Fresh German Sausage Links

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...70_36989_36989

Sometimes you can catch them on sale around $100.

Not a mod, but I did buy the red stuffing tube, as I wanted a little bit larger tube than what comes with it. I don't much care for the 2 piece stuffing tubes that come with the grinder, although they do work OK once you get going.

Look at my sausage making blog for how I like to make sausage.

http://homesausagemaker.blogspot.com/

As you know there are lots of ways to go about it, but sausage is hardly more than ground meat with spices in it. Lots of ways to handle it from there.

To answer your questions directly.

For the Packer Brisket: I cube up the entire thing, separating the lean and fat into 2 piles. I weight each, and try to mix the fat back to the lean at right around 30% fat. This also helps to evenly distribute the fat with the lean.

For the Pork Butt: Everyone says that a pork butt is about 30-35% fat, so I just cube it up and add it to the beef cubes.

I dissolve the Instacure in a few ounces of warm water, and pour it evenly over the meat cubes. I'm only using a small amount of water, so it has very little effect on the temp of the meat.

I put all the dry spices in a old spice rub shaker jar with large holes. I sprinkle the spice liberally over the meat cubes, and then stir all of the meat cubes up by hand. I do this 4 times, apply about 1/4 of the spice at a time mixing between each application, so in the end the spices and Instacure are very well mixed, as well as the fat/beef/pork.

I usually place the meat back in the refrigerator over night, but I have ground and cased right away, and can tell no real difference. Depends on what time I have to do it.

Yes, I like to grind and stuff in one fell swoop. I use a medium sized grind plate, and my sausage is semi-course, but with no chunks in it.

Casing and linking is not difficult out of the grinder as long as you only grind once. On sausage that requires 2 grinds, I use my LEM stuffer.

This is just how I do it. I like KISS methods, and hate cleaning up, so I use as little hardware as I can and still get the job done.

Hope this helps.

Jerry
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