Homemade sausage

[Chad]

I have a confession to make. I've never used my meat grinder. It just lurks in my cabinet, glaring at me from behind the box of coffee filters. Am I a bad person?

And if I wanted, say, to make sausage, what kind is good to start with? Do you have a favorite recipe?

Chad

(snacking on last night's andouille cornbread, mmmm)

[Mister_Cutlets]

Chad,

The simplest way to make sausage is the way they do at Faicco's: grind up some pork butts (shoulders) with some salt and other spices, maybe a little fennel, and extrude it into the casings. Later, you may want to start adding in richer, gnalier elements like liver, jowls, and etc., but start with something easy. Practice with hamburger first...it takes some doing to make it work; you need to run some water through the casings, for one thing, and you have to practice twisting them off right. Visit http://www.sausagemania.com/ for more tips...sausage-making is a great thing to do at home, particularly with wierd variety meats and not-so-tender cuts of pork and beef. The hardest part is getting natural casings, but I doubt you'll have much of a problem getting them once you set your mind to it.

Good luck!

your pal,

Mr. Cutlets