DIRECTIONS
1. Cut the meat and fat into 1-inch chunks. Mix the salt and curing
salt with the meat only and refrigerate overnight; this helps make
a tighter bind in the finished sausage. The next day mix the meat
and fat as well as the rosemary, garlic, marjoram and black pepper
and grind everything through your coarse die, about 7 mm or so.
2. Put the meat in the freezer until it’s about 34°F or so. Now grind it
again through the fine die, about 4.5 mm. If the mixture is still cold
– no warmer than 36°F or so – you can mix it. Otherwise, refreeze
it until it chills sufficiently.
3. When the mix is cold enough, add the dry milk if using, as well as
the red wine and mix well either with your (very clean) hands for
2 minutes or in a stand mixer on low for 90 seconds to 2 minutes.
4. If you are not linking your sausage, you’re done. Otherwise, put
the sausage into you stuffer and stuff the hog casings. Stuff the
whole batch before you make links. To make links, pinch off about
a 6-inch link with each of your hands. Now roll the link between
your fingers forward a couple times. Repeat down the coil, only roll
the next one backward. By alternating like this the links will hold
their shape better.
5. When the links are all made, sterilize a needle in your stovetop
burner, then use it to pierce any air pockets in the links. Gently
squeeze the links to compress them, filling those air pockets.
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds goose or duck
meat
8 ounces pork fat,
preferably fatback
1 scant tablespoon (17
grams) kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon (3 grams)
Insta Cure No. 1
1/4 cup dry milk (optional)
1 tablespoon minced fresh
rosemary
5 cloves garlic, finely
minced (about 2
tablespoons)
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 tablespoon freshly
ground pepper
10 to 20 feet hog casings
1/4 cup red wine, chilled
6. Let the sausages hang at room temperature at least an hour, and
up to overnight if you can hang them in a place where it’s no warmer than about 45°F.
7. Once they’ve hung, smoke them in your smoker until they hit an
internal temperature of about 150°F. I prefer to smoke over cherry
wood, but it’s your choice.
Adventure Outdoors Summer 2015 103