Pasta lovers here, and one of our favorite meals incorporates spicy Italian sausage! On our quest to prepare more of what we eat from scratch, it felt natural that we pursue a homemade product to satisfy our needs. It was also the very first meal Eric wanted to christen our new kitchen with: homemade pasta and homemade sausage. Version 1.0 was cased, and since then we have omit the casing step, since we break this up in all of our cooking.
Let’s get started! We prefer pork sausage, and typically buy whatever pork butt/shoulder/cushion is available in bulk. Our goal is at least ten pounds of yield, and more is better.
A trip in the way back machine takes us to December 9, 2018. We were ready to celebrate our first home cooked meal in our new kitchen, and broke out the trusty KitchenAid mixer with meat grinder attachment. A painstaking effort was made to cube the meat for the grinder, and it was kept chilled up to grinding. We started off slow…
And then we stripped the gear in the mixer head that drives the accessories. %&(^#!!! This mixer had very little use, and left us high and dry on the meat grinding front. A call was made to family nearby, and the favor of borrowing their mixer was put in.
Ok, I can bag on this company all day, but that isn’t the point. Ground meat is the goal, and we would be hosting dinner this evening. Find whatever method you prefer to grind, and make sure your equipment can handle the task.
After we fixed our mixer, Eric ordered a purpose built meat grinder that had a larger throat, capacity, and duty cycle. Smooth sailing from here on out! This bad boy can grind meat in strips, which cuts down on prep, and speeds the process along. The all metal assemblies stay cold during the grind, and that helps eliminate fat rendering from the friction of the cutting. Warm meat can make poor texture, and should be avoided at all costs.
Enough already, this is what your home ground meat should resemble. We prefer a coarse grind, but you can dial it in to your liking. The hardest and most rewarding part is finished, time to blend the spices.
Our current recipe is a rendition of Tastes of Lizzy T’s recipe, and we change a few things to our liking. We make additions to the fennel, garlic, onion, paprika, and red pepper. We use all dry powders, for simplicity and consistency. One addition we make over her recipe is a blend of dried and smoked ghost, Carolina Reaper, and a few other insanely hot peppers for *heat*, as this is spicy Italian. Our friend Dan, aka @Viss sells his creation of Anomalous Materials at his Etsy store.
Per serving:
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 pounds ground pork
- SPICY pepper powder, to your preference
Paprika and red pepper flakes don’t bring the pain necessary. How hot is it? The spicy blend is added in 1/32 teaspoon amounts for each two pound blend. It lights off on the palette with an intensity that is almost alarming, then tapers off quickly with no lingering after burn. Either way, you have the liberty to make this your own at this stage.
Her recipe is for two pounds, and we measure out two pound portions to simplify and manage production. We are aiming for consistent batches here, and this additional step makes all of the difference. Today we have fourteen pounds to blend!
We almost run out of small bowls to manage the spice aspect of the process. While it might seem laborious, it is actually quite easy to measure each powder in series. This makes it as simple as blending one bowl of spice to one bowl of meat.
Fast forward a bit, and all of our seven portions have been mixed by hand in a large mixing bowl. Now what? Well, our preferred method of packaging involves a Foodsaver bag that is compressed by hand to make a thinly filled bag. Each of these is two pounds, and they can be easily fit in our relatively full freezer. With these portions, one bag is good for four people, half for two; in our household anyhow.
When one needs one pound, you simply defrost a bag, create a divot in the middle, and squeeze out half. The bag can be trimmed and resealed for the freezer again! These store wonderfully for well over a year when properly packaged. They never last that long though.
An alternative is to case the sausage after mixing, if you prefer it in that style. This isn’t difficult, but changes the storage aspect a bit. Again, for our needs, we will omit this until we are putting together brats or another flavor style. And there you have it, a product that will elevate your meals every time you cook.