Sausage making

Lisa · Sausage making

I wasn't sure if this was the right place to put a picture of sausages, I know some people will be hoping to see cute little piggies but at the risk of causing offence... This was my first attempt at sausage making last november but I have only just figured out how to post a photo.
I used natural casings which came with the mincer and found that they were great for slow, oven cooking but if you grill or fry too quickly, the casings go chewy and really spoil the meal. Advice that came with the equipment did mention this would happen. I would like to carry on using natural casings, does anyone have any tips on where to buy them from or how to combat this problem?
Oh by the way, it might sound sad but making these sausages was the best fun I'd had in years, can't wait to do some more

Lisa.

Ina

They look great - but I have no advice on casings... And maybe this post would fit into "The North eats" a bit better?

zombiecazz

Those look fabulous.

andybebbington

hi lisa
looks better than my first lot

try here

http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/Casings.html

i get my casings from them and they do some great seasoning as well as a good selection of herbs and spices if you want to blend your own mix

i use the hog casses end up with a thick sausage but easier to work with than the sheep casings
i found the artifical cases near impossagle to use but it might just be me

andy

ps i agree sausage making if great fun

Smooth Hound

id love to try this one day, be nice to make the perfect sausage , with herbs, even garlic, and organic meat, mmmm

Lisa

I am looking forward to trying something different next time. They were just plain or spicy (chilli) last time. It was our first pig and although he was big, 106.5kg, we soon ran out of chops and sausages and are left with joints. Make note to self, as many chops as possible and the rest is sausages next time! Now I am off to look at the website Andy, thanks for the info. Lisa.

Townie

Your sausages look great Lisa..

I'd love to try making my own some day

Smooth Hound

just looking at the machines, ive got a hand mincer, so its the sausage filling bit needed, is there a cheap way of doing this, maybe a manual filler,

Lisa

I'm sure the skins would have been stuffed by hand at one time, it would just be a lot slower. I would think with a bit of ingenuity someone could come up with something, at the moment I am visualising something similar to a piping bag with a plastic tube at the end and your casings over that.
All the mincer does with its sausagemaking attatchments is push the meat through a plastic tube with a diameter according to the size you want your sausage and about one and a half times the length. Before you start you push the casing over this plastic tube which then, hopefully, as the meat comes through the casing moves smoothly along with it.
Lisa.

Welly

You might want to try your local butcher for skins Lisa.

I'm sure our sausages don't have that problem (butcher made), although the ones we made ourselves weren't made with natural casings and the skins were dreadful.

Welly

Welly

Err, perhaps I should have made it clear that I don't actually cook the sausages. I just eat them...

Welly

Smooth Hound

piping bag ,

yes i see what your saying, ill give it some thought

Smooth Hound

well ive found something,

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/516692

patties it is ,

Julie

You can take a look at the attachments that go with our mincer to see if you can come up with any ideas for a substitute when you come to fetch the rods and brush SH.

I used to buy a whole belly draft from the butcher to make into sausages when we lived in Cov. He always gave me some skins to work with but I think they can be a bit costly for what they are and they do have a shelf life so, unless you are planning on making vast quantities, it might be better to get a small supply from the butcher than to buy a whole tub.

Stonehead

Julie

I will consult some of those recipes when we send our pigs for slaughter

I find the hand mincer very hard work and use my food processor for making minced meat. Gordon used to have to crank it round even in the days when I was more able bodied - I wouldn't last two minutes with it now. It could go through for the final mincing and to fill sausage casings though. How do you get on with your linking technique? I generally find that I've just got the hang of it as I'm near to the end of the job, which is sod's law

Stonehead

Julie

He's a cutie. Better not tell him that I said so though

I was thinking...... how on earth can the children turn it? Then I realised it is about 1/3 the size of ours, it's dainty but clearly does the job.
My OH believes in getting the biggest beast he can afford for the job which often consigns it to a permanent place in the cupboard, as in the case of our one.

Stonehead

Julie

Stonehead, do you have a reliable method of working out when your pigs are ready for slaughter?
I have been guestimating their weight using a formula from a book but Mary (my oracle friend) seems to think it may be inaccurate and come out as more than they really are.

Just in case you're curious the formula is;
Length of pig in inches from base of the ear to root of the tail, multiplied by circumference of body just behind the shoulder blade. Then divide this figure by 11, 12 or 13 depending on whether the pig is lean, medium or fat. In fairness to the book, it did claim to only give a ball park figure.

If all else fails I'll have to get her to do a visual estimate for me. She can get it to within one or two pounds with infallible accuracy apparently 8)
I would really like to be able to monitor their progress myself so if you know of anything more reliable could you tell me please. I suppose with experience, you perhaps just look at them and know do you?

Stonehead

I take ours to 28 weeks, plus or minus a week going by eye. All I do is run my hand along their spine a couple of times a week: if their spine feels really knobbly, they're thin; no knobbles, they're too fat; and just able to feel the knobbles, perfect. I aim for 80kg liveweight, and all have come in between 79.5 and 81.2kg.

So, no I don't have a reliable scientific method that I can pass on. Sorry.

Julie

That does actually help, I can go and feel for knobbles now. Gordon says they are just pure solid muscle but I suspect fat could also feel that hard.
I'll let you know what I find.
By the way, according to the formula, they would weigh 116 lbs and 122 lbs respectively. They measured 43''X37'' and 42''X36'' and I calculated it as if they were lean, to be on the safe side. They were born at the end of April so that would make them 22 weeks old.

wildgarlic

Here's another link for sausagemaking - and eating - that might be useful.

http://www.sausagelinks.co.uk/index.asp