Loving my new Christmas present!!

[LilyD]

My husband was so amazing for Christmas. He got me a Kitchen-aid mixer and got me the meat grinding attachment to go with it. The cool thing is that it comes with the stuff to stuff sausage links and make hot dogs. So I have been looking about online for good chicken and pork sausage link recipes. I also might try hot dogs once I get the hang of things.

Does anyone else make sausage? I was thinking that would be a great use for my older stewing birds since we love having sausage links.

Tried to upload a picture from my camera but couldn't do it so I found one on the web to show you hopefully the link works

 

[booker81]

I use the box mixes for breakfast sausage for venison - LOVE the breakfast sausage mix. I mix it with everything

I add either straight beef or pork fat, or if I can find it, smoked whole jowl bacon because it's very fatty to get a good 20% fat mix. The kit I use is the Eastman Outdoors mixes, can find it by the hunting supplies usually. I just make it in 1lb bags, and make patties, but have made bratwurst before with the kits and stuffed the links.

I've also used the Hi Mountain summer sausage kits as well, for deer.

I've not done chicken sausage, only because I have so much deer sausage, and usually stew the older chickens

 

[galanie]

Here's my favorite links for sausage (pun intended!)

http://www.panix.com/~clay/cookbook/bin/table_of_contents.cgi?sausage

 

[Renee']

You'll absolutely LOVE the ground beef, made by your machine. Make sure you follow the directions and partially freeze the meat before grinding. I think it makes the best burgers ever and the best part is that you are totally in control of the amount of fat.

 

[KBlue]

I also recommend grinding some pork shoulder too. It has just the right amount of meat/fat and makes delicious meatballs/hamburgers/meatloaf/etc.

We don't have the sausage attachment at the moment, but it is on my list!

 

[Oregon Blues]

I have been making sausage in the bulk form, testing recipes. I just received a meat grinder for Christmas this year, so will start making link sausage.

You are going to discover that casings are quite expensive, so I intend to continue to make a batch of bulk sausage with any new recipe to make absolutely certain that we like the taste before I use the expensive casings with a new recipe.

I have been making sausage with elk and either duck fat or goose fat. The duck fat works better. The goose fat melts at such a low temperature that it melts out of the sausage. Although, it would not be able to melt out of a cased sausage.

I will be putting in more fresh herbs this year, because fresh herbs make a world of difference. I plan to make sausage out of chicken, duck, and goose, as well as pork and beef. I've had home made chicken sausage that contained apple and that was very nice.

There are tons of sausage recipes on-line.

Those hot dogs that you want to make (and the Bratwurst that my son wants) are emulsified sausage and a bit trickier to make, but should be a million times better than store bought.

 

[LilyD]

Love the site I already have a list of sausages that I want to try. I guess my next purchase is going to have to be a smoker though so I can smoke my own sausage

 

[LilyD]

You'll absolutely LOVE the ground beef, made by your machine. Make sure you follow the directions and partially freeze the meat before grinding. I think it makes the best burgers ever and the best part is that you are totally in control of the amount of fat.

I did ground beef last night and used it for tacos believe it or not. I can get steaks pretty cheap from my local processor and it's cheaper to use steaks for burger than to actually buy burger from the store that is junkie. My tacos were the best ever!!

I also recommend grinding some pork shoulder too. It has just the right amount of meat/fat and makes delicious meatballs/hamburgers/meatloaf/etc.

We don't have the sausage attachment at the moment, but it is on my list!

I have about 20 tubes of ground pork shoulder which makes amazing meatballs. I love to mix it with the ground hamburger to make a 50/50 meatball. Then bake them before I put them in the sauce. Sooo good....

 

[r4eboxer]

GreAt! I am about to put an order in for the grinder attachment myself. Love my mixer too!

 

[LilyD]

Those hot dogs that you want to make (and the Bratwurst that my son wants) are emulsified sausage and a bit trickier to make, but should be a million times better than store bought.

I found a bunch of sites online but most of them say that you have to smoke the sausage after you put it in the casing and as of yet I don't have a smoker. Some of the chicken recipes say that you can boil them until they reach 152 internal temp but I am not sure how I would know they are at that temp internally so still trying to figure that out.

I found 3 recipes for hot dogs and they don't seem too bad mainly you run them through the grinder several times switching the blades for the finer blades each time so that it gets almost like paste. I figure it's worth it if I can make a beef hot dog that's all natural with not preservatives. The kids love them in the summer so if I can make them up during the winter we will be set for BBQ time and won't have to buy them. I found places online to buy casings that sell quite a bit of casings but you are totally right they are expensive. It looks like there are a lot in the package though so if it can make a lot of hot dogs with one package it still might be worth it. My last package of natural casing hot dogs was about 8 dollars a pound and that wasn't even a name brand one just generic. Plush Kosher beef natural casing are even more expensive and those are the ones I really like best. I just called my butcher and asked them to put in an order for more steaks for me when they get more steers in to do and 5 or 6 good size chuck roasts so I can give it a try. I will let you know how it goes.