Yesterday I shared the recipe for my Italian Beef Sausage. After discovery the fabulous deliciousness of making my own spiced meat, I had to try making my own REAL sausages!
The Products
I gathered my nerve and asked KitchenAid if they would send me their KitchenAid Sausage Stuffer and they said yes! I so ADORE KitchenAid! See, I already had bought their food grinder. When I received their Sausage Stuffer by mail I thought I was all set to go.
Oh wait! I realized. Um… I need sausage casings, don’t I?!
Pete’s Frootique to the rescue! I wanted to get the synthetic casings but they proved to be ridiculously expensive so I got the pork casings (only a couple of bucks) and they also gave me some great advice on how to make sausages which I share in my video.
Now I was set! I had my KitchenAid mixer, food grinder, sausage stuffer, Italian beef sausage meat and the casings. I was ready to go! You can see me using my meat grinder for the first time here BTW.
The Technique
So what was next? Making the sausages!!! Oh I had such tech troubles while making this video but I think it covers the technique on how to do so pretty darn well.
The Results
They are not perfect and do not look factory-made. At all. So I will dub them “artisan sausages,” LOL. The twisting into the shape was easier to do than I thought it would be. Those casing are also pretty darn tough! I did not bust any of them, I am proud to say.
I sautéd and browned them in some olive oil.
I added red wine and tomato sauce to braise them in, covering the pot.
Wow, they looks so REAL! Real sausages by yours truly!
Foodie Results
So dry! OMG, so dry. As my Mom would say, “Blech!” LOL. OK, so a spiced meat recipe does not necessarily translate into delicious sausages damn it. Still, I ate them all. I was not letting all that work go to waste.
Thank you KitchenAid!
I hope I did not let you down KitchenAid! As I was working on the video yesterday I checked my mail and your holiday card was there in my mailbox! You totally made my day and I promise, I will make better sausages in the future. Now that I know it is not hard to do, nothing can stop me.
For those of you who know about sausage-making, please check out my wishlist. There are a couple of books there and I would love to know if you have read them or could recommend any for me.
I am not giving up! There will be fabulous sausages made in my kitchen in 2014!
I’ve look at different attachment for kitchen aid mixer but never had the nerve to get any of them. But the sausage stuff seem fairly easy to use.
Coffee is on
Dry? I bet there wasn’t enough fat in your meat or in your mixture. Fat is what makes sausages work. No way around that.
Dora, the sausages were pretty easy! The hard part was adjusting cameras and batteries while my hands were covered in shortening and sausage goo. The actual sausage making isn’t hard, it does require some muscle to push it through but I am going to try again.
Debra, yes, I think that is what was wrong. I used lean beef and some people add water to their sausages, probably to prevent them from drying out. Live and learn and try again!
Adding pork helps.
I was thinking AWESOME! Then the “so dry” haha. I don’t have a kitchen aid though. I don’t even have a mixer after my last $14 hand jobber (that sounds bad) bit the dust. I just stir stuff by hand. Ahh the poor life. Maybe they will send me a mixer if I ask them?? 😉