Great Sausage Recipes & Meat Curing...

[Doug Crann]

Looking to get started making sausages. Have seen this book mentioned in several places...is it everything that it is claimed to be...one of the best books? Any other suggestions?

[IamMadMan]

It's often called The Sausage Maker's Bible... Don't get it with the DVD. In my opinion, the DVD is similar to paid advertising on TV, it really gives you nothing in return for your time watching it.

The book itself is a great reference book and gives great instructions and techniques for a beginner as well as for someone with intermediate skills in sausage making.

While Rytek was one of the pioneers in the safe home sausage making movement, most of the recipes contained within the book are for 10 pound batches. For a beginner this may be too much to contend with, the recipes can be scaled down into 5 pound batches. Also I found that many of his recipes are overly salty for my tastes. For a beginner with a salty 10 pound batch, or even 5 pound is a little disheartening. While the salt/sugar can be slightly adjusted for taste, it is after the finished product that one makes the determination about the level of salt.

Rytek and his brother Ben were part of the foundation of The Sausage Maker (http://www.sausagemaker.com/aboutus.asp), a supply house for sausage making equipment and supplies out of Buffalo, NY. They have some really good products, as well as sausage and meat curing premixes.

For your first book, I would suggest getting this book first...

First Recommendation..

Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages by Stanley Marianski and Adam Marianski
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2B6GpQIrQL._AA160_.jpg

This is a book that covers everything from making a smokehouse, to curing meats, and making sausage. Very easy to read with a great collection of recipes and techniques for the beginner. This book is actually two other books ("Meat Smoking And Smokehouse Design" and "Polish Sausages, Authentic Recipes And Instructions") combined into one single book plus more on making sausage and curing meats.

This in conjunction with Rytek's book "Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" are both great references.

Keep in mind these are simply my personal opinions from my experiences, not a directive as to what you should or should not do..



Second Recommendation..

Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas and Ben Kutas
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HsqN0YTgL._AA160_.jpg

This is a definitive book on sausage making. The explanation of how cures work, and what they are for, is worth the price of the book. The smallest quantity the recipes are for is 10 pounds, so a beginner will have to scale down the recipes. It is equally helpful to a beginner or the advanced. Some of the recipes are a little too salty for my taste, but I just reduce the salt in the next batch.


Third Recommendation..

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Xa69CUiVL._AA160_.jpg
This is a great book, although it touches the basics, I feel the book is more for an intermediate sausage maker. This takes sausage to the next level with using some top shelf ingredients to make sausages that could be considered in the gourmet classification. Michael Ruhlman has many proven recipes. Have an understanding of the basics before you try to get into the gourmet recipes contained herein.



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[Shagdog]

I have the Kutas book, and if I'm honest, I use one recipe in it. Kielbasa. Which is great.

I am also not a fan of Ruhlman, and find a lot of recipes are not great right out of the gate and require tweaking.

I'm not saying that I disagree with madman. Those are great recommendations, and you will glean knowledge from all of those books.

I ended up finding most of my stuff from the Internet. Len Poli's website (just google him, it pops right up) is a great resource for recipes. It's the only place I've gone where I will blindly follow any recipe of his without question. There's also sausage maker.com, and if you're on Facebook, join sausage debauchery. And the last good resource I highly recommend is right here. Got questions? Ask. There are a ton of experienced sausage makers/meat curers here

[Swine Spectator]

I have all of the books mentioned above, but I think this one is my most used:

Bruce Aidells's Complete Sausage Book : Recipes from America's Premium Sausage Maker: Bruce Aidells, Denis Kelly: 0028195081598: Amazon.com: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HSiUCO2BL.@@AMEPARAM@@51HSiUCO2BL

[MisterChrister]

I have all of the books mentioned above, but I think this one is my most used:

Bruce Aidells's Complete Sausage Book : Recipes from America's Premium Sausage Maker: Bruce Aidells, Denis Kelly: 0028195081598: Amazon.com: Books (http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Aidellss-Complete-Sausage-Book/dp/1580081592/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450110531&sr=8-1&keywords=bruce+aidells%27+complete+sausage+book)

I also love this book. The personal stories make it a fun read, too! Also agree about IAMM''s recommendations on the 3 sausage powerhouse books, as well as the Len Poli site mentioned by Shaggy!