I always have a good time making sausage. It is one of my favorite things to do during pig butchering season. I think the best part of making my own homemade sausage is that I can create different flavors of sausage by combining spices and herbs. I add salt to my pork sausages, but if you are on a low salt diet you can simply reduce the amount of salt you use or leave it out altogether. Making my own sausage gives me the ability to control the ingredients that go into my sausage.
This season I made 9 pounds of Southwestern Pork Sausage. I fry this pork sausage into small sausage balls and add pinto beans and vegetables to make a wonderful sausage and bean soup in the winter.
Southwestern Pork Sausage
9 pounds of combined pork meat and pork fat (I do a 75% meat and 25% fat blend. You can control your own ratio but, sausage has to be mixed with sufficient amount of fat to cook properly.)
3 tablespoons of kosher salt
3 tablespoons of freshly ground black pepper
6 teaspoons of crushed red pepper
3 teaspoons of oregano
3 teaspoons of dried cilantro
1 ½ teaspoons of ancho chile powder
3 teaspoons of dried minced garlic
Sausage Directions
I mix the seasonings in a bowl and then I sprinkle the seasonings over the pork meat and pork fat a bit at a time and make sure to blend in well with my hands to cover all pieces of meat and fat. Next I cover the container with plastic wrapping and label.
I then place my seasoned meat into the refrigerator overnight so that the spices and herbs have time to permeate the meat. Next day, I freeze the sausage for a couple of hours before grinding the meat.
I use an electric meat grinder to grind up the pork to make sausage. I fry up a small sausage patty to taste to see if I need to add any more seasonings. Once that I am content with the taste I grind up all of the sausage.
I place a plastic meat bag at the end of the sausage funnel. I then feed small amounts of meat through the electric meat grinder. I pack the bag firmly. After packing each meat bag I then twist the top and tie off with meat bag tape.
I pack the sausage in one pound packages, label and date the packages, and place them in the freezer.
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