Homemade Italian Sausage without all the commercial fillers and gluten free.
I admit, that this is a long process, but the end product is worth it. The reason so many commercial sausages have gluten in them is because they tend to use bread crumbs and other wheat fillers. With this recipe you can ensure that everything that goes into this sausage is something you like. When we make sausage as a family, we tend to buy a piece of pork and grind it ourselves. We also like to add a little fat to the ground pork to keep it from drying out.
Many people think that making sausage is too much work, but if you make it a family affair and get everyone involved you will be surprised at how much fun you will have, Those memories will last a life time. Children love to help in the kitchen, and this is a project where the little ones can get in there and help. Usually when children help make something, they are more interested in eating it.
This is a basic recipe, and you can alter the ingredients to suit this to your liking. You can add your favorite cheese if you like. You could try and make it healthy and use turkey, you could even use a combination of meats. Just make sure you have some peppers and onion to go with it when you cook it.
Yield: Yields 16 sausages
2kg (4 lbs) pastured lean ground pork
¼ cup red wine, red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp cold water
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
4 tsp Himalayan or sea salt
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
4 tbsp smoked paprika
4 tbsp fennel seeds, crushed
2 tbsp crushed chili peppers
3 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
About 9 feet hog casing
Before you start, make sure that your meat is super cold, as in almost frozen. It would be a good idea to place it in the freezer (or in the fridge, set over a bowl of ice) for a half hour to an hour prior to starting, just to give it that little bit of extra chill.
In a large mixing bowl, add your meat along with the rest of the ingredients and mix until just incorporated, no more. If your meat is slightly frozen, simply cut it into cubes and mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Since we’ll be throwing this in the meat grinder, it won’t really matter.
Work the meat into the meat grinder (if you’re using a KitchenAid Stand Mixer equipped with the meat grinder attachment, set speed to 4); when the meat is completely ground, place the finished mixture in the fridge while you prep the sausage stuffer.
Slide the hog casing onto the sausage stuffing tube and leave about 5 to 6 inches hanging at the end. You will need approximately 6 inches of casing per link, so about 9 feet total for this recipe.
Hold the casing loosely at the end of the stuffing tube with one hand and let the sausage feed into the casing as you push the meat down the feeding tunnel with your other hand.
The meat will take care of pulling the casing off of the tube. All you need to help shape it a little bit and push back any air bubbles that may form.
Once all the meat has been pushed through, take your sausage off of the stuffing tube and start twisting this giant sausage into links, twisting in opposite directions between links to keep them from coming undone as you twist the next one. It really helps to work in sections, too, so twist right smack in the middle, then again in the middle of each newly formed section. This will leave you with 4 oversized links, which will make it easier for you to form sausages of equal length. Form 3 or 4 links out of each section, which will yield a total of 12 to 16 sausages.
Once all your links are formed, tie a knot at both ends of the chain, as close to the meat as possible.
Place the finished sausage in the fridge, uncovered, to let it dry a bit (I like to let mine dry overnight) then cut it into individual links.