How to Make Sausage

Making your own sausage can be a little overwhelming when you first look into it. There are many different meat and spice variations as well as different cooking techniques. You just need to take things one step at a time in order to make great sausage yourself.

Things You'll Need

• Ground meat
• Spices
• Sausage stuffer
• Casings

Instructions

1. Decide what type of sausage you want to make. Choices include but are not limited to breakfast sausage, summer sausage, Italian sausage, bratwurst and Polish sausage.

2. Get a sausage stuffer. You will need something to help stuff the meat into the casings. Stuffers come in various shapes and sizes. Choose one based on how much sausage you plan to make.

3. Use ground meat. The meat must be ground and will include at least 20 percent pork. Pork is not a fatty meat, so some recipes call for a mixture of pork and pork fat.

4. Make sure you have plenty of casings ready. Casings come in various sizes. There are hog, sheep, collagen and fibrous casings. Check the directions on your casings to see if they need to be soaked in water prior to use.

5. Add spices to your meat mixture. You may add the individual spices yourself or purchase premixed spices for different kinds of sausage.

6. Stuff the meat into the casing. Have one person hold the casing on the end of the stuffer and another operate the stuffer.

7. Cook the sausage and enjoy it. Fresh sausages such as breakfast sausage are cooked just before eating, but others such as summer sausage are cured when they are made. Check your recipe for specifics.

Tips & Warnings

• Have the right equipment and don't be afraid to experiment in order to find the perfect meat, spice and casing mixture.

• Add fat to keep your sausage from being too dry.