Homemade Breakfast Sausage Links

This weekend we attempted homemade sausage with our new/old grinder.

We really try and let the kids help out as much as practically possible. After we cubed the pork we let the boys help with the other ingredients.

Fresh herbs.

And spices. (We only used half the cayenne pepper called for in Alton’s recipe.)

Then we started grinding. The first grind with the large dial went really well–fast and easy. The second grind did not go as well. We were using the smaller dial but it was just getting plugged up with connective tissue fibers. We gave the meat a nice long chill and tried just doing a second grind with the large dial again. It still was not as easy as the first grind but at least we got it done.

Unfortunately our sausage grinder only came with a large (bratwurst size) casing stuffer, so it wasn’t going to work for the breakfast links. But we weren’t willing to just give up the dream! We got some casings stuffed but I’m not going to mention how.

(OK, I fitted a disposable frosting bag with my extra large round cake decorating frosting tip loaded 3/4 of an inch of casings onto it and squeezed the sausage into the casings! I won’t recommend it as a permanent solution, though:-) We will be ordering the right-sized nozzle, but for one breakfast worth of sausages it was a hilarious solution.)

I just really love the look of those sausages linked together–that’s the kind of thing we only see in an old Disney movies these days.

We left another pound of sausage meat out in the fridge to make patties with this week, and froze the rest of our double batch.

We enjoyed the homemade sausage links with biscuits for Sunday morning breakfast. (Though Owen was ticked that we had stuffed the links while he was sleeping. The original plan was to do more with the boys, but now we need to get the other nozzle first.) But the sausages tasted just like they should. So flavorful with those fresh herbs, but no artificial ingredients or nitrates or anything we didn’t choose.

I’m so excited to be making our own sausage. Next up is Italian sausage. First I just need to get some fresh whole fennel seeds. Then we can stock our freezer.

Overambitious

 

We came across this machine at the thrift store (a home meat grinder and sausage stuffer) and we really debated about getting it.  In the end we decided to go for it.

Then we went home and watched Good Eats which is one of our main go-to resources for adventurous kitchen projects.  We have the episode Sausage: A Beautiful Grind which demonstrates making breakfast sausage and Italian sausage.  Watching that episode was the catalyst to our being interested in home sausage making in the first place.

I remembered seeing casings at the “Farm Store” where we buy our chicken food.  So we stopped by there yesterday to pick them up.  And we purchased our pork shoulder and herbs for grinding.

Like everything else done homemade–one of the benefits of home sausage making is being able to control the ingredients.  I bought the pork for our first attempt at sausage making from the grocer.  But this summer, when the farmers’ market opens back up I will be able to buy local pastured pork.

Here’s to a new self-reliant kitchen project–we hope it won’t turn out to be a bit too overambitious.