I love knowing what is in my food, especially sausages. I have made pork sausages here, but you can use chicken, lamb, beef, goat, what ever you can find! Sausages are a great way to use the whole of an animal, bits and pieces that may not be perfect for other uses. Also, sausages need fat. I am all for trimming fat from meat for health purposes, but if you do this with a sausage, it defeats the purpose. So don’t shy away on adding all the fat bits to your mix. Furthermore, if you use a lean animal for a sausage (such as kangaroo meat), you may need to substitute pork fat to the mix.

Ingredients

• 1kg of pork cuts, comprising pork shoulder and pork belly (don’t remove any fat, sausages need at least 25% or more fat)
• 5g salt (1/2% salt to meat ratio)
• 100g dried bread (10% breadcrumb to meat ratio) – ensure you dry the bread in the oven to remove any moisture otherwise the breadcrumbs form clups
• 2.5 metres sausage casing
• Herbs and spices (the sky’s the limit)
• Liquid to hydrate the mix as needed (water, wine)

What you will need

• Mincer with large hole plate
• Sausage nozzle
• Small fry pan

How to do it

Step 1: Clean and soak the casings

1. Natural intestine casings can be stored covered in a layer of salt (in the fridge) until you are ready to use them
2. Rinse the casings to remove any salt
3. Find one end of the casing, open and fill with water from a gently running tap
4. Pull the casing up and allow the water to drain through the entire length of intestine, removing any twists
5. Leave the casing to soak until you are ready to use it

Step 2: Mince the meat

1. Place small chunks (ie 2-3cm squares) through the mincer. Note: If the pieces are too large you may get meat stuck which is more of a bother than it’s worth
2. Gently push all of the meat through the coarse mincer plate
3. Push through the dried bread bits to clean out the mincer and create your breadcrumbs

Step 3: Add your flavourings

This is the fun part.

1. Add the salt, herbs and spices, and liquid your heart and soul desires. I did this by eye, but tablespoon each of 3-4 different herbs and spices would be plenty. I added enough liquid so that the mixture held it, and it wasn’t welling in the bottom of the bowl.
2. Knead this mix well…sausages need a good blend of bigger pieces and kneaded meat
3. Run the flavoured mix through the large hole mincer one final time
4. Create a small cake of the sausage mix and fry it in a fry pan to taste your flavourings
5. Adjust if necessary

We made 2 mixes as follows:

Italian mix:

• Fresh thyme and parsley from the garden
• Fennel seeds
• Garlic
• Red wine
• White pepper

Indian mix:

• Coriander
• Garam Masala
• Garlic
• Water
• Cayenne pepper
• White pepper

Step 4: Fill the sausage casings

1. Replace the mince plate with the sausage nozzle
2. Slide the sausage casing onto the sausage nozzle until the whole casing is threaded on (if your casing is too long, you can cut it)
3. Place your sausage mixture in the food tray
4. Allow an inch of casing to be unfilled (don’t tie the end as this enables air bubbles to escape), slowy start feeding the sausage mince into the casing
5. Keep the tension on your sausage high, and enable the sausage meet to feed through
6. Do this until all of the sausage mince runs out, or the casing, whichever comes first

Step 5: Twist your sausages

I have watched those sausage twisting videos, and let me just say, I am not even going to attempt to do this. There is nothing wrong with a simple pinch and twist. Still tastes like a sausage when cut and cooked!

1. Lie your sausage out on the bench, and running your hands along the length of it, ensure the meat is evenly distributed
2. Tie the ends of your sausages with cooking string
3. Fold your sausage in half
4. At optimal sausage length (what this is is up to you), pinch and twist the sausages
5. Keep pinching and twisting until you reach the ends