Yes - belated Chirstmas pressie turned up on Monday - mincer and sausage maker for the Kenwood.
First thanks for all the tips (esp. Oddley / Parsons) I've received here - made it an incredibly pain free experience. Only problem was opening the sausage skin to get it on the nozzle but a quick blast of water and I was off.
Went for a mixture of boned / skinned belly of pork with a bit of lean pork shoulder. Breadcrumbs, fennel seeds, salt, paprika and some crushed black / white pepper finished the filling off - probably not that traditional but I was playing it a bit safe and went with a book recipe for my first outing. I think I managed to get circa 25% fat.
Initial thoughts:
1) Taste is amazing and infact barely resembles in terms of taste or texture what you get in the shops.
2) Colour - when skinned up the sausage actually had the colour of errr pork believe it or not (with the fat creating a nice marbling effect through the sausage - used the coarse grinder) whereas most commercial porkers are pinky white (I take it this is the fat content?).
3) Crikey the hog skins don't half stink the place out!
4) Probably over did it on the salt front but generally found it surprisingly quick and painfree.
I was wondering what the best way to cook them would be - any thoughts?
The misses and I had a couple last night and I just lightly fried them in olive oil (which I think may have added to my overexuberance on the salt front!) however I have a couple of friends coming round tonight and was wondering if grilling was worth considering or if anyone had used any particular good cooking oils.
Now the first lot is out the way I'm looking forward to experimenting and contributing to the chats a bit more in the future.