Recipes For Sausage

SAUSAGE AND RICE CASSEROLE

Steps:

• Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large nonstick skillet with a tight-fitting lid over medium-high heat. Add the sausage slices and cook for a few minutes on each side, until brown, about 5 to 8 minutes total. Remove to a plate, blot with paper towels to remove any excess oil, and set aside. (Tip: To finish this meal in 30 minutes, prep the peppers and onions while the sausage browns.)
• With a paper towel, carefully wipe the skillet until it is mostly clean. Heat the remaining tablespoon olive oil over medium high. Add the bell peppers, onion, basil, salt, and pepper and cook until the onion begins to soften and brown, about 3 minutes. Add the rice, garlic, and red pepper flakes, stirring to coat the rice. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken broth and canned tomatoes in their juices, stirring well. Bring to a boil, stir again, then cover and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.
• Stir in the reserved sausage slices until evenly distributed, then re-cover the skillet and remove from the heat. Let stand 5 minutes, until most of the remaining liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. Sprinkle with parsley and serve warm.

DIY SAUSAGE SEASONING RECIPE

Steps:

• Mix ingredients in order in a jar.
• Add an airtight lid and shake it up.
• Let sit for at least 30 minutes before use to allow the spices to settle together.
• Store in an airtight jar for up to 3 months.
• To use, add 1/4 cup to each pound of meat.
• For sausage like patties, mix the meat with the seasonings and then shape and fry.

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Start with very cold ingredients and equipment: Make sure your ingredients are laid out, and the meat and fat are very cold (fat can be completely frozen), before you begin (put meat and fat in freezer for 2 hours). Put bowls and grinder in freezer or refrigerator for an hour before using them.
• Cut the fat and meat into chunks and keep cold in a bowl over ice: Prepare a large bowl of ice and put a medium metal bowl on top of it. Slice your meat and fat into chunks between an inch and two inches across. Cut your fat a little smaller than your meat. To keep your ingredients cold, put your cut meat and fat into the bowl set into a larger bowl filled with ice.
• Mix the meat and fat, add most of the spices and chill: When the meat and fat are cut, mix them quickly. Pour in most of your spices; I leave out a tablespoon or two of fennel seeds and a tablespoon of black pepper for later. Mix quickly. Add the salt and the sugar and mix one more time. Put into a covered container or top the bowl with plastic wrap and put the sausage mixture into the freezer for at least 30 minutes and no more than an hour. Now you can call back whoever might have bothered you when you started this process.
• Mix the sherry vinegar and the dry sherry and chill: I know sherry is not traditional in Italian sausage. You can use white wine and white wine vinegar if you'd rather (I save red wine and red wine vinegar for the hot sausages).
• Immerse the casings in warm water: If you plan on stuffing your sausage, take out some of the casings (you need about 15 to 18 feet for a 5-pound batch of links) and immerse them in warm water. (If you are not planning on stuffing your sausage, you can skip this step.)
• Set up the grinder: After your sausage mixture has chilled, remove your grinder from the freezer and set it up. I use the coarse die for Italian sausage, but you could use either. Do not use a very fine die, because to do this properly you typically need to grind the meat coarse first, then re-chill it, then grind again with the fine die. Besides, an Italian sausage is supposed to be rustic.
• Push mixture through grinder and chill: Push the sausage mixture though the grinder, working quickly. If you use the KitchenAid attachment, use it on level 4. Make sure the ground meat falls into a cold bowl. When all the meat is ground, put it back in the freezer and clean up the grinder and work area.
• Add the remaining spices and sherry mixture: When you've cleaned up, take the mixture back out and add the remaining spices and the sherry-sherry vinegar mixture. Using the paddle attachment to a stand mixer (or a stout wooden spoon, or your VERY clean hands), mix the sausage well. With a stand mixer set on level 1, let this go for 90 seconds. It might take a little longer with the spoon or hands. You want the mixture to get a little sticky and begin to bind to itself - it is a lot like what happens when you knead bread. When this is done, you have sausage. You are done if you are not making links. To cook, take a scoop and form into a ball with your hands. Flatten out a bit. Cook on medium low heat in a skillet for 5 to 10 minutes each side until browned and cooked through.
• Chill the sausage mixture: Put the mixture back in the freezer so it's chilled for stuffing in the casings.
• Run warm water through the casings and set up sausage stuffer: Bring out your sausage stuffer, which should have been in the freezer or refrigerator. Run warm water through your sausage casings. This makes them easier to put on the stuffer tube and lets you know if there are any holes in the casings. Be sure to lay one edge of the flushed casings over the edge of the bowl of warm water they were in; this helps you grab them easily when you need them.
• Slip a casing onto the stuffing tube: (And yes, it is exactly like what you think it is). Leave a "tail" of at least 6 inches off the end of the tube: You need this to tie off later.
• Add the meat to the stuffer and start cranking the stuffer: Take the meat from the freezer one last time and stuff it into the stuffer. If all the meat will not fit, keep it in a bowl over another bowl filled with ice, or in the fridge while you stuff in batches. Start cranking the stuffer down. Air should be the first thing that emerges - this is why you do not tie off the casing right off the bat.
• Let the sausage come out in one long coil and then tie-off: When the meat starts to come out, use one hand to regulate how fast the casing slips off the tube; it's a little tricky at first, but you will get the hang of it. Let the sausage come out in one long coil; you will make links later. Remember to leave 6 to 10 inches of "tail" at the other end of the casing. Sometimes one really long hog casing is all you need for a 5-pound batch. When the sausage is all in the casings, tie off the one end in a double knot. You could also use fine butcher's twine.
• Pinch and spin the links: With two hands, pinch off what will become two links. Work the links so they are pretty tight: You want any air bubbles to force their way to the edge of the sausage. Then spin the link you have between your fingers away from you several times. Repeat this process down the coil, only on this next link, spin it towards you several times. Continue this way, alternating, until you get to the end of the coil. Tie off the other end.
• Hang the sausages and prick air bubbles with sterilized needle: Almost done. Time to hang your sausages. Hang them on the rack so they don't touch (too much), and find yourself a needle. Sterilize it by putting into a gas flame or somesuch, then look for air bubbles in the links. Prick them with the needle, and in most cases the casing will flatten itself against the link.
• Let dry an hour or two and then chill: Let these dry for an hour or two, then put them in a large container in the fridge overnight, with paper towels underneath. Package them up or eat them the next day. They will keep for a week, but freeze those that will not be used by then.