It's sausage season!

[Aix]

My friend's father, a lovely Southern Italian gentleman has agreed to share his family tradition with me, as sausage making is not really part of my culture. I have fallen in love with all things charcuterie since having dry cured sausage in Auvergne, hanging illegally from the village-butcher's garage, served by his toothless wife, a cigarette butt dangling from her lips. Pork, salt, and whatever natural flora lingered in the air at this country home were the sole ingredients. And the result was near-miraculous.

Well, that was a few years ago. We'll see if we can recapture some of that magic with good old Canadian pork, peppered with some Italian sensibility. But I have some concerns. The product , no doubt, of having access to too much information and not enough experience (My current bedtime book: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman, Brian Polcyn, and Thomas Keller).

Chico (our king sausagemaker) recommended we get three shoulders and one hip - too much meat for us. Upon the butcher's recommendation, we got two shoulders and 6 lbs of back eye. Then another relative wanted to pitch in, so we added a additional shoulder and a hip. Total, 3 shoulders, one ham and 6 lbs of back eye.

Chico does not concern himself with Insta-Cure or the use of time-released nitrites to ward off botulism. He doesn't add milk powder or dextrose to feed the Bactoferm, bacteria which will ferment the meat and lower the PH through lactic acid which will make the sausage an inhospitable environment for the bad stuff. He doesn't freeze the meat for 6-20 days to kill off any trichinosis.

Chico grinds the meat, adds the salt, makes the sausage. Period. And nobody ever died. (that he knows of)

Any thoughts on any stage of this? If you have experience in this very basic kind of sausage making, please share. I should also add that we have a cantina, just above the freezing point. It was about 1'C this morning. I'm also curious to know if I should keep the fat under the skin of the leg/ham to incorporate into the mix. It's not as good as back fat or jowl or kidney fat I suppose...

Many thanks!

[Bombdog]

My friend's father, a lovely Southern Italian gentleman has agreed to share his family tradition with me, as sausage making is not really part of my culture.  I have fallen in love with all things charcuterie since having dry cured sausage in Auvergne, hanging illegally from the village-butcher's garage, served by his toothless wife, a cigarette butt dangling from her lips.  Pork, salt, and whatever natural flora lingered in the air at this country home were the sole ingredients.  And the result was near-miraculous.

Well, that was a few years ago.  We'll see if we can recapture some of that magic with good old Canadian pork, peppered with some Italian sensibility.  But I have some concerns.  The product , no doubt, of having access to too much information and not enough experience (My current bedtime book:  Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman, Brian Polcyn, and Thomas Keller).

Chico (our king sausagemaker)  recommended we get three shoulders and one hip - too much meat for us.  Upon the butcher's recommendation, we got two shoulders and 6 lbs of back eye.  Then another relative wanted to pitch in, so we added a additional shoulder and a hip.  Total, 3 shoulders, one ham and 6 lbs of back eye. 

Chico does not concern himself with Insta-Cure or the use of time-released nitrites to ward off botulism.  He doesn't add milk powder or dextrose to feed the Bactoferm, bacteria which will ferment the meat and lower the PH through lactic acid which will make the sausage an inhospitable environment for the bad stuff.  He doesn't freeze the meat for 6-20 days to kill off any trichinosis. 

Chico grinds the meat, adds the salt, makes the sausage.  Period.  And nobody ever died. (that he knows of)

Any thoughts on any stage of this?  If you have experience in this very basic kind of sausage making, please share.  I should also add that we have a cantina, just above the freezing point.  It was about 1'C this morning.  I'm also curious to know if I should keep the fat under the skin of the leg/ham to incorporate into the mix. It's not as good as back fat or jowl or kidney fat I suppose...

Many thanks!

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You really should come on over here to the Charcuterie thread, where many of us have been doing any number of salumi and salume for the past year or so. I think you'll find most any question you have has been asked and answered in that thread. If not, jump in and ask away. We have a pretty wide experience base over there. Plus, Ruhlman occasionally is available to answer questions.

[Aix]

What a great thread; thank you!

I'm still going through it but so far I find that it's mostly about experiments based on the book. I guess I would like to hear more about the old school way, and from members who have been making sausage in their families for generations. Thanks again for the invaluable resource.