If you buy butchers award winning sausages, the chances are they were not made from scratch, using raw materials. The majority of butcher made sausages are made using bought seasoning mix in a big box.
You can get lots of organic seasning mixes for use at home, they are very good and convenient to use, and there is no way on earth why you shouldn’t use them. All you need to do is follow the instructions.
The bought seasoning usually (I have never seen it otherwise) contains the salt the sausage needs, so all you have to do is measure out the exact amount of meat, water and rusk (or breadcrubs), mix the lot and then stuff into skins.
Our sausage book is full of sausage recipes for starting from scratch, but this one just uses a bought spice mix.
NO I DON’T CARE IF YOU THINK I AM CHEATING!
It is what gave me the confidence to continue making sausages. I don’t often, actually I don’t ever, make sausages this way now, but it did give me a boost when I needed to start.
Advice
If you go on the internet you will find any number of experts. Everyone has their own way, and who am I to say they are right or wrong. I was really confused when I started out because the internet was new and all the books said you had to do it their way.
All I can say is this: learn and adapt. This little introduction has but one aim - to show you that making sausage is not some secret mumbo jumbo form generations past that only certain ones are party to. It is easy. It is easy! Yes, I did repeat the last sentence.
It all starts with skins
These are pig skins at 22 mm diameter. They come packed in salt, which you have to wash off and then they need soaking in coolish water – not hot, or they will cook.
They are attached to a ring, and one of the lengths will make about 3 Kg sausage, so they last a while. There is no waste, just drain the water away when you have finished and pack them in salt and keep them in the fridge.
Soak them for about an hour and then add a little oil to the water to make them a little slippy. This helps when putting them on the nozzle of the stuffer. You can get collagen skins, but you don’t soak them at all, just put them on the nozzle dry.
Sterilize your stuffer
It is important that everything is perfectly clean and sterile. I use this little plastic stuffer for small batches because it is easy to clean and is very cheap. I haven’t seen this particular model (The Mincy) for a while, but there are lots like it.
Easiest Sausages
No, I am not going mad - using an organic pre produced seasoning product can give you the confidence to make sausages at home. It can be done - It's Easy!