Second Run at Sausage - Italian

Hello All,

After reading the Sausage Making for Beginners Post, I decided to give it a try. My first attempt (smoked Polish sausage) went very well. So well that my wife wanted to try bulk Italian sausage so we made it our project over the past weekend. We used the technique described in the tutorial along with the spice blend provided below. The results were really good. We made just under 9 lbs of bulk sausage for around $12 (I got the pork butt we used on sale at WD for $1.19/lb). The best part is we controlled everything that went into it so we know it is healthy! I packaged it in 1 lb packs and stored it in the deep freeze. My wife made meatballs with it yesterday and it was very good.


Spice Blend (enough for one lb of meat):

1 1/2 tsp Salt
3 1/2 tsp Paprika
2/3 tsp Garlic Powder
2/3 tsp Fennel Seed
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Sage
1/2 tsp Basil
1/2 tsp Thyme

Looks good John. I do about 20# bulk Italian twice a year. Love the stuff.

Frank

I do about 20lbs or so a year too. Its funny though as everyone wants to eat it but nobody wants to help stuff it into casings when the time comes time...Yours looks really good and tastes even better when you knew you made it.

I have always used this spice ratio for larger batches of 10lbs and its quite good. If you want hotter you can adjust accordingly but something to try if you want..

Sweet sausage- seasoning for 10lb so adjust accordingly: Usually make some of this at same time as mild for my mother-in-law

5-TBS Salt we always cut this in half
3-TSP Fennel seed
2-TSP Coarse black Pepper
1-TBS sugar
10lbs boned and cubed pork butt

My usual mix:

Mild Sausage-For 10lbs pork but adjust for more or less

5-TBS salt- we cut this in half
2-TSP Coarse black pepper
1-TBS Sugar
3-TSP Crushed red pepper
1-TSP Caraway seed
1-TBS Corriander
10lbs boned and cubed pork butt

I started making my own since I consider mild Italian too boring and hot Italian often too hot. I do an in-between spicy that wakes up your mouth, but doesn't overpower everything else in the meal. I have also learned that you can almost never make it too fatty. The fun part is that there's no end to how creative you can get with your mixes.

Jeff