My intro to our recipe for Hungarian sausages says all you may want to know about our family’s history of sausage making. When we dusted off the family equipment in 2015 and resumed the tradition we added Italian sausage to the activity. The Italian sausages have been a taste hit with everyone and yet the ingredients are minimal. The high-quality meat we get from Murray’s Farm Butcher Shoppe has a bit of fat on it so we simply grind that pork butt, season it and stuff the casing!
Our inherited meat grinder bit the dust a few years ago and we now use the grinding attachment that can fit onto a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. This kit also comes with attachments for stuffing the casing but we still use the device hand-made by my Dad.
For various reasons, we have super large mixing bowls for the stage when you add and mix in spices. (Worse case, you could carefully divide the meat and spices into halves if you only have smaller bowls.)
P.S. All our sausage recipes are now here online. Hungarian and Hurka
Sausage stuffer made by my Dad.
Getting Ready:
if necessary order your meat, this can be cut into chunks the day before
access a meat grinder and sausage stuffer and a bowl large enough for 10 pounds of ground meat.
purchase fresh spices - and prep the fennel ahead leaving time for it to cool
measure spices - can be done the day before
Be sure you are aware of all (raw) food handling precautions - for example, cover hair, and keep meat cold along the way.
8 tsp fennel seeds
10 tsp Windsor Kosher salt
8 tsp black pepper
5 TB chopped parsley
See Really Important Note below re the type/brand of salt you are using, and note the difference if you are using Diamond Crystal Kosher salt.
Lightly toast the fennel seeds in a sauté pan over medium heat, constantly moving the seeds in the pan until they start to turn light brown – about 5 minutes. Do NOT burn these!! Remove them from the fry pan and set aside to cool. Once cooled, grind the seeds in a (clean) coffee grinder or using mortar and pestle. Ideal to do this ahead of time - even the day before.
Prep all the spices and parsley ahead of time.
10 lb (4.5 kg) boneless pork butt
(1/2 - 1 lb (225 g) fat - optional if meat is too lean - we don’t always add this)
Cut the meat into ½” chunks ready for grinding. Grind the pork (and fat if using).
Add the spices and mix well. (This takes a bit of time and muscle and is best done by hand - you can use a rubber glove.)
Fry up a small patty of the mixture in a frypan to test the flavour and adjust spices if desired. (Of course salt can be added but not subtracted so take care if you are aiming for a less salty mixture.)
Stuff the casings and ideally vacuum seal sausages that will be frozen.
The cooking method is your preference. A nice, almost crisp, casing is ideal. I find that if fried in a pan the sausage only browns on the top and bottom. Instead, I cook it in a shallow pie plate in an oven preheated to 375 F. Pierce the casing in several places and start with a wee bit of oil. Turn it over several times and each time you’ll notice the browning intensifies. This should look nice and be done within 30 minutes.
Notes and Tips...
Salt - (see my short article on this) many people do not realize that some salts are more “salty” than others
1 tsp table salt = 1.5 tsp Morton/Windsor Kosher - 2 tsp Diamond Crystal
so… 10 tsp of Windsor Kosher = 13 tsp Diamond Crystal
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