Last week in my “Garde Manger” class we made sausages as a group project. Our chef ground up 20lbs of Pork Shoulder for us to use and we each had about 2lbs to season for ourselves to take home.
If you have never made your own homemade sausage, it is surprisingly easy to do at home with just a few specialty tools to stuff the sausage skin with. You can have your butcher grind up the pork shoulder for you and then add your own seasonings to taste.
If you have a Kitchen Aid, things get even easier with their sausage making attachments such as these:
Kitchen Aid Mixer
Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer Attachment Pack 2 with Food Grinder, Rotor Slicer & Shredder, and Sausage Stuffer
Of course you will still need some sausage casings, natural or synthetic, to make your homemade sausages and you can easily find those online as well. As far as seasoning mixes, there are so many variations you can make that it would take me weeks to list all of the recipes available. Here is what I used for my 2lbs of ground pork shoulder:
3 tbs kosher salt
7 tbs smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper flakes
This combination provided a great flavor balance with just a bite of heat to balance things out. You could grind up the fennel seed if you like before using it in the seasoning mix.
Here is my 2 lbs of homemade sausage!
After I carefully twisted my long roll of sausage into sandwich size links, I fired up my Camp Chef Somerset II Gas Grill with the BBQ/Grill box attachment to start grilling my sausages.
Of course, with my Somerset II Grill, I have an extra burner available for my cast iron skillet.
In goes some red bell pepper and onion slices with a bit of olive oil and butter.
When my sausages where almost finished grilling (remember to cook till the internal temperature reaches 165°F) I added some of the mixed seed sandwich rolls I love so much to the grill for a little toasting.
My Camp Chef Somerset II Grill made short work of this lunch menu!
Once everything was done cooking, I put my homemade sausage sandwich together with the sauteed red bell peppers and onions, some sharp cheddar cheese and yellow mustard.
So delicious!
