How to Make Home Made Garlic Sausage

Homemade sausage is easy to make, but making sausage does require some planning.  Safety first for sanitation and then having all the ingredients ready for grinding and stuffing.  Getting ready to grind may take longer than it does to grind, but the time spent organizing is necessary for proper sausage procedure.

Ingredients

Pork shoulder, sometimes called Boston Butt

Beef chuck

Pork Jowls or Fat back

Garlic powder

Dry mustard powder

Dry milk

Salt

Pepper

Prague Powder #1

Beef bung or hog casings

Tools

Stainless steel bowls

Meat ginder

Sausage stuffing machine

 

There is an old comment about how it is better not to see how laws or sausages are made.  I can tell you with certainty that sausage making is far cleaner and more wholesome.  Between the two, sausage making can at least be a family friendly event.  And you get sausage and peppers.

One of my all-time favorite sausages recipes is this garlic sausage.  This is a simple sausage to make but the simplicity doesn’t detract from the excellence of the product.  Great flavor and texture, it is juicy and makes a great sausage, pepper, and onion lunch.  Dinner. Breakfast.

 

If you don’t have a sausage stuffing machine and don’t plan to buy one, making patties is perfectly fine.  Freeze portions in a size you will use, say 12 oz, and add that to tomato sauce for a pasta sauce with fresh pasta.

Traditionally, beef bung is the casing for this sausage.  Casings of any kind may be difficult to find so I used hog casings, which are hotdog-sized.

I found that to be a perfect size for the kids.  It was also a good size when cut into rounds as a garnish in pasta dishes.  Or for breakfast.

This sausage is also a great choice for peppers and onions and tomatoes on the griddle all nice and caramelized and steamy.  Add some fresh herbs, thyme or rosemary, or oregano, for that extra special touch.

As much as the kids like the sausage, they were not pleased with the casing.  So, I removed that.  That’s easy enough and if you use bung, that most certainly has to come off before eating.

Making sausage requires sanitation

Sausage-making can risk inviting little creatures known as bacteria.

Sanitation of your hands, the tools, the counters, and your cutting boards is vital.  It is difficult to wash everything too much, especially your hands.

At issue is the exposed meat and the bacteria which like meat.  They eat and grow and make more bacteria and that can make you sick, even when the sausage is cooked.

Keep raw meat cold, cold, cold.  Work with a sense of urgency and clean as you go.  Ensure there is adequate storage space in the refrigerator to store the meat between steps.  Wash your work area often, clean up after yourself and you’ll stay ahead of the problem.

How to cook your garlic sausage

There are two ways to cook your garlic sausage: poach it or smoke it.

When I poach it, I start the sausage links in cold, salted water.  Cover the sausage with a clean kitchen towel to ensure all the sausage is in the water.  Cook on medium heat until the sausage reaches an internal temperature of 165° F.  When the sausage is done, carefully remove it to a sheet pan and place the pan of sausage in the cooler to chill quickly.

Smoking sausage

Smoked sausage, or smoked salmon or chicken or turkey, or, well, most anything is a real treat.

An extra treat is making your own hot or cold smoker for a fraction of the cost of the commercial smokers.

The picture is of a smoker you can build yourself.  The plans are PDF and are available from this affiliate here.

Rytek Kutas is probably the smartest sausage maker I’ve ever read.  Rytek’s book is called Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing, and you can use the hyperlink to order it from Amazon.  From smoking sausage to brining fish, I’ve found him indispensable.  The recipes work, which is important, but Rytek conveys his knowledge so you will succeed.

Building your own smoker is fine, but not everyone wants to or can.  Commercial hot smokers are a good way to get that smoke and cook done at the same time.  This Amazon link has a good few choices of hot smokers.

How to store your garlic sausage

Both poached and smoked links can be frozen in zip-top baggies.  I freeze 4 per baggie as that’s enough for everyone for 1 meal.

Bulk sausage can be made into patties.  I use the clear produce bags from the grocery store in between the patties so they can be separated.

Garlic sausage can last three months in the freezer.

Reheating your garlic sausage

Thaw your links at least one day before you want to serve them.  They can be grilled on low to medium heat.  The casing can stick and tear which looks unappealing but doesn’t hurt the finished product.

The garlic sausage links can also be browned in a pan and finished in the oven.  I like a slow brown to get a crispy casing.

In both cases, just reheating the sausage to 165° F is what’s needed.  Allow the sausage to rest a few minutes before you cut them to keep the fat and juices inside as much as possible.

Patties can be cooked from frozen in a medium hot pan. Frozen patties will spit a lot of fat so have a lid handy to keep the mess contained.

Prague powder to keep your garlic sausage safe

To get and keep an attractive pink color to your sausage, use Prague powder #1.  This is a nitrite and needs to be used correctly–.95 grams of powder per pound of meat.  That also works out to 1 teaspoon per 5 pounds of meat.  Prague powder does have the additional benefit of managing pathogenic organisms which may remain.  Those guys are un-welcomed.

In addition to keeping food safe, salts can also offer a flavor from a smoke or other infusions, putting that flavor deep into the sausage.  It’s pretty neat what we can do which was hard only 20 years ago.  Click this link and search for curing salt, also known as Prague Powder #1, as well as a selection of flavored salts.

The tools of the trade

If you are new to sausage making, the items shown below may look, well, odd.  Sausage stuffing can make pushing a shoelace uphill seem easy.

A sausage stuffer, like those on this Amazon page, holds the prepared sausage in the hopper and the crank presses the sausage into the tube which has the casing pulled over it.

You can see this in action in the video linked above.  I have stuffed sausage with the KitchenAid as well.  I find the hopper version a bit easier since it is table level, which is important, and the machine does add friction which can cause the fat to melt, ruining the emulsion.

The Rytek book I mentioned above is as stated, an excellent resource…but not for the novice.  Rytek’s recipes assume a level of skill and knowledge a sausage maker just starting might not have.

A digital thermometer is very useful, and handier than the dial thermometers.  There are both instant read types and thermometers designed to read the temperature of the food in an oven or a smoker.

Fret not. From the vast and many sausage making books with excellent explanations about the how and why, Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn authored an excellent book, Charcuterie, for all skill levels but especially helpful for the beginning sausage maker due to ample introductory material.

 

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