Our Christmas gift to Jeff was a meat grinder, sausage stuffer and sausage cookbook. So, of course, Jeff and I had to make ...sausage! Our first step was to buy the casings (hog intestines). While John, Sarah and Marco went to visit Grandma Ila, Jeff & I went shopping at the Mexican market. I warned Jeff that this would be an adventure. Not many of the employees speak English so we went armed with a written translation for sausage casings. Didn't work, it's one of those terms that does not translate literally - like horseradish! After being shuttled from one department to another we finally got our casings "tripa por el chorizo". While we were waiting we had time to view their incredible meat case. Every piece of the animal is used. In the meat case we saw beef cheeks, lips, tongues, feet (with or without skin) and because it was Christmas, whole cow heads!
We decided to make two kinds of sausage - Spicy Hot Italian Sausage and Kielbasa. Jeff began by cutting the pork shoulder and pork fat into long strips. The meat for the Italian sausage was seasoned with Sambuca, anise seeds, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, kosher salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. For the Kielbasa, chopped garlic, kosher salt, dry marjoram, black pepper, dry mustard and ground coriander. Next the seasoned meat is fed through the grinder - fine grind for the Italian and coarse for the Kielbasa:
We decided to make two kinds of sausage - Spicy Hot Italian Sausage and Kielbasa. Jeff began by cutting the pork shoulder and pork fat into long strips. The meat for the Italian sausage was seasoned with Sambuca, anise seeds, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, kosher salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. For the Kielbasa, chopped garlic, kosher salt, dry marjoram, black pepper, dry mustard and ground coriander. Next the seasoned meat is fed through the grinder - fine grind for the Italian and coarse for the Kielbasa:
We made a small sausage patty and cooked in a skillet to taste for seasoning.
The hog casings are packed in salt and need to be rinsed:
Next a long piece of the casing is slid onto to the sausage attachment:
Now the fun begins! Stuffing the sausage is a two person job - one to push the meat mixture through the hopper and the other to feed into the casing. It is hysterical!
No hands left for drinking wine, so John steps into the galley to keep the cooks hydrated:
We're just having too much fun:.JPG)
The peanut gallery:
Our finished product:
We put some sausage on the bbq, sauteed peppers and onions and dinner is served - along with some homemade rustic bread, of course:
No comments:
Post a Comment