Homemade Sausage Making

With being confined from travel with Covid I have found myself really diving into processing. No spring get away to Mexico or to train in Thailand so I'm keeping the chamber full. I posted earlier about wanting to do a large caliber summer sausage in a textured casing my friend gave me from Germany. Last Monday I cut, sorted and salted/cured some moose and pork to make Marianski's summer sausage.
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausag ... er-sausage. I cut the sugars back to just 5g of dextrose and that's it.
Thursday night I made the sausage and put it to ferment. Will go in the smoker tomorrow.
I also picked up some bulk pork loins on sale a month ago and they have been equilibrium curing in Vac bags for Schinken for over 3 weeks. Those I took out and washed and hung to dry last night. They go for cold smoke today and tonight. I was given a small BBQ pig that a customer ordered last summer then cancelled. Has been frozen since then. Last thursday I put the head, feet and hocks into brine for Marianski's traditional head cheese. They brined for 5 days and wednesday I made the head cheese and stuffed it into 120mm waterproof casings and poached it.
I thawed some moose and lamb trim yesterday for Merquez. It gets cubed and salted this morning and make the Merquez tomorrow.
I killed a beef cow this fall for a friend that was prolapsed so I got that all for free. I have a piece of brisket thawed that will be made into corned beef. I'll put that into spice and vac bag sometime this weekend when I can squeeze it in.
Here is my summer sausage before fermenting, and the head cheese.

Looking good!

WOW - you're really busy with that good looking staff..

Nice work Don! You are making me feel guilty since I haven't made anything for a few weeks. What is the product in the orange casing? You mentioned headcheese, but that does not look like it.

Wow! Looks great! You have been busy. I've been toying with the idea of butchering a cow myself as I have one that I fear would just as soon kill me than look at me. I'm vacillating on this because I usually don't care for grass-fed beef and the chances of me getting her in a pen to grain her is very slim. (She's shown me she has gazelle-like qualities). Your post has given me a bump and maybe I should chance it because keeping her will not be good for my health I'm afraid and craziness can be contagious in a herd of cattle.

Hi Chris. That is the head cheese! I followed Marianski's recipe for "traditional head cheese". The meats were ground through a 5mm plate after the brining and cooking. I also ground the skin twice through a 3 mm plate. The recipe also called for potato starch which I've never used before. I added just enough broth t the batter to make it into a wet slurry, rather than kind of floating the meat chinks in the broth/jelly like normal head cheese. My German friend said this was just like the Schwartenwurst his dad made with ground pork skin too. It turned out very nice and has a very firm texture.

Butterbean wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 27, 2021 17:30

Wow! Looks great! You have been busy. I've been toying with the idea of butchering a cow myself as I have one that I fear would just as soon kill me than look at me. I'm vacillating on this because I usually don't care for grass-fed beef and the chances of me getting her in a pen to grain her is very slim. (She's shown me she has gazelle-like qualities). Your post has given me a bump and maybe I should chance it because keeping her will not be good for my health I'm afraid and craziness can be contagious in a herd of cattle.

All our Alberta beef are grass fed, and like your this one was a real Cranky "old cow" and with the market prices in the toilet here for old flesh cows he said come get it. It took a run at me in the pen and I ended that with my Winchester lever 44 Mag.
It actually still had a bit of whiter fat on it too, not the dark orange that the real old flesh cows have. Been making great sausage and burger as well.

Winchester 44 lever mag! I love it!! yeee haww

Albertaed wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 28, 2021 03:01

Winchester 44 lever mag! I love it!! yeee haww

I shot 3 beef with it this summer/fall. Boy it flattens them quick!

My wife said since my equipment would be dirty tomorrow couldn't I make some pizza pepperoni! Well I took out another moose roast and a pork loin to thaw! I have a small amount of a pepperoni mix from Halfords I should use up, and thought I'd try some of the Halfords old world sausage Conditioner that I bought a while back before I started using cultures. It's a mixture of dextrose and GDL. My friend gave me some small 43 mm protein lined casings he brought in from Germany. I have 3.5 kg of meat so if it doesn't turn out great I'm not out too much. Good thing I get up at 5 every morning!

Sounds like a plan!

Hey Ed, If the time stamp is right you're an early riser too. Just came in for coffee, it's 6:30 now and the Merquez is done and the smoker is on!

Lol I actually slept in today. No sausage today I’ve Gotta tackle the honeydo list. Let us know how it turns out,

05:00 start this morning and was done by noon except the cold smoking.
Merquez:



Pizza Pepperoni ready to ferment:


Summer sausage and Schinken Speck in the cold smoke:


Corned beef is in a vac bag in the cure!
Even had time to go for a snowmobile ride this afternoon!

It all looks good! I’m making corned beef next weekend.I’m been dying for a Reuben sandwich.