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Thursday, February 2, 2012
Sausage Making for the Home Gourmet
Winter time is a good time of year to try some home projects, especially those involving food. Cold weather presents us with the opportunity to experiment in the kitchen. For those of you that are meat lovers, making sausage can be quite rewarding, and tasty.
Over the last several years, the idea of home sausage making has grown leaps and bounds. Different gourmet food stores throughout the area even carry various types of homemade or “gourmet” sausage. The idea of experimenting with different flavors of sausage has even carried over to some specialty restaurants making sausage to order. One of the more unusual varieties was a buffalo chicken sausage complete with ground up celery inside and hot sauce.
In order to make sausage at home, there are a wide variety of sources for all of the supplies that you will need. Of course the easiest way to make it is in bulk. This can be used to make patties and the remainder frozen for later. However, if you are more interested in stuffing sausages in casings, there are alot of different places to purchase supplies. Most of the outdoor stores, such as Gander Mountain, carry everything from meat grinders to sausage stuffers and seasonings. These are perfect places to purchase all of your supplies at once. Any stores that feature items for processing wild game will carry some sort of cooking supplies for sausage or jerky. To start, one would need either a meat grinder with a stuffing attachment, or a seperate stuffer. In addition to this, you will need casings. In the past, natural casings were used made from intestines. However, today, synthetic ones are sold which work in much the same way. Usually you can find them in the same store, or at a local butcher shop. Lastly, depending on your tastes, a variety of spices will be needed.
The old traditional recipe for sausage was simply salt, pepper and sage. Sage sausage is the old standby that many have come to love. However, various chefs, butchers, and culinary enthusiasts are experimenting with a wide variety of types of sausage. Spicy sausage such as Italian style and chorizo are quite popular. At the same time varieties like lamb with mint are being made to create different tastes. All different types of meat can be used and it is no longer just relegated to pork. Depending on the individuals tastes some interesting combinations can be created.
Lastly, when making sausage at home, try making small batches to decide on what you like before going ahead and producing ten pounds of it. After making some small seasoned batches you can then look into stuffing it into casings and having it on hand.
So, why not do something different for that Super Bowl party, and experiment by making some of your favorite types of sausage for all to enjoy.
