Question on stuffing sausage casings

Carroll B · 12-30-2006, 12:59 PM

I recently bought a meat grinder and want to make some link style breakfast sausage.I will not be smoking them just storing them in the freezer and frying them up for breakfast. My grinder comes with sausage stuffing tubes and tells me how to "load" the casing onto the tube and fill the tube. My question is how do you, for lack of a better word, "tie off" the individual links when making breakfast sausage? After I have a 4-5 inch long sausage link how do I tie that one off and then load the next one? Is it just a matter of twisting the casing to seal it off? I have made pattie style sausage but want to try the link style and can't understand what stops the meat from falling out of the end of the casing or ending up with one sausagelink 10 feet long.

Rebel Hog · 12-30-2006, 03:49 PM

Tree climber.Send him a PM. Tell him to show you the pictures of the sausages he makes and any questions you have!

Big Guy01 · 12-30-2006, 04:13 PM

You fill the entire length of the sausage casing. Tie a string at the ends. Pinch the meat out of a space in the sausage and rotate it toward you. move 4-5 inches and pinch the meat and rotate the sausage away from you. You now should have 2 sausages. Continue until the whole casing is linked. Now let the sausage rest in the fridge overnight. This allows the sausage meat to "set" so when you cut the length into individual links the meat won't ooze out the ends.

Stuffed sausage casing

Linked

Carroll B · 12-30-2006, 05:27 PM

Thanks Big Guy. The pictures and your directions tell me exactly what I need to know. I made patties from my deer this year but want to play with the new grinder I got for Christmas. I'll buy a pork loin on sale and grind it to makesome moresausage. Thanks again.

Big Guy01 · 12-30-2006, 07:05 PM

It takes a little practice to stuff a casing, too full and they will split when you try to link them, not full enough and you get air pockets. If you get serious about making sausage I would recommend a proper stuffer it makes life a lot easier. Grind your meat, spice it, mix it and put it in the stuffer then fill the casings.
here's one of my stuffers yes I do have more than one.

Pork loins aren't the best cut for sausage they are too lean. A good juicy sausage should have 20-30% fat content. A pork shoulder (butt) is just about perfect as it contains around 25% fat. Keep the fat ratio in mind especially when adding venison to the mix which has no fat. If the fat contentis too low your sausages will taste mealy and dry.

ps. the Hypodermic needle is to pick air bubbles.

Carroll B · 12-31-2006, 05:29 AM

I typically only make about9-10 pounds of sausage a year using the deer I've taken. I mix slab bacon with the venison. I just thought I would try my hand at some links. Deer season is winding down and a local store has pork loin on sale so that's why I wanted to try it. These are whole loins so there should be fat on them. This is the first year that I've done most of the butchering on two of the 3 deer I've taken. I can get the local shop to grind my deer if I take him just the meat and he only charges me $5. Problem is he only grinds late in the afternoon then I'm too tired to wrap it so I bought my own grinder.I loanedmyson the grinder last night as he shot a small deer behind his house Friday evening.

jerseyhunter · 12-31-2006, 05:48 PM

Quote:

I'll buy a pork loin on sale and grind it to makesome moresausage.

Like big guy said it is too lean. If you cut chops or a roast from the lean end and add all the trimmed fat to the other you might get away with it. I buywhole untrimmed loinsand make smoked pork chops or canadian bacon. I cut away all the fat and save for other recipes.