Hi
Thought I'd relate my experiences so far. I've been reading this forum ever since I found sausagemaking.org and ordered some casings, seasonings and cures.
The local butchers around here are generally ignorant, arrogant or just plain rude, and besides all that they cant make a decent Lincolnshire sausage (not that I'm that good either!), they can make haggis and very salty steak pies though....
So far I managed to persuade a particularly rude local butcher to part with 2Kg of the cut or pork they use for Ayrshire style bacon which I cured with Franco's traditional bacon cure. Very, very, very nice indeed! Everyone was very impressed with the taste and texture of the bacon. It was also a blessing to be able to cut it as thick as I like at last!! It looked stunning in the pan when fried; it lay there just as I put it in - no nasty white goo exuding from it, no shrinking, no curling up. No longer do I need to attack a piece of bacon with a fish slice in frenzied attempt to get it to cook evenly!! Looks even better with a egg and sausage next to it.
I also got my hands on some pork shoulder and made up a batch of Italian and a batch of Lincolnshire. I put a bit too much black pepper in the Lincolnshire, but it was still so much nicer than the local attempts. I use a Kenwood + mincer + sausage attachment which I find very quick and easy. I also have to say that I disagree with previous posters that to use this setup requires two people when it comes to stuffing the cases � I�ve done several batches now and find it very easy to manage, just keep the Kenwood ticking over at minimum.
I going to try a garlic type sausage this weekend and possibly a Chorizo using Franco�s mix, I�ve got some #2 cure so I�ll try to dry them out in my cool and drafty pantry.
Thanks for all the info I�ve gained from this site, it really helped me make a success of my sausages and bacon.
Cheers