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| Spicy and Sweet Sausage |
The gang came over yesterday for our inaugural sausage making party. It took about five hours until we had something ready to eat, but I'm sure we'll be faster next time. We spent a lot of time figuring each step out. The final result was tasty, and we learned a lot of lessons along the way.
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| Sweet Mix | Spicy Mix |
We chilled the
Sausage Mixes overnight, then popped them into freezer about thirty minutes before grinding. It took some planning to make sure that everything stayed cold throughout the process.
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| Rooney and Jeff grinding meat |
We set the meat grinder up on the counter next to the sink, and put the mixing bowl in an ice-water bath beneath it.
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| Sausage Meat after Mixing |
We ground the meat in batches, then moved the mixing bowl to the stand mixer with the paddle attachment. It only took a few minutes on medium-low speed to incorporate the liquid into the mix, creating a sticky mixture known as the "Primary Bind". We put each batch into a large bowl that we kept in the refrigerator.
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| Testing the mix |
After the first batch, we cooked a spoonful to see if the seasoning was right.
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| Rinsing the Casing |
We soaked the casings overnight, changing the water a few times along the way. They're pretty slippery, but rinsing them out wasn't nearly as unpleasant as I thought it would be.
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| Mounting the Casing | Ready to stuff |
Feeding the Casing over the medium stuffing attachment only took a minute. The trick is to use one hand to guide and the other to scrunch it on. I left about 4" hanging from the end before we started stuffing. Once the meat was at the end of the tube we stopped the machine, squeezed the air out of the end and tied a knot in the casing.
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| Tyson, Brady and Jeff |
Tyson, Brady and Rooney |
Stuffing was a three man job. One person loaded the tray on top of the machine, one person fed the mixture into the machine, and one person managed the casing as the meat was extruded.
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| Stuffing Sausage |
I think that you're supposed to stuff the meat in one continuous roll, then twist the links, but we twisted along the way. The trick is to pinch the casing after each odd sausage link, then twist the sausage after each even link. Doing it this way ensures that you don't accidentally untwist a link that you've already made.
After all that work, we sat down to a great meal. The texture wasn't quite as good as store bought, but I think that's because we rushed the stuffing process. We'll get that right the next time. We had so much fun that we made plans to do it again in April.
