Making Sausages

[dks]

As I have mentioned in the eating thread I was interested in making my own sausages so after a 1st try at making the mixture (success!) a few weeks ago I decided to go all the way and make some.

I followed the basic instructions regarding salt ratio from here : http://msofos.gr/usefull/loukanika.html

and now pictures!

I used belly which I chopped and soaked in wine overnight. Last time I minced them first, soaked the mince afterwards. It was easier to mince the unsoaked meat; and there was less splashing

It took me about 30 minutes to grind 5kg of meat.





I added the salt, coarsely ground coriander seeds, cumin seeds and pepper (all freshly ground) as I was mincing to ensure a good distribution and a uniform flavour.



I attached the stuffer (it uses a suction system so you need a smooth surface) on a large plastic table that was cleaned thoroughly.(I "had"    to use my ST300 to tigghten a nut on the stuffer as I have managed to misplace the tool that came with the stuffer)



I filled the stuffer with meat  .



and added the larger size attachment



I then rolled the (presoaked and salted/cleaned) intestine that I bought around the tube. That was the slowest and most boring part.







I let the air out and made a knot at the end

then I started slowly pushing the mixture out, adjusting the thickness of the sausage by regulating the speed at which the intestine is allowed to come out.



Based on some Youtube video I made a long sausage which I was going to twist in parts afterwards to make smaller sausages.
That was WRONG, as the sausage broke when I tried  to twist it (I assume they used man made "intestine" or did not stuff it so much.

Thus I started twisting and forming the individual sausages as they came out which worked fine.





Every time the sausage stuffer emptied I cut and tied the sausages. I got about 6-7 per go; about 800g.




I run out of intestine so I was only able to make about 3kg of sausages. I will get more intestines tomorrow.



You are supposed to let them dry for a few days in air but I decided to put them on a rack and dry them in the Fridge (it is quite big; 900lt capacity and circulates air so they should dry OK)



In the fridge



I handwashed the stuffer




The whole process took a couple of hours.


I am now having a cigar

Lessons learned:
Buy more intestine as it keeps for a long time
Maybe get the butcher to grind the meat next time (coarser too)

In general the stuffing process was easy and fun.

Economics:
To buy the sausages (Good quality home/butcher made) costs about 12Euro per kg
The meat costs about 3 - 4 euros per kg
The intestine costs about 10 Euros per kg but you only need a few grams per kg of sausage.
The stuffer cost me about 25 Euros (Amazon uk)
The meat grinder was about 17 Euros (Lidls)

 

[Etherealicer]

Yumm. Will there be a sausage fest? I think I might be in Cyprus in September

[dks]

I avoid "sausage fests"   

If this batch is good then I will try to make more variations, adding garlic, apples etc..

[Etherealicer]

I avoid "sausage fests"   

If this batch is good then I will try to make more variations, adding garlic, apples etc..

[RamoN]

Well done! the most important benefit on making home made sausages is that you know exactly whats in them!!! and you can use good quality ingredients which is rare to find in a commercialy available sausage.

Adding garlic is nice and green onions go great too, the upper green part.

I must equip myself to start making these soon! 

[dks]

Many thanks to all.
I gave a few to be air-dried and maybe smoked so as to see what is the best way to dry them

[dks]

They tasted fine too


I am know making the traditional type; wine sausages.

I need to keep the mince in red wine now for a week before I stuff it.

[derekmac]

I wouldn't mind making my own, that way I could make actual spicy ones. All the so called spicy ones you can buy here are mild at best.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[RamoN]

im afraid to ask (because i tend to get addicted to spicy meat) but do you have some recipe for making extra spicy? what condiments would you use?

[derekmac]

Unfortunately I don't.  


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[dks]

I did make some spicier ones yesterday, with reasonable success.

The problem with most commercial spicy ones is that they focus on making them hot, ignoring the flavour profile.

So they just stuff them full of cheap black peper. All you can taste is the heat.

However to make them properly you need to add other spices and ingredients as well like garlic and chilly pepers so that you get the heat with a nice flavour too.

[dks]

Here is what I am basically doing now:

http://www.howaboutsomegreektonight.com/kypriakaloukanika.php

The idea is that the mince gets impregnated/saturated with red wine and some salt so that it can not go off. Wine is the preservative of the meat and also the flavouring.
These sausage, after they dry in the sun/air, they can be eaten raw, the same way you would eat salami. The wine "cooks" them. In the old days, before refrigeration, this was the way to preserve them in the villages

[kkokkolis]

What about some haloumi kasewurst?
Or frankfurters with seftalia?
 

[dks]

What about some haloumi kasewurst?
Or frankfurters with seftalia?
 

blasphemy! 

[kkokkolis]

Don't judge until yoou try it. My instict says they both will be good. Home made frankfurters ofcourse.

[dks]

So after a week more than originally intended I stuffed the wine sausages.

The mince has taken the colour of wine and doubled in size.



The sausages will now need to dry a lot (in the fridge or in the sun) so that the flavour gets concentrated and you can eat them. I tried some of the mince and it is very high in alcohol; all you really taste now is wine.

[RamoN]

That should be interesting, perhaps to cook them and cut them to flavour a tomato sauce.

What kind of wine did you use?

[jzmtl]

I tried some of the mince and it is very high in alcohol; all you really taste now is wine.

Sounds good to me! 

[dks]

I use a good quality, but not fully filtered so as to keep more body, local wine.
I ended up using 1Lt of wine per kg of meat as the mince soaks up the wine.
When they dry they will end up being 2/3rds in size.

You can use them in food now, but you might as well just put some wine.

[dks]

Here is the final product. Notice the dark colour they have, because of the wine.
They have been slightly smoked and dried (sun and wood fire) and are now 1/2 the size they were before. They can be eaten raw, safely.  I need to use more salt next time as most of it was washed away (osmosis) by the wine.
I can now store them for several weeks in a cool room or freeze them.

[RamoN]

Or you can give them away 

Nice work  as soon as it gets colder around here im gonna start trying to remember all that.

[derekmac]

Oooh, a sausage GAW.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[jzmtl]

So, how does it feel to have a bunch of guys drooling over your sausage?   

[dks]

Thank you..

I have often been complimented on my sausage...   

[derekmac]

So, how does it feel to have a bunch of guys drooling over your sausage?   

Probably about the same as them drooling over a SAK? 

[dks]

So, how does it feel to have a bunch of guys drooling over your sausage?   

Probably about the same as them drooling over a SAK? 

Oh, yes, I have been complimented on my SAK too, on several occasions.
Who hasn't ?

[dks]

Its that time of year again... 

I de-boned and prepared the meat.
I then used my new electric meat mincer and I now have about 15kg of mince.
I added the spices and the wine and should be stuffing the sausages in a week. Hopefully they will be ready before Christmas.

There two basins with the meat in the fridge, so it is good that I have a large fridge.

I used the cup shown to sharpen my Opinel fillet knife during the cutting process.

[dks]

... so the proper sausages are now getting smoked and dried



I also did some, much quicker, spicy sausages or Pasturma sausages as they are called here. These require beef, and do not need any curing, drying etc. as they are not designed to be kept outside the fridge for long. They are much faster to make but beef costs about 3 times as much as pork.

The mixture


..now for stuffing I decided to use the attachment that came with the mincer



This was a waste of time, as you need 3 hands to do that as opposed to 2 for the manual machine and you are basically stuffing one sausage at a time as you have to put the mince in, push it down, stop the machine, refill, whilst at the same time you have to control the flow of the intestine you are stuffing... This may be of use only if you are mincing and stuffing at the same time, which you do not usually do.

Manual is way better.

Some of these will be consumed tonight.

[lister]

I really like sausages but I had always found them to be the most ironic way of eating an animal. You mince the animal to bits and then stuff it up its own...   

[dks]

Noooooo . You see the meat I use is beef and pork BUT the intestines are lamb (for some reason, this is what I was told) so you do not have to worry about stuffing an animal with itself