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This is a very basic sausage, but with good meat, one that has gotten me raves. I think the secret is the proportion of salt to pepper in the meat. You may want to add rusk to this sausage. I don't, usually. I apologize to my European friends for the mix of American and metric measures.

30 feet medium hog casing
15 pounds Boston butt roast (pork shoulder)
100 grams kosher salt
25 grams black peppercorns
1 1/2 cups ice water

First, rinse and soak the casing. Allow about 30 feet for 15 pounds of untrimmed meat.

Debone the roast and slice it into 1-inch slabs, removing any bone chips and glands. Weigh it using a metric scale. Put the meat on trays and parfreeze. When the meat is cold enough to cut easily, cut it into 1 x 1 inch chunks, removing any large pieces of connective tissue. Put the chunks back on the trays and parfreeze.

While the meat is chilling, set up the meat grinder with the 1/2-inch plate. Also set up the sausage stuffer.

For each kilogram of meat, measure 16 grams of kosher salt and 4 grams of pepper. Grind the pepper as fine as possible. Dissolve the salt in ice water and then mix in the pepper. Let it stand while grinding the meat.

Grind the meat using the 1/2-inch (largest) plate. When each tray is finished, put the ground meat back in the freezer to keep it as cold as possible.

Grind the meat using the 3/16-inch (medium-fine, or next to smallest) plate. When each tray is finished, put the ground meat back in the freezer to keep it as cold as possible.

Transfer the finely ground meat to a really big mixing bowl. Mix in the salt-and-pepper water thoroughly.

Immediately stuff the seasoned meat into the prepared casing. Make links of the desired size. With medium casing, a 4-inch link will weigh a little over 3 ounces, and a 5-inch link will weigh about 4 ounces.

Dry the links on racks in the refrigerator, or, as a second choice, the freezer. Cut the links apart. Freeze (if not already frozen) and then package for storage. (You can ignore this last instruction if you are keeping your sausages linked. I did this recipe for a large group and vacuum-packed the sausages in serving portions for the tables.)

I use this recipe as a first sausage for my cooking students, or for anyone wanting to learn about making sausage. I have adjusted the technique over time, but the techniques I use for this simple sausage are the same basic approach I use for all of my fresh sausages. Those of you who are experienced sausage-makers may not find my comments useful.

In my part of the US, we don't have butcher shops, instead having to rely on supermarkets and club stores, for the most part, and that means a limited selection of cuts and quality. I get my meat from a club store, two shoulders to the pack, but the quality of the meat is generally good, and the best part is that it isn't trimmed to death and hasn't been injected with saline solution. The shoulders they sell are about 20% lean. I have to rely on that, because most meat in the area is pre-cut and fresh back fat is not available for purchase, anywhere. I have learned of a farm that sells whole hogs, and am considering switching to this local farm for my meat, now. It is about 30 miles away, but I think it will be worth it.

...Debone the roast and slice it into 1-inch slabs, removing any bone chips and glands. Weigh it using a metric scale. Put the meat on trays and parfreeze. When the meat is cold enough to cut easily, cut it into 1 x 1 inch chunks, removing any large pieces of connective tissue. Put the chunks back on the trays and parfreeze.

Upon reflection, I don't know if parfreeze is the right term for what I'm doing. I don't allow the meat to actually freeze in the freezer. It doesn't become icy, but it does stiffen up enough to be easier to cut and mince cleanly, and I try to keep the meat close to that temperature, throughout.

...While the meat is chilling, set up the meat grinder with the 1/2-inch plate.

I know some people use a 3- or 4-hole kidney plate for the primary grind, but I've had no problems with the meat heating using the 1/2" plate (sometimes called a "chili-grind" plate) for my primary grind. I always grind twice for several reasons. It makes grinding through the smaller plates much easier and cleaner - nowhere near as much "mushing" of the meat. It seems to make tougher meat more tender in the finished product - I'm not sure why, but that is my perception. It does help the meat bind better, I think. All in all, better texture in the finished product.

...For each kilogram of meat, measure 16 grams of kosher salt and 4 grams of pepper. Grind the pepper as fine as possible. Dissolve the salt in ice water and then mix in the pepper. Let it stand while grinding the meat.

This 4:1 ratio of salt to pepper has been around for well over 1000 years. In Apicius, the recipe for Lucanian Sausage calls for this same ratio, although at an amount for the batch that works out to be 10% salt and 2.5% pepper! I think those sausages were intended to last and were probably used by the Romans as a seasoning sausage in pottage.

I now dissolve the salt in room-temperature water, stir in the other seasonings and allow them to infuse; then, add ice to make the total amount of ice water. This only applies to recipes that don't explicitly call for some other liquid; in that case, I infuse the seasonings in the liquid and chill it without ice. I like to add a little water as a transport for the seasonings and to evenly distribute the salt. For small batches 2 fluid ounces of water per kg of meat works well, but for large batches, if you try to scale liquid linearly by volume, it doesn't work - you end up with too much liquid. For me, the most accurate method for scaling up the liquid is as a percentage by weight (as when I am making quantities of venison sausage for my hunter friends, or sausage for a large event).

...Transfer the finely ground meat to a really big mixing bowl. Mix in the salt-and-pepper water thoroughly.

Since I originally recorded this recipe back in 2002, I have changed my approach to adding any liquid and seasoning between the primary and final grinds, and no longer put the meat back in the freezer to chill after the final grind. Now, after the final grind, the meat goes immediately into the stuffer.

A lot of people cube the meat, mix in the salt and seasonings, and let it cure in the refrigerator overnight. With fresh sausage, I don't do that, unless I am actually adding Cure #1 and need to give it a little cure time before I grind. In most cases, I do allow the finished sausage to rest for a day or two to blend flavors, before I serve it.

I apologize if it seems silly to be discussing so simple a sausage in such detail, but we rarely discuss our individual techniques for the entire process, and I thought it might be useful for any beginners out there who might be curious how others go through the process.

No need to apologise Tom, it's an interesting read.

Dave

Tom

That's a great recipe and instructions - sometimes it's nice to make a sausage where the meat's the star, as in this one.

Phil