparation:

Marinate the cut pork with the seasonings for 12 hours. Just before grinding, add the ice. Prepare your natural casings, washing well. Push them onto the sausage stuffing tube and then fill them as the directions explain, as you grind the pork. (You are grinding the pork and filling the casings all in one step) They should fill naturally as you move the casing off the tube, if you slow down the procedure you run the risk of overfilling and breaking the casing.

For Pepper and Sage (Breakfast Sausage) add---
2 tbsp. fresh sage, chopped
2 tbsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tbsp. Kosher salt---if you don't have any, buy some as it makes a big difference!
2 tbsp. clear corn syrup, Karo Syrup
1/2 cup ice Preparation:

Prepare a space in your refrigerator where you can hang the sausage for at least 4 hours...thee cook, eat and or freeze.

Now a Real Sausage Challange if you're up to it? Saucisson l'ail, French Garlic Sausage