Now that I have my kitchen back, I can get back into sausage making. Over the summer and fall, while I was remodeling, I kept a running list of sausages I wanted to try. As I came across recipes in books and whatnot, I took a picture of the recipe or idea, and then transcribed them to a running document. I had some garlic left over from Thanksgiving that I wanted to use up, so I tried one of the garlic sausage recipes I had on hand:
I began by cubing 5 pounds of pork shoulder.
I wanted something more consistent than "10 cloves" so I took a baseline weight measurement of the garlic. Later, I could use this to determine a more accurate amount.
I prefer to fully mash garlic in sausages to better spread the flavor. I mixed the salt from the recipe and the garlic in my mortar and pestle to make a paste.
Much better.
I transferred this to a mixing bowl and whisked in the rest of the ingredients.
This mixture was poured over the meat cubes and then thoroughly tossed to mix as best as possible.
I ran the cubes through the course plate on my grinder (just a preference) and then the LEM stuffer served its purpose again.
I began linking them up.
I live in Cincinnati, and I didn't feel like digging my grill out from the mound of snow, so I just used my oven. 425 until the IT hit 160. This is what they looked like.
I served it with some roasted garlic (roasted in the same oven as the sausages). Delicious!
Long story short, I liked them. The garlic was definitely a dominant flavor, but not overbearing. The way I see it, if it is called Garlic Sausage, I don't want the garlic to be subtle. Pure Garlicheads out there would want to increase the weight of the garlic, but I liked it at 1.3 ounces. I might make it 1.5, just to kick it up a touch, but not beyond that. The 1.3 ounces still allowed the other flavors to come through. I think the chives would add a nice touch, but I think that I will keep using the white wine instead of the red, but again, just a personal preference.
5-lbs ground pork
8-tsp minced garlic, about 10 cloves
5-tsp fresh coarsely ground black pepper
3-tsp red pepper flakes
5-tsp salt
5-tsp paprika
½-cup chopped fresh chives (omitted from this recipe, because I didn't have any on hand)- 1-cup red wine (I used white, because it's what I had around the house at the time)
I began by cubing 5 pounds of pork shoulder.
I wanted something more consistent than "10 cloves" so I took a baseline weight measurement of the garlic. Later, I could use this to determine a more accurate amount.
I prefer to fully mash garlic in sausages to better spread the flavor. I mixed the salt from the recipe and the garlic in my mortar and pestle to make a paste.
Much better.
I transferred this to a mixing bowl and whisked in the rest of the ingredients.
This mixture was poured over the meat cubes and then thoroughly tossed to mix as best as possible.
I ran the cubes through the course plate on my grinder (just a preference) and then the LEM stuffer served its purpose again.
I began linking them up.
I live in Cincinnati, and I didn't feel like digging my grill out from the mound of snow, so I just used my oven. 425 until the IT hit 160. This is what they looked like.
I served it with some roasted garlic (roasted in the same oven as the sausages). Delicious!
Long story short, I liked them. The garlic was definitely a dominant flavor, but not overbearing. The way I see it, if it is called Garlic Sausage, I don't want the garlic to be subtle. Pure Garlicheads out there would want to increase the weight of the garlic, but I liked it at 1.3 ounces. I might make it 1.5, just to kick it up a touch, but not beyond that. The 1.3 ounces still allowed the other flavors to come through. I think the chives would add a nice touch, but I think that I will keep using the white wine instead of the red, but again, just a personal preference.