This past Saturday evening I hosted a family dinner at my house. It was the first time in over 3 years that all 5 of my sons were together. Tim is home on leave from Ft. Hood, TX for the month of February and Pete flew home from Ft. Lewis, WA for a long Presidents Day weekend. It was a fairly simple dinner of salad, homemade Italian sausage, meatballs and rigatoni. (see Wine Forum about the wines).
I recently purchased a heavy duty meat grinder/sausage stuffer and was anxious to try it out. I found a recipe that I thought was similar to one a friend had given me years ago. He compiled it from memory, having worked at a local Italian butcher shop. As with many things, there is a learning curve and you need a place to start. When making sausage, the meat is ground twice. The seasonings are added just before the second pass through the grinder. One of the problems I had, but didn’t realize at the time, was the grinder apparently must have gotten partially clogged with some gristle, perhaps due to not tightening the head enough. As a result, the sausage was ground too fine, giving an almost mealy consistency instead of that meaty texture. I used the recipe I posted in the thread Meat Grinder/Sausage Stuffer. The result was a very mild flavored sausage. It was good, but not what I was expecting. The next time I make it I will use the modified recipe posted below, which greatly increases both the red pepper and fennel seed. Also, I was planning on making stuffed shells, but the sausage making took longer than I planned for and I didn’t get a chance.
Homemade Italian Sausage
This recipe calls for casings, if preferred you can simply use the sausage in bulk-form.
10 pounds lean ground pork butt only-anything else i.e., hams, tenderloins are too dry!
8 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dry basil
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon cracked rosemary
1/2 cup hot red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 heaping tablespoon fennel seed
1 heaping tablespoon paprika
1/2 cup grated cheese - Romano
1 cup dry white wine
1 heaping tablespoon salt
2 heaping tablespoon fresh finely ground black pepper
Casings (water packed)
1. Coarsely grind the pork and glean then ground meat, picking out gristle, cartilage and veins of fat. If you trim your pork butt - you will not have a gristle or fat problem - good marbling in the first grind is desirable
2. Add seasonings, wine before second grinding, place meat in a large bowl, mix again by hand if needed. Grind one more time.
3. Use sausage stuffing attachment on electric meat-grinder.
NOTE: Do NOT use blade in meat-grinder when stuffing - or your casings will turn white and the sausage will be mushy.
