Sausages

Here is what wikipedia says about sausage: A sausage is a prepared food, usually made from ground meat (minced meat), ground pork fat such as fatback, salt, and spices (sometimes with other ingredients such as herbs). Typically the sausage is formed in a casing. Traditionally, sausage casings are made of animal intestines, though now some casings are synthetic. Some sausages are cooked during processing, and the casing may be removed after that. Sausage making is a traditional food preservation technique. Sausages may be preserved by curing, drying in cool air, or smoking. I would say that is a fair assessment, just a bit wordy. When it comes down to it, all sausage is seasoned ground meat that usually has some fat added. If you think about it, meatloaf is a loose sausage. I bring this point up because unless you have a resource like Uli's Famous Sausage (http://www.ulisfamoussausage.com/) most sausage available to you is utter and complete crap filled with things like corn syrup, soy protein, hydrogenated fats, etc... The scary thing is even some butcher shops use these unnecessary ingredients in their sausages. This is where Uli comes in. I used to work for him back in the day. He is a German Master Butcher and only makes his sausage from the highest quality ingredients. Yes you pay for it, but you are paying for the best sausage you will ever have. The only preservatives he uses are nitrates in his smoked sausage, I believe that is required by law. But, I digress. My whole point to this post is that you can make your own sausage at home. I have a kitchen aid that I use to grind the meat and stuff it into casing. But, you don't have to do that. All you have to do is buy ground meat, of your choice, and season it, and form it as you desire. You then have your own sausage. I am going to give a few recipes in this post that will not go into the recipe application. I will probably delete this post later, so if you want or like the recipes print them out and keep them. This is most likely a one time deal. These recipes stared their lives from different sources and have been modified until we were happy with them. My husband and myself are not our only guinea pigs, we have several willing victims, that we use regularly. Andouille 1 lb pork 1/2 T salt 1/2 chipotle 1/2 t cayenne 1/2 t sage 1/4 t nutmeg 1/2 t allspice 1/5 t black pepper 1/2 bay leaf 1/10 t thyme 1/2 clove garlic * this is great smoked Looking at these measurements you probably think I am insane, but we started with a larger batch and cut it down. I also have the measuring spoons with pinch, dash, smidge, etc... Hot Italian 1 lb ground pork 1/2 T salt 1/2 T red pepper flake (for sweet Italian only 1/4 T) 1/4 T fennel seeds 1 t marjoram 1 t sage 1 t basil 3 clove garlic You can search the web and find many sausages. It takes trial and error to find out what works for you. These recipes work for us and the people we know. Even though they say pork you could use chicken, or a combination of meats. I hope you are willing to give this a try. What have you got to lose?