Sausage Day
As always we start with the Ur text.
And as always, I won't give the recipe - GO BUY THE BOOK!!!
There are lots of other good books on Charcuterie, Hank of Hunter, Gardner... gives a good accounting here. Hank was nominated for a James Beard award this year, check here.
I use other books as well, but all four recipes I was doing this time happen to come from Charcuterie.
Plenty of space is available.
First we need an ice bath, the grinder must be as cold as possible. Use an ice bath, putting it in the freezer can cause things to be too brittle and crack.
The working parts of the grinder in the bath. I have and until recently used the grinder attachment for the KA mixer.
However as mentioned here.
That is the mise for Italian hot sausage, no it doesn't include caraway, that is a bottle with something else in it, we buy a lot of stuff from Penzy's which comes in bags and bottles are handier. 
Toasting the whole fennel seeds. There is a second whole seed in there as well, but I'm too lazy to walk downstairs and check on what it is.
I buy whole shoulders on sale, industrial grade pork, cut the meat off and freeze in 5 lb put ups. There are two more in the fridge waiting their turn in the que.
You could use a spoon, but I find that hands work just fine. I do wash them first however.
I also wash them after.
The grinder, out of the ice bath and assembled. I have named the grinder but I promised that if she behaved herself I wouldn't use it.
Taking the Princesses to the homeland.
Besides the hot Italian, I also did sweet Italian and Mexican Chorizo. All three of these were kept loose and went in to 1/2 lb put ups. It makes no sense to put sausage into a casing only to take it out before you use it. I do have both Italian sausages in casings as we like them grilled, but I haven't done the chorizo in a casing yet, we either do it as a breakfast sausage or loose in something.
That isn't today's chorizo, but from a previous batch. My wife did this last Monday for brunch.
Above is about a half hank of hog casing, This one is about a year old, still good to use, I keep them packed in Kosher salt in the garage fridge.
A single casing.
Check the comments to see if Kim has an opinion here.
A pound and a half of pork fat. My supermarket carries this stuff, thank you Shoprite.
Mixed with freshly ground dried peppers and three and a half pounds of dark meat turkey, Talked about here, along with turkey boning instructions. This caused Attila the Mom to mention me, just below the diamond studded mouse about a page down in to the post.
So five pounds of turkey cranberry (yes the recipe called for cherries, but A). the store didn't have those and 
. I made this the first time just before Thanksgiving.
And to the sausage police, that did get twisted into proper links. This is a breakfast sausage and links look better. The French Garlic gets cut into lenghts because it will be cut in to small pieces before use and links aren't quite as good here.
And that has nothing to do with sausage, it was simply dinner last night.
Warner
Those sausages are beautiful!
Maybe next year at our cooking outing you could do a demo.
Those are just fantastic looking.
Thanks for sharing.
Kathy
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Well if we get to it, it is certainly an idea. Somewhere in the east, a day's drive from NY City is a pretty basic requirement.
The Kitchen would need a grill and a good ice supply.
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I got Ruhlman's Charcuterie for Christmas and you are right: it IS the Ur text for cured meats. I'm still working my way through it, but I'm about ready to buy a meat grinder and try my hand at some sausages--and your pictures make me think I need to run out and do that tomorrow!
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Both the grinder and the stuffer came from Nothern Industrial. You can find them on the web.
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After seeing that picture of your hand (pre-washed), it occurred to me that this would be an ideal way of disposing of annoying neighbors. LOL
Looks great!
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That is even cheaper than industrial grade pork.
Works well with ex-spouses (or is that ex-spices?) as well.
'They never will be missed'
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We used a pound of the Italian (1/2 pound each) for sausage and pepper sandwiches yesterday.
I also cut up the pancetta that has been hanging in the basement. So about 25 pounds of pork and turkey 'stuff' went in the freezer yesterday.
The pork belly for the pancetta came from Dietrich's which you can find on the web, address in sidebar.
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One of my favorite books!
Jealous you can find pork fat so easily. I sometimes get lucky and when I do I make sure I stock up.
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On of the well known meat packers (can't think of the brand) puts it up in plastic in about 1/2 pound pieces with skin. That paticular ShopRite usually has about 3 pounds out.
I can't be the only person buying it.
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Sausage day is always a good time-looks like yours was a little more productive than mine! I do like that meat grinder, I made some good hambugers with it as well.
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I haven't used it for hamburger yet, but I need to go into the city on the 10th and on my way back will stop at fairway and pick up a 20 pound block of chuck.
It is so nice to be able to grind 5 pounds of meat without worring if the blade will need re-steeling half way through.
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The next entry or two won't be food related, unless the deck the grill goes on is food related.
I spent the two decent days this past week removing the deck floor. This means swinging a sledge, up. Not easy if you are in condition and I'm not.
The cats, who exclusively use the deck door are very confused. They won't come in the front door
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