Hi,
This is the recipe I developed, though with what I've learnt here, there are a couple of notes to watch out for. I'll add them at the end.
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English Sausages (IMH)
british, pork, sausages
2500 gm pork, lean
2100 gm pork, back fat
1 pkg pork sausage casings
40 gm salt; powdered
20 gm pepper; ground
1 nutmeg; ground
4 tablespoon sage, fresh; chopped
----OPTIONAL----
3 teaspoon ground mace
5 teaspoon thyme, fresh
Wash the sausage casings thoroughly inside and out in running water, making sure they do not escape down the drain! Fill with tepid water, and leave to soak in the sink while preparing the sausage meat.
Keeping lean meat and fat separate, cut all the meat into 1" cubes,. so that it can be minced. Grind the salt, pepper, and nutmeg and carefully fold in evenly, together with the herbs and any other spices chosen and any rusk and ice/water if used. With the coarse blade in the mincer, pass all the fat through. Then change the blade and mince the lean meat.
Mix all together thoroughly, taking care not to beat too vigorously, the meats should not be completely homogenised. Take a small patty and cook it in a frying pan to check the seasoning. Re-season if needed.
Slide the skins onto the filling tube and fit to the stuffer/mincer. Fill the casings, taking care not to fill too tightly, or the sausages will burst when cooked. Twist into suitable sized links and hang up in a cool place to mature 24 hours before freezing or cooking.
Recipe IMH c/o LeMarYol BBS Fido 2:324/151.1
Contributor: IMH
Yield: 10 lbs
** Exported from Now You're Cooking! v5.77 **
When making sausages, it's worth making sure that the mincing is carried out on really cold meat. To do this, I put the meat and fat in the freezer for about an hour.
Having recently been able to find rusk (from this site) I now use a small quantity to improve the texture. So I mix in about 3% of that, and mix some crushed ice (about the same weight as rusk) before mincing.
If you prefer a smoother sausage, you could mince once through the coarse blade and a second time through the fine blade, chilling well between mincings.