home-made sausages, anyone have any experience?

[LaurasOtherHalf]

right, we bought the sausage stuffer attachment for our kitchenaid over xmas & i'm going to give these a go.

anyone done similar?

i've just ordered some sausage skins off the 'bay so i'm happy to post up some photo's so you can all see how it goes, i'm thinking some nice & spicey cumberland sausages to begin with but a fool proof recipe would be of great help!

[Ollerton57]

I've used this a few times on my Kitchen Aid.

I'll be blunt, it's hard going. The mincing attachment is good, but I can't get on with the sausage stuffing as that attachment gets blocked quickly and needs a lot of pressure to push the meat through.

I'm on the look out for a piston style sausage stuffer because I cannot get on with the KA one. Let me know how you get on though and if you have any tips after using it!

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Interesting, we watched a video on YouTube yesterday & it all looked relatively simple. I wonder if the sausage skins make a difference?

[jep]

Yup, been there several times. Great fun.

We did several different flavours, from the homemade to bought in mixes from Design-a-sausage. The bought-in mixes worked really well, the homemade tended to be not as juicy and a touch underseasoned when put into the sausage casing - nothing that couldn't be fixed next time though with a bit more rusk and a bit more salt and pepper.

Also found Sausagemaking.org a good, if not pricey resource.

[ibisti]

We have the same set up and have made quite a few different sausages. I prefer a coarser grind so use the larger plate. Start with pork belly or shoulder and dice it up and put it in the freezer to chill/almost freeze, this makes it mince easier. Then mince the pork into a mixing bowl. Then add your dry ingredients, salt pepper herbs of choice, I would make a batch with sage and S&P to start to see how you go. Then add good quality bread crumbs and mix thoroughly by hand and then mix in water to re-hydrate the crumbs. If you don't add the bread crumbs the sausages will be too dense, and the crumbs help to retain moisture from the meat. Next thread the skins onto the stuffer and pass the mixture through the grinder again, this time with out the grinding plate/cutter. After experimenting with both natural and manx made skins I much prefer the natural, both for taste and texture. One other tip is to fry off some of the mix before stuffing to check the seasoning and then you can adjust the ratios before its too late.

[StangGT]

I made some Italian style sausages; nothing but pork meat, pork fat, minced garlic and powdered star anise, plus a little seasoning. They were fantastic!

[LaurasOtherHalf]

All very encouraging

[Mashedpotatoes]

Try making thai sausage for something a bit different but delicious. A quick google search for Chang Mai sausage recipe should help. Don't go mad with the chilli.

[dazco]

It's a big, messy job. Make many and freeze them

[Bill]

Interesting to hear about people's kitchenaid failures, as I found the same. Good for mincing, less so for stuffing. Luckily I have an old hand mincer that does a good job stuffing too.

One good tip is to make up the meat and fry off little patties to check flavour.

Get skins, rusk etc from www.sausagemaking.org

[dazco]

You need quite a fatty mix. I used 50/50 pork leg and pork belly.

You need rusk and a good seasoning.

I did not like collagen skins.

[new_bloke]

I've done it with a manual mincer with a stuffing attachment. It makes it a bit easier to control - once you start with the electric stuffer, you need to be on your toes. It all happens quite quickly!
Do not use dried collagen skins as others have mentioned. They don't have a nice texture at all when cut, and seem to be more prone to bursting during cooking. I got my supplies from designasausage.com ( http://www.designasausage.com/) - very helpful people.
Good luck!