I thought I'd start a thread for all of you Pitmasters who love making your own sausage at home. The field is wide and deep: most of us begin with simple country patties or Italian sausage stuffed in natural pork casings, and a few eventually evolve their involvement into the artisanal charcuterie category where you need to be uber careful with controlling humidity, temperature and smoke to create things like pepperoni, chorizo, prosciutto, etc. I'm not there yet but have been making my own sausage for about 4 years using wild game and pork. I grew up on a farm, but learned how to stuff sausage from a butcher in Annapolis, MD.
I'll start with my faves: Polish, Italian (Sweet, hot and mild), Bratwurst and Country sausages all made from pork and/or a mixture of pork and wild game. I get mixes from a Buffalo, NY, company called sausagemaker dot com. I use a 7 lb. Westin stuffer (hand crank) and a 1/3 HP LEM grinder. 5, 10, and 20 lb. batches that I link using natural pork casings and vacuum seal in large coils. They are great if cooked in your smoker or browned over your grill.
My next project is to unlock the secrets of Boudin, and experiment with some European sausages like Landjager, Goteborg, and Hungarian.
I'll try posting a tutorial with pictures the next time I make a batch...if anyone is interested that is.
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