Homemade Pork Sausages | Recipeish | Gustus Vitae

This is one we're especially proud of: our first go at homemade sausages. You do need some special equipment for this, a bit of patience, and a strong back, but wow - was this ever worth it. We were inspired after reading Charcuterie by Ruhlman & Polycyn, and they're right - using really, really good meat matters, and ButcherBox's heritage-breed ribs really delivered.

  • Yield: Serves 5-8
  • Time: 2 Days
  • Storage Notes: Keep refrigerated and cook within 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
  • Difficulty: Hard

Ingredients

Directions
  • Remove one casing from it's salt packing, and place in medium bowl of fresh water, covering with saran and giving an overnight in the fridge.
  • At the same time, prepare your grinder - make sure you have all your attachments set up and ready to go, and pop overnight in the freezer.
  • When you're ready to grind, get everything thing in place before you start. Everything from now on happens pretty quickly, and it's crucial that you keep the grinder as close to frozen as you can, and the meat well chilled for the duration.
  • Prep your pork: remove any silverskin, being careful to retain as much fat as you can, and rough chop into 2"ish cubes.
  • Remove grinder from freezer, and attach to your stand up mixer.
  • Turn mixer onto it's lowest setting, pop a bowl under the end of the grinder, and process pork. We used the medium gauge grinder for ours.
  • Remove grinder, rinse, add sausage funnel attachment, and pop back in the freezer for 30-40 minutes, until again completely frozen.
  • Season ground pork with Ultimate Gourmet BBQ Rub, Farmhouse Perfect Protein Seasoning, and Probiotic Ocean Salt
  • Making sausages is very different from making burgers - when making burgers, you want to mix the ground meat as little as possible, to prevent connections being made in the protein. Sausages are the opposite - give this all a good, thorough mix to ensure even distribution of the spices and salts as well as meat and fat.
  • Cover, and pop back in the fridge as you wait for the grinder to re-freeze.
  • Remove sausage casing from the fridge. Rinse repeatedly and thoroughly for several minutes - there shouldn't have been any odor to begin with, and you certainly don't want any now. Refill bowl with fresh water, and reserve.
  • Slightly wet the area under where the sausage stuffer/grinder will go - this will help the sausage not stick as it makes contact with the counter. Prepare a separate bowl of freshwater for yourself so you can keep your hands moist during the making.
  • Moving quickly, remove sausage stuffer/grinder from the freezer, and attach to the food processor. Wet the nozzle of the sausage stuffer, and feed on the sausage, until all but a couple of inches remain off. Tie off this end.
  • Turn mixer to high, and begin adding meat. It's difficult to explain in words the process - you're sort of adding meat, and guiding it on the sausage, and pulling it back but not too much, all at the same time. You'll know it when you have it.
  • Make sure to keep your hands moist, and pause if you need too. Don't worry too much about the width being perfectly even the entirety of the way, or if you have small air pockets - you can deal with all of that later.
  • As you near the end of the casing, slide off nozzle and tie. Reserve any excess grind for sausage patties or similar.
  • Pinch, then rub with thumb and forefinger, every 5-6 inches, or whatever your preferred length.
  • Beginning at the first pinch, twist completely counterclockwise 6-7 times. Then, shipping pinch, twist the 3rd the same direction - this will twist the second one. Repeat until completed.
  • Pop in a sealed ziplock back in the fridge for up to 3 days or until ready to enjoy - you're gonna love it!