Hot Sausage: Recipe #6

It's easier than you might think to make sausage links

Typically I have a long-winded introduction to these weekly recipes, but this is a simple concept that I hope you all enjoy. Making sausage at home is fun and easy; this is the most basic of sausage recipes, and if you enjoy this type of cooking there are tons of experts and books to mine for more info.

Charcuterie by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman is a great book, as is Sausage Making by Ryan Farr … from there you can get really wild with your own products, but those are good places to start.

And check out my IG page (@chefaz) where we have posted lots of videos with this recipe for you.

I wish you could smell these…

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Hot Sausages

• 2 lbs whole boneless pork shoulder

• ½ cup good white wine

• 4t smoked paprika

• 2t Microplaned garlic

• 1t dried hot red chiles, or more to taste

• 1t sea salt

• 1T ground black pepper.

• 1T orange zest, or more to taste

• Natural hog casings for sausage, available at all butcher shops and frozen from grocery stores.

• Optional: you can always add minced parsley, dried fennel seed and parmesan and delete the paprika/chiles/orange. Or delete the paprika/chiles/orange and season with lots of fresh chopped mint, fresh minced hot chiles and feta cheese. Have fun with this!

Instructions

1. Divide the meat into 3 piles: ¾ pound of the fattiest pieces, ½ pound of the leanest muscle, and ¾ pound of the rest.

2. Grind the fattiest part on the fine hole attachment of your grinder, mince the leanest muscle and grind the remainder on the coarse grinding attachment.

   

   Grinding the meath through a mixer attachment

3. Place all the meat in a very large stainless steel work bowl.

4. Add the wine and all the seasonings, mix well and let sit for an hour in fridge.

   

   Notice the different coarseness of meat grinding

5. Take a small spoon and scoop out a teaspoon of the sausage. Sear it in a hot pan for a few minutes and give it a taste test. Adjust seasoning  accordingly.

NOTE: this is a quick sausage, and it’s grainier than some people care for, I like it because it’s leaner than most sausages. If you want to, add a quarter pound of pork fat — I love using cured ham trimmings — and grind it fine. Add it to the bowl when you combine all ingredients. Place the sausage mix in the bowl of your standing mixer and, using the paddle attachment, blend your meat on medium speed, adding a half cup or so of ice cubes one at a time. As they melt they will emulsify with the fat, and you can proceed with Step 6.

6. Thread casing onto your grinder’s filler attachment. Working with two hands, fill the sausage slowly under consistent pressure. Twist links by spinning the sausage, and tie off if you like.

   

   Filling the sausage into the casing

   

   Twisting the sausages into links

7. The sausages are ready to be cooked or frozen.

8. I usually let mine rest in fridge for a day, prick them with a pin, steam/bake/steep them for 25 minutes and then char on grill or pan-fry to crisp them.

   

   Steeping the sausages to cook them

All the best,