Thoughts on making sausage...

[dapittboss]

I searched the archives and looked at the links, and it doesn't look too hard to do, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. I have an attachment for my kitchenaid mixer that I can use to grind meat, so I am thinking of trying it. Do any of you make your own sausage? I think it would be cool to be able to add your own spices and stuff. I'm thinking of grinding a pork butt and adding chunks of jalepino or different things. Any input on this?

[Mark]

Go fot it and keep everything as cold as possible.

[brdbbq]

1ounce Jalapeno per pound of sausage

[scottm4300]

Keep us posted if you do this!! I've been reading a lot on this lately - it's one of my little goals for myself. I don't have a grinder or a stuffer yet - or cure - or anything else, except a desire to try it. If you go for it, keep us informed!!

[Ron_L]

I started making my own sausage a couple of months ago. its really pretty easy, and the results are great! The attachment for the Kitchenaid should be able to grind OK, but it will take a while. You might want to consider a seperate stuffer if you think you'll make sausage often. I bought a $90 grinder and I use it for stuffing and it does a decent job, but it only has one size stuffing horn so the size sausage I can make is lmited...

[brdbbq]

I started making my own sausage a couple of months ago. its really pretty easy, and the results are great! The attachment for the Kitchenaid should be able to grind OK, but it will take a while. You might want to consider a seperate stuffer if you think you'll make sausage often. I bought a $90 grinder and I use it for stuffing and it does a decent job, but it only has one size stuffing horn so the size sausage I can make is lmited...

Care to share recipe mix cure etc.....

[Ron_L]

Care to share recipe mix cure etc.....

Sure! So far, I have made fresh Polish, fresh brats and beef sticks. For the Brats and beef sticks, I used seasoning kits from Cabelas. They were both good, but not great. Once I use up the kits I am going to strike out on my own for both brats and beef sticks. The brats were not cured and for the beef sticks, the kit included the cure (I think it was Prague Powder, but it didn't say.

For the fresh polish, again, no cure, and the recipe that I used was...

http://www.3men.com/sausage.htm#Polish%20Sausage

I've used it three times and I've tweaked it a little each time. Its good, but not as good as some of the Polish deli's in Chicago.

[Hammerhead]

I make my own sausage frequently. My first attempt was with a brats recipe from a book and it turned out so well that I haven't tinkered with the recipe. I've tried a few other recipes from the book, but for me the brats was the best, and since I love brats, that is what I usually make. It's fun, but messy and I've never been able to do a good job of twisting the links! It sounds simple, but ... :?

As for the Kitchenaid ... I have a hand cranked grinder and a horn stuffer. I've always wanted a Kitchenaid and when I finally got one the first attachment I got was a sausage kit. The Kitchenaid grinds the meat too fine for my taste-texture in brats. It does great for other recipes and it is much easier to stuff casings than doing it by hand cranking through the meat grinder.

What I do now is grind the meat in the hand cranked grinder to a coarse cutting, then use the Kitchenaid to stuff into casings. Lots of cleanup, but the easiest way for me to make sausage.

I'm buying four pork butts this weekend, two for sausage making and two for the grill.

[parrothead]

Is that a big green egg in your avatar? And go to cattle call and introduce yourself.

[Hammerhead]

The avatar is a picture of my #7 Kamado in action. :D

[scottm4300]

Any chance you'd be willing to share the bratwurst recipe with us - or maybe the name of the book you got it from? I love brats!!

[jsmoker]

I've done sausage for the past year or so after being afraid of it for quite some time. I've never bothered stuffing it into casing, just ground up beef, veal, or pork added the spices, rolled it into a stick or loaf and smoked it up. And since it cooks rather quickly, we throw a few sticks on in the beginning of the session for the cooks to eat as we work on the brisket/shoulders/ribs. My favorite recipe is the sweet Italian sausage out of Pual Kirk's book. Awesome eats!

Embrace the sausage! (At least that's what I tell my OL!) :P

[dapittboss]

I make my own sausage frequently. My first attempt was with a brats recipe from a book and it turned out so well that I haven't tinkered with the recipe. I've tried a few other recipes from the book, but for me the brats was the best, and since I love brats, that is what I usually make. It's fun, but messy and I've never been able to do a good job of twisting the links! It sounds simple, but ... :?

As for the Kitchenaid ... I have a hand cranked grinder and a horn stuffer. I've always wanted a Kitchenaid and when I finally got one the first attachment I got was a sausage kit. The Kitchenaid grinds the meat too fine for my taste-texture in brats. It does great for other recipes and it is much easier to stuff casings than doing it by hand cranking through the meat grinder.

What I do now is grind the meat in the hand cranked grinder to a coarse cutting, then use the Kitchenaid to stuff into casings. Lots of cleanup, but the easiest way for me to make sausage.

I'm buying four pork butts this weekend, two for sausage making and two for the grill.

Well I guess from all the positive feedback I will have to give this a try. I think I'll use the Kitchenaid grinder for now to see how I like it since that's what I already have and go from there. I'll post some pictures with my results. I would like to try it this weekend but I'm not shure, might be next.

[mrkkti]

Depending on how much meat you want to grind, you may consider going to your butcher.

We do venison every year. Mix it with pork. Last year we ground up a total of 400 pounds and made it into sausage and pepper sticks. Then I built a smoker out of an old pop machine to smoke it. Out of the last 15 years of doing this, the stuff we smoked ourselves was the best.

I recently got a 40 lb capacity meat mixer off of e-Bay, next...I want a big old commercial grinder!