Sweet and Spicy Sausage Mixes

Pork Shoulder

We spent the evening getting ready to make some sausage tomorrow.  I knew it would take a while to prepare 20+ lbs of Pork Shoulder, but I didn't think it would take four hours.  Oh well, should be worth it tomorrow.  Trimming all the fat, gristle and bone from three of these suckers was some work!

Pork Bone

I understood from books that I've read that the pork shoulder bone was going to be difficult to carve around, but I really had no idea how many nooks and crannies that thing had.  Domestic reality met culinary theory today.

Sausage Spices

You'll notice that the spices are measured in grams, not teaspoons/tablespoons.  Michael Ruhlman, the author of the recipes, is adamant that the spice mixtures be measured by weight, not volume.  Since this is our first attempt, we decided to not take any chances and did it his way.  The top two bowls above are for the spicy mixture, and the bottom bowl is the sweet mixture.

We have two large buckets of seasoned pork meat in our fridge, along with the sausage casings and some chuck we're going to grind into hamburger meat tomorrow as well.  Should be fun!

(Charcuterie, pp 122-123.)

Sweet Sausage Mix:

• 4 lbs Pork Shoulder Butt, diced into 1" chunks
• 1 lb Pork Back Fat, diced into 1" chunks
• 40 grams Kosher Salt
• 32 grams Sugar
• 12 grams Garlic, minced
• 16 grams Fennel Seeds, toasted
• 6 grams Black Pepper, ground
• 16 grams Paprika

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bucket, toss to coat, and chill until ready to grind.

Spicy Sausage Mix:

• 4 1/2 lbs Pork Shoulder Butt, diced into 1" chunks
• 1/2 lb Pork Back Fat, diced into 1" chunks
• 40 grams Kosher Salt
• 32 grams Sugar
• 16 grams Fennel Seeds, toasted
• 8 grams Coriander Seeds, toasted
• 16 grams Paprika
• 1 gram Cayenne Pepper
• 8 grams Oregano Leaves, dried
• 8 grams Basil Leaves, dried
• 12 grams Red Pepper Flakes
• 6 grams Black Pepper, ground

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bucket, toss to coat, and chill until ready to grind.