Making sausage (a pictorial)

[Mr. McD]

I made up a small batch of my favorite sausage this weekend

SMOKED HUNGARIAN PAPRIKA SAUSAGE

10 lbs. pork butt (lots of fat) ready for grinding.



Grinding



4 Tbs. salt
3 Tbs. powdered dextrose
2 Tsp. Instacure No. 1
2 Tbs.. garlic clove
I Tbs. ground black pepper
6 Tbs. Paprika
2 cups iced pork broth

Blending





Mixing



Stuffing





10 pounds of sausage ready to smoke



The sausage is placed in the preheated smoker 130 F and left until it starts to brown.
The temperature is slowly raised to 160 F 10 degrees per hour and then smoke is applied.
It is kept in the smoker until an internal temperature of 150 F is achieved



The sausage must be hosed down to an internal temperature of 90 F to prevent shrinkage.









The best part. EATING IT.

[ernstbass]

1. You have impressed the hell out of me!

Why does the pork broth have to be iced? Just curious.

[Mr. McD]

2. To help keep the meat cool

It is best to keep the meat as cool as possible during preparation.

[housewolf]

3. Wow!

That's all, just Wow!

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Man-O-Man that looks good!

You gotta 'splain that sausage stuffer. Is it hydraulic? I see a water hose attached to it. Is that what powers it?

I most often use my Kitchenaid grinder with the sausage attachment.


But for big batches I use one pretty much like this. Its made of cast iron with a galvanized coating. Its pretty old but works prefect. The hopper holds waaaaay more than the KA stuffer attachment .... maybe 10 lbs or so. One plunge of the handle will send the whole 10 lbs shooting out like a fire hose filling with water. Best to do it slowly. :) What I like about this one is I can make a large diameter sausage, like for salami.


I agree with ya on the pork butt (aka Boston butt). Just one little aitch bone to cut out and the fat/lean ratio is pretty much perfect for sausage.

For my Italian sausage I use just the meat, salt and pepper, garlic that is just about pureed, dried parsley, and fennel seed. For hot, add ground hot red pepper. I sometime put red wine in the mix, too. Also a bit of ice that I grind with the meat. If I add the wine, though, I cut down or eliminate the ice.

[Mr. McD]

6. Dakotah water stuffer

It is supposed to hold 10 pounds, but it don't. It has gone up $60.00 since I bought mine.

http://www.alliedkenco.com/stuffing/stuffers/stuffer_dakotah.htm

[The empressof all]

5. You are amazing

Have you been doing this for long? How'd you learn? Those are some high quality looking links. I'm impressed!

[Mr. McD]

7. About 10 years

I learn by doing, and a little help from

http://www.sausagemaker.com/

[babylonsister]

8. I love these pictorial threads and your sausage

looks absolutely delicious! :thumbsup:

[fortyfeetunder]

9. Saltless sausage

Just curious, have you ever made sausage without salt to season?

I have relatives who cannot eat salt period (kidney failure) and as much as they like sausage, they really can't eat the prepared stuff. But I'd be game to make my own without salt. Just want to figure out best way to prepare and store it.

[Mr. McD]

10. I have never made it with out salt but

it wouldn't be a problem for fresh sausages.

Smoked sausages require Sodium nitrate because of the low temperatures used in the process. Curing Salt (instacure #1) is 6.25% Sodium Nitrite and 93.75% table salt.

You can find a lot of sausage recipes at http://home.att.net/~g.m.fowler/frame/Sausage1.htm