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Making your own sausage is a skill that saves money, delivers better flavor, and gives you total control over your food. Today, I’ll show you how to get started or take your skills to the next level.
Sausage making is about more than food; it’s about self-sufficiency, saving money, and creating something you’ll be proud to share with family and friends. Once you start, you’ll never go back to store-bought again.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
- A Brief History
- What is sausage
- Has been made at least for 5500 years likely longer
- Sausage is mixed until protein and fat emulsify
- There are no real rules, but there are common practices
- Ratios and Guidelines
- Meat to fat 80/20 to 70/30
- Salt at 1-2% of weight
- Pink Salt when curing at .25% or when cold smoking is advised
- Binders
- Milk Powder at 2-4%
- C-Bind from Carrot – .5%
- Liquid 10% by weight
- Seasonings – Numbers are for Dry Herbs, etc.
- Primary .5%
- Secondary .25%
- Tertiary .15%
- Fresh Ingredients (apple, peppers, etc) – more intuition, make a pound and fry loose to test
- Essential and Nice to have Equipment
- Good Knives and Sharpening tools, essential.
- A Good Grinder – The One I Currently Use – link
- A good scale that measures in grams/kilos and ounces/pounds – link
- A stuffer – I recommend a manual large capacity for cost efficiency – some options
- A mixer – I recommend a manual large capacity for cost efficiency – some options
- A spice grinder like this or a food processor (check Amazon Renewed) can also work well for lager batches
- Meat tub for mixing – I recommend a heavy duty one like this for batches over 10 lbs – like this
- Nitrile Gloves – I was a hold out, now I love them, these are great quality and cheap – link
- My Process – This is personal alter to your own needs
- Develop a recipe or find one – tips include
- Make a pound lose and just pan fry to text ideas (it won’t be the same though)
- Trust your instincts if a food combo is good a sausage of it will be good if practical
- Be careful with hot peppers, they don’t cook out like they do in say a pan fry
- Dice meat and weigh it for accurate calculations
- Season meat and let it sit in chunks overnight in the fridge
- Par freeze the next day and grind – add other ingredients at this time if needed (apples, peppers, etc.)
- Let sit another night in the fridge
- The next day mix
- Stuff – Some times this is the next day
- Let sit at least 24 hours in the fridge stuffed
- Smoke and package or just package if not smoking
- Develop a recipe or find one – tips include
- Things I do that are totally specific to my personal wants
- I use collagen casings – like these
- I make my links 3X + 3 inch desired length
- Once smoked I cut to length
- My sweet spot for batch size is 10-15 lbs
- Sous Vide to temp after smoking = Brown and Sever no temp worries
- Space out steps
- Formulate everything but the meat in grams (Americans THINK in pounds not Kilos)
- New Recipe Tool in the MSB and the first 4 Sausages in It
- Pork, Apple, Sage and Garlic
- Brisket & Jalapeno
- Jamaican Jerk Chicken (would be just as good with pork)
- Pork and Sage Breakfast
- Final thoughts – This may not be a “pepper skill” but it is a homesteader and life style design skill
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Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
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