new hobby

so the mister has taken upon a couple of new hobbies starting with crafting things out of wood, smoking meats and other fine bacon wrapped goods in his new smoker, and now he is onto making his own sausages with his new best friend, the meat grinder.

last weekend, he made his first foray into the world of sausage making. here's how it went

first order of business was to get the business end of the grinder good and cold (so that the pork fat doesn't melt as its being ground) and feed in the 11 pounds of pork.

looks like it wont all fit into our largest bowl!

then, all the spices were mixed together with some red wine, and then mixed in to the ground meat

had to cook up a small portion to check the seasonings

caleb thinks its a great addition to his blueberries and home made pierogis

on to the stuffing! the casings were rinsed out and soaked in several changes of clean water for 3 hours. just load them on to the stuffer tube and start filling them up. here's the first length he's ever done

 when all the sausage is stuffed, twist it into links

here is the final product. 11 pounds of italian sausage. some went in the freezer, but most went to friends and family for their opinion.

they turned out great! much better than anything store bought. the mister had a great time doing this and is looking forward to making other types of sausages. he's been scouring the internet and buying sausage recipe books getting ideas for the next batch... maybe brats or perhaps a smoked kielbasa!