It has been many years since I have made my own sausage, so I started a category for sausage making a couple of months ago. Breakfast Sausage ; I forgot how good the fresh sausage is. My wife said, “Wow this is really good you could sell a lot of this”. Well I think she forgot that that is exactly what we use to do, except at that time, we used a venison and pork combination because we processed venison for the hunters. This Homemade Italian Sausage recipe has a good blend of seasoning that works for wild game, pork or beef. Venison is kind of dry so I usually use a 50/50 combination of venison, and pork butts, but you can mix the combination up to suit your taste. You can link your sausage by purchasing casing from your local market. If you can’t locate them in the meat counter ask the meat department- they can order them for you. I like to spit the sausage up a little bit so I have some links, and some bulk Italian sausage in the freezer. If you decide to make links you will need 32-35mm hog casings along with a sausage stuffer, or an attachment for your grinder. (Most home electric meat grinders come with the attachment)
- 5 pounds of pork butts or (pork and venison combination)
- 2½ tablespoons of canning or pickling salt
- 8 ounces of ice water
- 1½ teaspoons fennel seed (optional)
- 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper (fresh ground)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1½ teaspoon sugar
- Cut the meat up to fit the size of your grinder. If you are using a combination of different kinds of meat, like wild game and pork, mix the meat together before grinding.
- Grind the meat through a 1/ 4 or 3/ 8 inch size plate.
- In a medium size bowl, starting with the water, combine all the ingredients. Using your hands or a meat mixer, mix the seasoning into the meat until thoroughly combined.
- Note about hog casing-they may be packed in salt, so thoroughly rinse them, and flush them out with cold water before stuffing.
- Place the sausage casing over the stuffing horn, and then stuff and link. Take out what you need fresh and freeze the rest.
