Special Feature! If you
have Microsoft Excel on your computer, you can download an Excel version of
the SausageMania sausage recipe automated ingredient calculator by clicking HERE.
(The file should download to your machine and then automatically open in Excel.)
Each recipe is set for one pound of ground pork; all you do is enter the actual
weight of ground pork you have on hand, and all the other ingredients will
be automatically calculated for you!
Here's a screenshot of SausageMania's free Excel spreadsheet Ingredient Calculator. Just enter the weight, in pounds, of your ground sausage mix (the orange number), and all the other ingredients will instantly be calculated. Columns I, II and III are all the same quantities, but in different units, for ease of use. For example, in Row25, "Salt," it shows 8 tablespoons, or 1/2 cup. Use the cup measurement for the larger-quantity ingredients. (Because the spreadsheet "rounds down," very small quantities, such as "Cayenne pepper" in Row 14, show up as "zero" cups.) Just use the most convenient column. |
SausageMania
will also give you step-by-step instructions on how to set yourself
up for sausage-making, how to avoid common sausage-making pitfalls, where
to order fine-quality sausage paraphernalia and supplies... and many other
pointers that will help you make professional sausages from the get-go!
Sorry,
no game recipes...... all SausageMania Sausage Recipes call for pure
pork..... with 20 to 30% fat..... no preservatives other than good old NaCl...
that is, sodium chloride, A.K.A. salt..... which is the Latin root of the
word "sausage" itself! No veal, beef, fish, potatoes, tripe, mutton,
venison, moose, caribou, antelope, kangaroo, jackrabbit, armadillo, opossum,
rattlesnake, razor clams, wildebeest or elephant..... nothing but good, old
PORK, "the other white meat."
If you
can get unseasoned ground pork, you really don't need a grinder to turn out
excellent sausages. Costco regularly carries unseasoned ground
pork, about 20-25% fat. As of December, 2011 Costco ground pork is selling for $2.29/lb. here in Anchorage, where we have to pay the freight from Seattle. So "Outside" (which is how we Alaskans refer to "The Lower 48"), it should be somewhat less costly.
Store-bought sausages sell for $4.99-$8.99/lb, and sometimes even more, (at
high-end Yuppie merchants like igourmet.com or Williams-Sonoma,
where it sells from $12.00 to $16.50/lb!). Even including the cost of seasonings
and casing, and amortizing the cost of your stuffer (and/or grinder), you'll
be getting custom-made sausage at bargain prices, plus you get all the excitement
of actually making it yourself. And..... last but not least.... you will
know
exactly what goes into your sausages! Keep Otto von Bismarck's famous saying in mind: "One should never be present when laws or sausage are being made," unless you make it yourself, that is!
But
if you insist on grinding your own meat, the grinder you need is really
dictated
by the amount of sausage you plan to make at each session. A Cusinart or
even
a small "Walmart special" grinder will suffice if all you are making
is two or three pounds in a session. But for quantities over 10-15 lbs.,
you
need something bigger and better.
Chop-Rite,
of Harleysville, PA, has been making cast iron hand grinders from the same
molds for more than 100 years (although the company changed hands twice in
the last century). Their #22 bolt-down hand grinder, which takes standard
#22 blades and plates, is a sturdy machine that will outlast you and your
kids. Chop-Rite sells a flywheel, by special order
only, to replace the hand crank, so
that the machine can be motorized. We've used a motorized
#22 Chop-Rite grinder for 35 years. It's over-powered, with a 3/4hp motor
(the manufacturer recommends a 1/3hp motor), but it will grind five pounds
a minute (that's 300 lbs/hour!) for hours at a time (we've used it for butchering
moose and caribou).
There
are various high-end home grinders, built like miniature commercial ones,
but in the $350-500 price range. Commercial grinders make no sense at all
for the home or hobbyist sausage maker. They cost thousands of dollars new
and are extremely heavy (like the Biro
1556SS 15hp 220-volt 3-phase grinder, which weighs in at 796 lbs and wholesales
for $8,190).
