There’s just nothing quite like homemade Italian sausage. By controlling the ingredients you put in, you can flavor it however you like,adding everything from juniper berry to fennel and red wine.

As daunting as it sounds (cubing meat, grinding it, seasoning it, and stuffing it), once you make your own sausage, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ve caught on.

Italian Sausage

So it tastes great AND it’s a confidence booster – what more do you want from your cooking?

What follows are some tricks of the Charcuterie Trade that you may find handy, especially if you’re preparing for your first go-round.

The Cut of Meat

Pork shoulder, all the way. Also called ‘Pork Butt’ or ‘Boston Butt,’ pork shoulder contains roughly a 25-30% fat to 75-80% meat ratio that is ideal for sausage.

When ground, the fat not only helps flavor the meat, it also keeps it moist during cooking and lubes your grinder while it does its job. If all you have on hand is some pork loin or other lean cut, grind in some raw, uncured bacon or fatback (lardons).

Cubing

Assuming you’re going to be grinding your own meat for Italian Sausage, be sure to cube your meat into pieces small enough to fit into the hopper that feeds the grinder.

Ideally, you want to be able to just drop the meat in and watch it sink down while the auger pushes it to the blade and out the grinding plate. A tamper accessory is available that allows you to push the meat down the feeding tube, but avoid it if you can.

If you have to shove the meat down, you’re going to be creating friction, and that causes heat, and heat is your worst enemy.

Keep Things Cold

As we just mentioned, you want to keep heat away as far away from your sausage as possible. If things get warm, you’re essentially sending an invitation to all bacteria in the area to come in and join your sausage-making party.

Keeping things as cold as you can keeps bacteria at bay, helps ensure a healthy end product. That means you’ve got to store your grinding parts (auger, knife, plate, etc) in the freezer, and keep the meat you grind as cold as possible while working with it.

Always – ALWAYS – grind the meat into a clean, stainless steel bowl sitting atop an ice bath of ice, water, and a pinch of salt.

Taste It

Once you’ve ground the meat and seasoned it, take a sample spoonful from the bowl and fry it up in a pan. Taste it, and you can judge if it needs more salt, or if it falls apart in the mouth too quickly. Give yourself a little preview before you commit to an entire batch.

The Casings

There are beef casings available for huge-diameter sausages and lamb casings for those of smaller girth, but for true Italian sausage, pork intestine is king.

Pork Casings

It’s strong enough to hold a good amount of meat, and when you cook it, it crisps up into that crunchy film your teeth have to punch through with every bite.

You can order pork casings from places online such as Amazon.

And just because it’s not stuffed doesn’t mean it’s not genuine Italian sausage.

You can grind and season it, and then just store it in an air-tight container as a free, loose sausage perfect for adding to pizza or just about any soup you could imagine.

So we hope you take on making your own Italian sausage. It’s a time-honored tradition in which every cook – professional or home – should take part.

Plus, it’s fun!

Grilled Italian Sausage Sandwiches

Grilled Italian sausage sandwiches are a popular choice at summer festivals around the country. The hot griddle caramelizes slices of sweet onions and green bell peppers while the sausages cook until their casings are browned and crispy. The meat and vegetables are placed on split rolls and eaten out of hand releasing a flood of spicy juices, usually directly onto the diner’s chin and shirt!

However, Italian sausage can be used many delicious ways beyond sandwiches.

Sausage Links

In traditional Italian cooking, link sausages are used to flavor Sunday sauce, served as a meat course, or as part of a hearty pasta dish. The sausage meat may also be crumbled in lasagna filling, as a pizza topping, used to flavor meatballs, or mixed into a frittata (Italian omelet).

Sausages are generally seen in links, although bulk sausage is commonly available. Bulk sausage is less attractive, but cooks more quickly and evenly and the flavor can be spread through a dish in a more uniform way.

The links are popular for eating out of hand, however are also more attractive in dishes where they will be presented whole. Sausage links are made by stuffing ground sausage meat into long casings. The most popular style of sausage casings are made from salt preserved pork intestines, but there are several other options available such as natural sheep casings.

Make Your Own Sausage

Of course, the best way to guarantee that your sausage will be fresh is to make it yourself. Making homemade sausage at home with a meat grinder is simple, though filling the casings is time consuming. You can make several pounds at a time and freeze the leftovers. Uncooked sausage will retain its full flavor in your freezer for one to two months and as long as three months if cooked before freezing.

Italian sausage is traditionally from ground pork and seasoned with anise or fennel. These fresh sausages can be either mildly spiced (generally referred to as “sweet”) or spicy, depending on the intended purpose. To lower the fat content, some people prefer to use turkey or chicken.

The pork butt is considered an ideal cut of meat for making sausage, though some recipes call for different cuts or additional pork fat. Putting the meat into the freezer for a short time before putting through the meat grinder will improve the texture of the final product and is often required for proper use of a grinder to prevent caking.

Sausage flavoring

Italian sausage made with pork can be flavored many ways. Adding the seasonings for pasta sauces directly to the meat, such as pesto, result in sausages that are classic Italian without any of the mess of sauce. Mixing in broccoli raab, cheese and parsley, or onions and peppers are also delicious with pork sausage.

For poultry sausages, boneless white meat may end up dry if used by itself. Adding fruit or vegetables to the meat grinder will give the sausages more moisture and widen the range of flavors. Apple is a common pairing with poultry, but stone fruits and tropical fruits are also popular.

Italian sausages are national favorites and for good reason. These sausages are delicious, easy to prepare and have infinite flavor variations. Don’t be intimidated by the thought of making them from scratch. They’re easy and worth the effort.

Salume, or preserved meats, are found through all twenty regions of Italy. Most of these meats are made from pork, but depending on the location, wild game, poultry and beef may be used to make salume as well. Braseola, or salt cured beef, is one of the local specialties of the Lombardy region of Italy, found along the northern border.

What Is Braseola?

The most tender cut of beef is removed from the leg. All of the silver membranes and

Braseola

visible fat are removed. The trimmed meat is then heavily salted. It may also be flavored with red wine, garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg or juniper berries. The seasoned meat may then placed into a natural beef casing.

Using a casing slows the drying process, giving the inside of the meat enough time to dry safely before the outside is completely dry, though some butchers prefer to skip this step. Drying takes anywhere from one to three months. The finished product will ultimately be as much as 40% lighter than the original piece of meat, thanks to the substantial loss of moisture.

How Is Braseola Eaten?

When the meat has finished curing, it can be served without further preparation. The texture is silky and lean, similar to a good proscuitto.  The best results come from using a meat slicer to ensure even, paper thin slices. When first sliced, the inside of the meat may appear reddish, but contact with air will cause the meat to darken to burgundy or almost purple.

For diners who choose to avoid pork products, it is a good substitute in antipasto recipes. Braseola is traditionally served on a cheese platter with olives, pickled vegetables and hearty pieces of bread.

It is popular offered on a bed of mesclun or arugula, lightly splashed with high quality extra virgin olive oil and coarsely cracked peppercorns. You can also layer thin slices of braseola into an Italian sub sandwich along with a selection of other Italian cheeses and cured meats, fresh vegetables and a piquant herbed vinaigrette.

Where Can Braseola Be Found?

This meat has become popular recently because it is one of the simplest forms of beef salume that can be made at home. Over the past decade, several books have been published with detailed instructions, plenty of photographs or drawings and critical information about preventing dangerous bacterial contamination.

Using grass fed, well trimmed beef with the required curing agents and strictly maintaining safe temperature and humidity ranges will result in delicious Italian style cured meat. This particular salume requires a meat slicer for the traditional, melt in your mouth translucent slices.

Truthfully, while these directions are now easily found on the Internet and in bookstores, I still prefer to purchase my braseola from my local Italian butcher. I am very fortunate to live near Fleisher’s, a butcher specializing in grassfed and organic meats.

If you do not have a local Italian butcher, Googling “grassfed salumi” will give you lots of mail order sources. Unlike some other foods, braseola’s flavor and texture will not be compromised by overnight shipping, but you will want to make sure that it is packed with dry ice in order to stay fresh. The price per pound is not inexpensive, but individual servings are relatively light, making it an affordable luxury.

My husband, mother and I took a trip this past Saturday morning to go to our local Farmer’s Market.

I’m trying to get more into the local farmers frame of mind but I have a few reasons why I’ve been a little late to the party in that area (but I’ll save that for another post).

So we’re at this market and see that one of the vendors is selling 100% grass fed beef.   We were happy to see that so we decided to buy 2 lbs of the ground beef.

It is at that point I wish I could turn back the tables of time, but let’s move on.

Tonight we decided to make some hamburgers.   Now let me tell you grass fed beef smells different than grain fed beef.   It is a milder smell and not as strong.  It smells good.

Local Farmers Market

My husband decided to make them over the stove in a frying pan rather than on the grill.   He commented that they looked really fatty.   I took a look and sure enough lot of white fat could be seen.

That’s unusual I said – I would have thought it would have been much leaner.   So he started frying them and commented on how much grease was coming out.

It was then we figured they must have added in some fat so it wouldn’t be so lean.    Keep in mind healthy beef should not be supper fatty.   We do not know this for a fact that they added in extra fat so we plan on asking them next time we see them… but the seed of doubt has been planted.

Then he said, you know – we should have bought a slab of meat and ground it ourselves.

Knock knock… is anyone home up there?  We have a meat grinder here at home, why didn’t we think of that?!

I write about this so much – the advantages of grinding your own meat and here I lived it first hand.   Had we bought a chunk of meat and ground it ourselves we would have known for sure if anything had been added to to the grind and have total peace of mind.

Oh for the love of cooking… I should have thought of this before.   I wish I could turn back the clock.   Now we have another pound of fatty meat and I’m not happy about it.   I won’t use it in a meat loaf because I don’t want the grease, and I can honestly say that this grass fed beef would taste excellent in a meatloaf without the extra fat!

So there you have it – an honest to goodness example of why grinding your own meat is better than buying it already ground!

By the way, if you are interested in getting a meat grinder for yourself, check them out at Amazon and you’ll find them at real decent prices.

Liz
Simpleitaliancooking.com
Meat Grinder Reviews

When I consider adding herbs to my ground beef, images of meatloaf or meatballs come to mind – not hamburgers.

But in fact, today I’m writing about a recipe I found in an old Italian cookbook on my shelf.  The recipe is simply called, “herbed burgers”.

A note:  Whenever you are preparing a meat meal – remember that the quality of the meat will play a significant role in the flavor.   For this reason, if you have the ability to find a good cut of meat, ask the butcher to grind it in his meat grinder.  There is no extra charge for this.

On the other hand, if you have your own grinder (I have a review of the MG800 here), then use that.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef.   Aim for a 90/10 or at minimum 80/20.

1 clove chopped garlic

1 scallion chopped

3 Tablespoons fresh basil chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

salt and pepper

3 Tablespoons butter

Tomato Sauce:

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Medium onion chopped finely

11 oz. tomatoes, chopped

fresh basil leaves

3 to 4 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon sugar

1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar

salt and pepper

What to do:

1. Start by making the sauce.  Saute the onions in the olive oil over med. heat until translucent.
2. Add tomatoes and cook 2 or 3 minutes.
3. Add basil, cover pan and cook 8 minutes over med. heat.
4. Add water, sugar and vinegar and continue cooking another 2 or 3 minutes.
5. Season with salt and pepper.  Remove from heat to cool and use a strainer to strain the suace.
6. Now, mix meat wiht garlic, onions and herbs in a bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.
7. Make 4 patties.
8. Heat the butter in a frying pan until foam subsides – then add burgers.
9. Cook until brown on the bottom, turn and continue cooking until absolutely no pink is seen.
10. Remove from pan, place on plate.
11. Remove excess fat from pan, pour in sauce and bring to a boil.  Use this to deglaze the meat residue that was left.
12. Serve with the burgers.

Interestingly, this recipe does not use any rolls for the burgers.   I think adding in some Assiago cheese ontop or Romano would be nice.

It reminds me of how sometimes I make my meatless meatballs, just to eat as is – not with any pasta or anything else.  Just as is.

So it is with this recipe.

Have a tip?  Share it here!

Liz
www.simpleitaliancooking.com

Easy Italian Recipes