Making Sausages

Of the many things I wanted to try, the top of the list was sausages. After making a trip to Cabela's for some sausage casings (hog casings, I would say medium size) the next stop was the library to pick up Complete Sausage Book. We decided for our first sausage to make the "Italian Sweet Fennel Sausage". Called for 3 lbs of pork butt and 3/4 lbs of pork back fat (try saying that three times fast!) Lucky for us, we discovered we have an awesome butcher in town who was very happy to provide us with some recently cut pork back fat and a lovely piece of pork butt. (And for any of you out there that happen to be in the Coeur d'Alene, ID area take a trip to Tim's Special Cut Meats). Got home and started the L-O-N-G process of soaking/flushing the casings (and eww the smell!!) As the casings were soaking, we started on the meat making. Ground up the fat and then attempted to grind the pork, but the fat had clogged the machine a bit. After learning how to clean the grinder attachment, got back to grinding the pork. I didn't love the texture (it was a bit mushy instead of looking like little worms), but I read that if you freeze the meat a bit, you can get a better grind. Anyways, got the meat and the fat together threw in the spices and the wine (we used a Cabernet) and got to mixing with my hands. 3 hours later, it was time for the stuffing! The first casing was a pain to put on, mainly because I didn't grease the stuffer end enough (olive oil is your friend!!) and also because in the middle of it the dog got loose, and we had to chase him down (dogs are not your friends when making sausage!). Finally after much pushing and pulling (and ok I'll admit it, some tearing, oops) we got the entire length of casing on. Tied off the end, and away we went. I was the meat person (stuffing the meat down the grinder) and my boyfriend was the sausage stuffer. The first link was a bit thin, but once we figured out the "keeping your thumb on the end of the stuffer" technique, we were able to regulate better the amount of meat. All in all for about 4 lbs of meat mixture, we got 2 lengths of sausage. Twisted each link (kept em about 5 inches long) and then off to the fridge. The next night we grilled them on the gas grill (they cooked for longer than we thought, I guess due to the thickness) and ate them in french rolls... very tasty! Quite a bit leaner than your average store bought sausages which was quite nice. Then the following night we mixed them in with pasta and store bought roasted garlic marinara, which was perhaps even tastier than in the hot dog style. The leftover sausages were taken to the parents (for a second opinion of course) and two we vacuumed sealed and put in the freezer.