Home made sausages

[Malibu]

Every time I come up with a new idea, my Mrs rolls her eyes and I can hear her brain... "Here he goes again..." at which point, she'll say "Yes dear, if you want to".

Naturally, I'm always right in the end [ :rolleyes: ], (she'd walk over broken glass bare foot to get to my home made bread and 9 hours to make tomato sauce is worth every single second of cooking time), and I've always wanted to make home made sausages.
But, when I suggest it her eyes roll as usual. Strangely, I've got the same thoughts as her and that is - Is it ~really~ worth it?

So, my question - does anyone here make their own snags, and after it's all said and done.... are they worth the effort?

[BobL]

A couple of my Italian and Slav mates and relatives make their own and they are so good so I am VERY tempted to have a go.
I even added a mincer/sausage stuffer to my Xmas wish list - but still no luck as yet.

The best thing about home made sausages is you know what goes into them.
Having worked at a butcher for a supermarket I know what goes into shop made sausages, and it is not pretty.

My mates recipe uses pure pork and veal (ie no gristle, or snouts and entrails), garlic, parsley, lard, salt and a bottle of good red. Of course they are not cheap as they work out to about $16/kg but tastewise they are to die for.
My other mate uses pork, beef, lard, salt garlic and chili - also awesome!

One of my Italian cousin makes soft Italian salamis for a living in Italy, now his sausages are really something - secret recipe though, he says he will tell me when he retires - not long for him either.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=252462&stc=1

[I_wanna_Shed]

I've also thought about it, but mainly home made pepperoni. Three guys at work make it and each year we have a tasting to see womis that year's champion. They are all the best pepperonis and salamis I've ever had.

Every butcher has a range of sausage flavours now (lamb and mint is y favourite), it would be great to experiment with different things. Go for it!

[Big Shed]

We buy the bull boar sausages made by some of the Goldfields butchers, they are excellent

Bull-boar sausage

http://cookiescrumblerecipes.blogspot.com.au/2009/05/bullboar-sausages.html (http://slowfoodaustralia.com.au/our-work/australia/australian-ark/bull-boar-sausage/)

[enelef]

Home made bangers are so worth it. Go for it. :D
You get to choose what is in them , falvours, meats etc.

Best to get a couple of mates to go in it with you because it is not 'really' worth making a kilo of two and you will need at least two people - one to run the meat through the mincer and the other to control the skins, and possible one or two more to tie the bangers and to provide breaks for the first two.

Depending of preferences, you start with around 10Kg of meat, find a good butcher and talk to them on the qty and the skins.
Once you have flavoured the meat, cook a bit to test the taste before putting them in the skin.
The more flavour you put in, the longer you should let the meat and/or the completed sausage rest/hang.

And always remember - good things take time. Plan it out, mix it up, have a beer or red or two and enjoy yourself

[Malibu]

And always remember - good things take time. Plan it out, mix it up, have a beer or red or two and enjoy yourself

Yeah, that is MY kind of cooking! Although, you forgot to mention a bit of music through the speakers... Blues work for me, with a couple of glasses of malt scotch :2tsup:

Sounds like I'm headed for home made snags in the future. I've got a Kitchen Aid mixer thingy to knead my bread dough and I know there's mincer/sausage attachments for it as well. Maybe I'll invest and get stuck into it.

Now the hard bit. "But hun... they'll be better than the bought ones!" :D

Appreciate all the input, I'll let you know how it all goes (at least, when ever it all gets to happen!)

[Stewie D]

Homemade snags are definitely worth it. Experiment first and work out your favourite recipe. Make 5-10 kilos because just making one or two is hardly worth the effort if you look at all the cleaning of your mincer , bowls etc. Some of the ones we have made in the past have been rabbit, chicken, venison, pork and sometimes a combo of the two. Add your favourite herbs, some wine or spirit and some garlic and/or onion and away you go. We also used to pad out the sausages with fine breadcrumbs as it made the basic mix go further as well as tone down some of the stronger flavours.

Stewie