Well here goes for starters I have to be honest I am no expert at this but that's true of much that Fiona (My favorite person in all the world, Oh and wife) have done in the last 18 months.

However we have both made some wonderful sausages, firstly you will need some meat tradition says it should be pork and possibly mix it with some other meat of your choice.

Most butchers and commercial producers use Rusk or breadcrumbs in their sausage mix, but this is only necessary if you use a high fat content for your mix, or if you add an ingredient which is liquid.

So I am aiming this at self-supporters who should be keeping their own pigs and making superior quality pork products. If however you are not keeping your own pigs then buy one from a self-supporter who is, and pay the price for superior quality pork.

How do you tell good quality from poor quality pork? Well its quite simple, check for colour, poor quality pork is pale and slightly translucent anything from white to light pink. Good quality pork is richly coloured not at all translucent and dark pink to red; we raise our pigs in open terrain with shelter from poor weather giving pigs access to soil in which they can root for extra food and nutrients. When they root they build muscle and this in turn builds flavour in to their meat, because they are outside they also put on a little extra fat. You don't have to eat the fat but it will keep the pork moist during cooking and adds yet more flavour.

So now having chosen the pork you whish to use for your sausages, shoulder, belly, and any off cuts which do not fit in to your other pork products, you already have a better meat mix than your butcher or commercial producer would use. If you add extra back fat to this mix then you may whish to use breadcrumbs to keep the fat in the sausage or they will shrink disproportionately.

You will need some sort of skin/casing for your sausage; I have only ever used natural casings derived from pigs. But I know you can buy synthetic casings from sausage making suppliers, but its not very self-sufficient. You can and should use the casings from the pig you are using the meat from, if nothing else it pays homage to and shows respect for the beast that has lost his life to feed you. I will do an article on this at a later stage.

Now to equipment, there are a plethora of different devices to choose from to make your sausages. You will need some sort of mincer/grinder and some type of filler.

Fillers also take many shapes and sizes; I have only used an attachment for the mincer so far but have now taken delivery of my pride and joy and old-fashioned sausage-stuffer, made in America bought on Ebay for less than £100 including postage. You can just use a funnel but I suspect you won't do too much sausage making if you do. One note of caution if you use your mincer as the filler for your sausage you will make your sausages much less coarse than you may have intended.

So back to the how part having selected your meat dice in to cubes appropriate for your grinder, trial and error will always prevail here don't cut it any smaller than you have too. Put it though your mincer on the setting you prefer I personally like my sausages on the course side, but you should make them so you can enjoy them the way you want.

Add any other ingredients you want, i.e. salt, pepper, etc dependent on the recipe you are following or have made up for your self.

Go on; give it a go be daring if you fancy it stick it in, we have done little else in our sausage making efforts and even the ones we won't make again where edible even if not repeatable. You may even fall over the best sausage recipe you have ever tasted, we have, see recipes.

Mix all the ingredients together well, now take a small amount of your mix a tablespoon should do, make a small burger with it and cook it. Taste this and make any adjustments you need for your personal taste. Then repeat this step again until their perfects for you, and of course your family.

Now you are ready to fill your casings, first soak your casings and wash them thoroughly in tepid water, flush them through as well. Put as much casing on to the nozzle of your filler as will fit, but only one whole sections don't put on two pieces as it just gets in a mess. Now at a pace that suits your own level of skill feed your filling through the nozzle leaving a little casing over the end of the nozzle. Don't tie the casing at its end it could just trap air and it is not necessary as enough casing is filled squeeze the point at which you want to end the first sausage and twist it continue like this until all the casing is full stop the feed and pull of the remaining casing. Repeat this step until you have exhausted your mixes or your casings.

Recipies

Honey & Mustard Sausage

So first you will need an ordinary sausage meat mix as we are self supporter we do not need to put any rubbish in the mix just 60% lean meat or better plus salt to taste 5grams per Kilo is sufficient for most recipies.

1Kg of the above, or if you need to resize this up or down please do

10g of English mustard powder

50g of local honey (or better still later this year our own)

Mix all of the above together well.

Orange & Chilly Sausage

So first you will need an ordinary sausage meat mix as we are self supporter we do not need to put any rubbish in the mix just 60% lean meat or better plus salt to taste 5grams per Kilo is sufficient for most recipies.

1Kg of the above , or if you need to resize this up or down please do
1 clove of Garlic
1/4 of an oranges
Chilly to taste I used 6 tablespoons of my own sauce about 8 chilies worth.
25grams of bread crumbs to absorb the orange juice

Peal the clove of garlic and slice the oranges (including the skin) and break up the bread put all this through the grinder. If you're using fresh chilies put them through the grinder with all the rest
now mix your ground mixture to the meat with your sauce if you're using a sauce.

Now stuff your homemade sausage skin with the mixture, cook in a medium oven or fry on a low heat for 20 minuets. This was our first attempt at this recipe but I have to say it's a stunner we have had friends round twice already to savour the flavour and all agree it's a stunner. Who needs Walls?

Sage & Onion Sausage

So first you will need an ordinary sausage meat mix as we are self supporter we do not need to put any rubbish in the mix just 60% lean meat or better plus salt to taste 5grams per Kilo is sufficient for most recipies.

1Kg of the above , or if you need to resize this up or down please do
100grams of fresh onions pealed & chopped
10grams of fresh sage leaves finly chopped we put our through the mincer (you can use dried but use only half the weight of fresh.)

Mix all of the above together well.

One of friends recently tryed to feed these to their family and only the son refused because they have green bits in, he does not eat green stuff its good for you, apparently?

Breakfast Sausage

So first you will need an ordinary sausage meat mix as we are self supporter we do not need to put any rubbish in the mix just 60% lean meat or better plus salt to taste 5grams per Kilo is sufficient for most recipies.

1Kg of the above , or if you need to resize this up or down please do
4grams of ground white pepper

you can add up to 50grams of bread crumbs per kilo to this recipie if you wish, but we find them too dry and prefer to use just meat and natural flavourings.

Mix all of the above together well.

Now stuff your homemade sausage skin with the mixture, cook in a medium oven or fry on a low heat for 20 minuets.