So today we made sausage because it's fun and easy. First, we used the trimmings of pork that we had leftover from day 4, mixed them with spices and salt, ground them twice in the meat grinder with ice (to keep everything very cold), hand mixed them to firm up the meat, fried a sample in lard, tasted the sample to check for proper seasoning, and stuffed the rest into casings. The stuffing was slightly complicated because air bubbles will often form in the cylinder that was extruding meat into the casing causing "farts" and air pockets in the sausage links. Depending on the severity of the sausage fart, the casing could either be pricked with the "pricker" or it would have to be cut off, the link would be twisted off, and then the whole process would start again. Once a long link of casing was filled with our fresh ground sausage meat, we would hand twist each 4 inch section into a breakfast sausage.
It definitely gives me a better appreciation for sausage and the work that goes into hand made sausage. It is also something that could definitely be done at home. I should also mention that this sausage was delicious. You tell me what's better than pork fat on pork fat?
You should also appreciate the fact that they put a lot of thought in that sausage making machine. I'm serious.
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