Home made pork sausages by my Italian family

[17hornet 188]

I think that will be enough for a good tasting of our work.

Give you guys the break for comments and questions and I will move more up say in a day or two.

Plenty of pics to come of sausages etc.

 

The thought also occurred that I have done some write ups of pasta sauce making and I think pasta also, any takers after this pork article is finished ??

Edited November 27, 2017 by 17hornet

[forest of dean redneck 11,735]

Wow that's quite an indepth write up.

interesting about the skin being sliced into strips .here gets left on the roasting joints to make crackling.

any differences of opinions culinarily wise of eating the pork

No making frikadellens etc

[17hornet 188]

We do the roast pork thing too with "Crack" as the inlaws call it, its just that this lot was expressly processed for small goods, these last all year and are at all the family gatherings as part of the 'antipasto' snacks.

Roast pork is VERY popular with the Italians of any region, trust me, around where we live I have made friends with all the older Italians, even saved a gentlemans life just down the road once, he's still ticking. LOL  The oldies appreciate you knowing parts of their culture and some help, along with simple respect.

[17hornet 188]

No making frikadellens etc ??

Oh man... you just made me feel and taste something my Mother used to make when I was a kid, she passed away last year.

WOW, that is freaky, but I thank you for the memory refresher as it holds many emotions for me, a big thanks.

 

[Mister Gain 1,764]

Do you cure the back fat for Lardo di Colonnata as antipasti? It is something I always fancied trying but unfortunately most of the pork here is bred leaner.

 

[17hornet 188]

MG, I have not seen this done by the In-laws, but no doubt they have done it before, I'll get the answers soon.

 

 

[17hornet 188]

This sort of meat with fat goes into the Salami and the liver sausage mix.

Last year a few of these went down my throat, this year I only had 3x glasses of home made red.

Leaner white meat for the plain pork sausage, notice the meat is just mixed up on top of a wooden table, (WELL greased by pig fat)
it is ready for the right levels of fat to be added for the type of sausage.

Each batch of meat for each sausage type is weighed to determine the salt, pepper, chili and other things
that are mixed in first before mincing that batch.

This is our high tech measuring and calculating station for the herbs and spices etc

The measured items waiting for the meat to be spread over the table and hand mixed

Two batches of meat on the table, one ready to go thru the mincer, a plain pork mix,
and the Feghetto liver sausage raw bits ready for the salt, pepper and chili.

Thats some lung

There is some heart

You will see there are pieces of orange skin and garlic cloves mixed in also, it has a distinct flavour in the sausage.
and great fun for the kids to throw into the mincer

Edited November 29, 2017 by 17hornet

[17hornet 188]

 

Mixing and Mincing

The meat in being minced now it helps to also mix the ingredients, the kids all get into it even if they dont stick it out
they pitch in too. My eldest and youngest on the rhs of the pic - teach them while you can.

Different meat blend here, my no2 and no3 kids shared this job

Once the ingredients are minced, we fry up a sample and taste it to see if it needs more of anything added,
rarely do we add extra, and the bonus is getting a GOOD spoonful to tide you over to the next sample.

A finished batch waiting to be put into skins and hung to cure, there are 4 batches to put into skins.

The women have finished prepping the BBQ meat and I'm hanging for that, so much so that I offered to get it going,
got told off, still work to do!

[17hornet 188]

 

Sausage SKIN's and MORE

So many of us just dont know, and dont have the opportunity to find out from family or friends
about doing this sort of work with food, unless you get introduced to it.

I write these things up because I hope that others will try to do it or gain the knowledge and interest to do it for themselves.

The equipment is basic, knifes, scales, hooks for hanging, a cold night or two, cool days, a manual mincer, a cutting surface,
tubs or buckets and some space - a little time.
We used to do all of this with a manual mincer until the age caught up a bit with the old man, so we bought him an electric one.

The Calabrais region they like the meat more chunky, so they just cut it all up into small pieces with a knife rather than mince it.
As the skin shrinks and tightens on the curing sausage, it all compresses into a solid mass anyway, and they like it a little more spicy too.

SKINS and MORE

The meats are minced and now we are ready to start filling the skins with each meat, this is where the fun starts
as we give the old man shit about his handling of the meat and his technique, then his wife for her sausage massaging skills,
the size of things and length - you get the gist of it I am sure.

The machine is changed to a manual mincing machine with a 'sausage filling' spout, and the sausage skin has been soaking
in warm water with a little wine to make it supple. Earlier I spoke of what the pig intestines are used for, we are at that point now.

How many know that Cow intestine is used as a cheap substitute for Calamari rings?
Some cultures cook and eat the intestines without cleaning them, the stuff inside dries and shrivels up, they peel the outside skin off and eat the skin.

Back to work, so the sausage skin / casing is ready to use, it is picked up at one and a little water is scooped with it, then we actually add
some wine into the casing before pushing it onto the filling spout / nozzle, the wine is to clean the inside of the skin.
All things seem to have the consideration for preserving or killing bugs, normal everyday things.

If you dont want to clean your animals intestines for casings, you can buy natural casings from a butcher or butcher supplier, these are
ready to use and clean. They are also usually tougher and less prone to splitting. Casings are available in different diameters, for thin 15mm
out to 100mm diameter.

If a sausage does split while filling, its no big deal, just put the meat back into the mince and recycle it.

Once the casing is on the filling spout either a simple knot is tied into it, or as we do, a string is tied around it, and the ends left long for later.
A lump of mince is put into the filling machine and pushed into the skin by winding the handle, more meat and more turning the handle.
Sausages are different diameters depending on what they are filled with.
There are many different machines out there to do this task, just Google it to see.

When the casing is filled to the length you want and firm with no air gaps inside, we tie that one off and leave 60mm then tie the string
around the skin for next sausage, ct of the first one in the middle.
The next one gets filled as someone else ties the ends off on the first, this is done in a manner so that the meat inside doesnt slip out
while the skin shrinks, you do this by taking the skin that looks like a flabby foreskin and tying a knot across the middle of it,
so a bit of skin is on either side of the knot.
The string has to be clean pure cotton and about 12-14 inches long, knots are tied in the middle of it so that we have long ends
to do more knots and have something to hang the sausage with.

The filled skin is now ready to massage (more jokes), basically you are putting a flat palm on top of the sausage laying on the table,
running it around the sausage to even out the pressure inside, flip it over and repeat.
Although the skin is porous and will let air out, we then take a sewing needle and prick the sausage several times along its length about every 50mm (more jokes and wincing by the guys) flip it and do pricking on the other side.
NOW the most important bit, tie the end strings together to have a loop to hang it with, do this really well because if it falls,
your arse is grass at my In-laws house.
I can understand that because of all the work going into the product.

ONE for luck......

The casing soaking in warm water and a little wine, they say the wine sterilizes the casing outside and inside when poured into the casing.
You have to find the end and open it, the little bit of wine does help that too.

Push the casing onto the spout like a condom, get as much on there as you can, filling short lengths is not fun.

The string precut to length, notice there are two strings for each tie off. About 12-14 inches long.

Tie off the end of the casing with the middle of the strings and start to fill the casing using a slow rotating motion
to ensure the casing is evenly filled, control the casing pressure by more or less pressure holding it onto the fill nozzle.
The person cranking the handle needs to be constant rotating and plenty of meat in the top with light hand pressure to push it down into the mincer

 

When you have your desired length, tie off, pinch the casing and force 50-60mm back toward the spout and tie another string ready for the next sausage end.
Cut in the middle so there is some flap to tie off with a second knot later.

Tying the second knot at each end, give it a massage, prick it with a pin to let out moisture and air.

Massage to relax it (more laughs)

In this pic you can see the long string tails for tying together to hang the sausage.
This sausage is being pricked with a needle

These are the plain pork, you can now see the way the long string ends get tied to use for hanging

In the tub are plain pork, darker on the bench are the feghetto liver and on the bench the fat ones are salami

SO.. we have now gotten to the stage for hanging to cure and dry out, in the next post I will describe how and why we do this,
then talk about storage methods of old and new times.

[17hornet 188]

 

dan wrote: How come you don't just twist the skins like they normally do??

Dan you are talking about sausage links I think like in the butcher or supermarket?

Those links are sausages for immediate use, buy em fry em sausages, the meat is mushy and mosty fat and filler
like bread crumbs and water, preservatives are regularly used to just try to ensure you dont get poisoned by your food

Have you ever seen a commercial salami in links?
Air cured meat sometimes smoked as well as cured.

These sausages we make are for long term storage and use, we will eat them thru the entire year and still have an overlap of food,
same with the cured meat.
That is what makes this process so interesting, these foods were made to be stored without refrigeration in the old country
and the same is done now.
Years ago I was working up at Marla Bore and there were so many young couples there in the bar, conversations went to the
lack of reliable electricity and no electricity to underground cellars and food prep for long term storage, in normal daily use.
You would be aware of the underground homes in Coober Pedy and other mining area's - same thing, stable mild temps all year long.

It is very important that these sausages are hung in free air and not touching each other, it allows for drying and curing.
I'll be discussing and explaining that soon.

 

Some more to be posted in the next 48hrs, give you guys time to read, its a lot.

 

[Billy b 786]

NIce post that, thanks ?

[Mister Gain 1,764]

Is that mincer the Reber 9501? Looks pretty much the same as mine... a 500 watt beast of a machine.

 

[FLATTOP 4,547]

17Hornet this is a great post showing the simplest ways are the best but the skills that are being displayed can only be passed on from generation to generation thanks for the post it's worthy of a book. 

[17hornet 188]

9 hours ago, Mister Gain said:

Is that mincer the Reber 9501? Looks pretty much the same as mine... a 500 watt beast of a machine.

 

Yep I reckon they are the same, but it goes by another name over here I think, my wife and I bought it for the Parents In-law.

I was getting a little annoyed by doing it all manually and having them complain that they should get an electric machine, but I did enjoy the manual mincer as to me it is part of the 'flavour' of the family task when sharing the job. LOL

[17hornet 188]

7 hours ago, FLATTOP said:

17Hornet this is a great post showing the simplest ways are the best but the skills that are being displayed can only be passed on from generation to generation thanks for the post it's worthy of a book. 

Thank you thats quite a compliment, are you a publisher or have that experience ?

My own German background, my Grandmother used to do all this even during the War, she grew pigs on the soldiers food scraps from nearby barracks and produced small goods then selling it back to the soldiers, so my Mother told me. I have always been feeling linked to the land but did not grow up on it, and never learnt any of this from Mum, but when I showed a keen interest in home production of foods and wine to my 'girlfriends'... parents, well... I was in with the family, they loved to teach me and I could share with them. ( the wine is good too !)

I enjoy sharing this stuff, hope you started from the beginning of the topic thread, I also hope it inspires others.