First Step into Sausage Making!

Today I picked up my order of pork shoulder from Acme Meat Market and dove head first into the world of sausage making!


Needless to say (if you've been following, even causally, my blog) that I obviously put a lot of time, effort and $ into being prepared for this. Getting the correct curing salts, doing research on the equipment I'd need, how to tell if something has gone wrong, sourcing suppliers, etc.


For my first round of sausage making I did a Jagerwurst (Hunter's Sausage).

It's very similar to a ham or garlic sausage that you'd find in the grocery store. It has curing salt #1 in it and is hot smoked, which fully cooks it. There is no drying/curing time in the cellar for this one, which is why I chose it (greater chance of success! lol)
The spices are (in the order I remember them in): coriander seed, mustard seed, ginger, nutmeg, garlic, blackpepper

It didn't get smoked today. That'll be for tomorrow when I have the Chorizo to go. The chorizo gets a cold smoke then goes in the curing cellar.
Also being made tomorrow is a fresh sausage (no smoking, no curing), kielbasa (Rulhman's recipe from "Charcuterie").

Then, when I get around to it, an all-beef peperone (pepperoni) in natural sheep casing. It's a non-smoked dry-cured sausage that'll be perfect for my friend Sean! He's allergic to pork and is gluten-intolerant. Since I can control everything and it's a smaller size which means it'll be more likely to succeed (dry-curing time is only 6 to 10days for sheep casing) it'll be a marvelous treat when it's done!


Here's some pics of what happened this evening...


Pork Shoulder from Acme

Beautiful! isn't it? :)
(sorry, no pics of all the spices. I'll remember to do that tomorrow for Chorizo)

Step one in the grinding process. Coarse grind. Then, half of that was put back through on a fine grind. Mix them all up and it's ready to stuff!


Natural hog casing, soaking in water.


Finished product! Ready to be looped into rings and hot smoked over some applewood tomorrow.

I'll post tomorrow on the status of the hot smoking as well as the other sausages.

And I'll even try to remember to take more pictures :)