lips and assholes...
The single most greatest thing about making your own sausage is that you get to see exactly what goes into it. No one can say that my sausage is filled with lips and assholes...
We stuffed all of the sausage (that we made yesterday afternoon) into casings this morning using the hand-press sausage stuffer. We had some blowouts (working the sausage down into the casings is tricky business especially if you like a firm pack on the Polish and Brats) which caused some consternation but for the most part it went smoothly. The hand-press stuffer made quick work of each type but it was definitely a two-person operation.
The Brats, Polish and Italian are all "fresh" sausage which means that the meat isn't cooked and only lasts a few days in the fridge. We saved a few of these to eat this coming week but the rest went into the freezer for our big smokeout at the beginning of April.
The French cervelas were stuffed and then tied and poached exactly like a boudin. The Spanish chorizo was baked for 3 hours at 200° and then cooled. These two last about 10 days in the fridge because they're cooked. We froze most of the chorizo and ate the French cervelas tonight. We brought a sample of each to Tom and Carol for lending us the sausage stuffer.
How did they turn out? The French cervelas were very good. We had them semi-cold with some grain mustard and a salad. The pistachios really permeated the meat and lent lots of nuttiness. The one small plate grind seemed to be enough to make that smooth boudin-like texture.
We broke open one of the chorizo and thought they were nice tasting but we'll see when we do tapas mid-month at the next Gourmet Club event.
The Brats, Italian and Polish were all tasted before stuffing (the French and chorizo too) by forming a small patty and frying them. The Polish was the best tasting, the Brats had the best texture and nice flavor and the Italians were pretty good. I was a bit wary of the bulk spices and the Italians proved my fear--I'll do my own blend next time but the Polish were outstanding and I'll use the bulk spice for them next time.
The Brat bulk sausage was very moist (from the milk) and spit a lot in the pan. The texture was near perfect. I'm looking forward to these later in the week.