Homemade Sausage - Course 101

Homemade Sausage Instructions, Steps 1 - 5

These are pictorial step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the meat and grind it. There are additional steps after this, but I have broken them across several pages for readability.

Notes on Homemade Sausage

Homemade Sausage Seasoning. This section requires that you have already made your seasoning mixture (see the Recipe for Homemade Sausage section). You might want to use a larger stuffing tube, if you're making larger sausages, such as fresh bratwurst or fresh kielbasa. "Fresh," as used here, simply means not smoked, not cured, nor preserved in any way. Any "fresh" sausage should be thoroughly cooked.

Note too that when you run the seasoned sausage through only the spacer and the stuffing tube, you're not grinding the meat again, but simply forming your skinless links.
Homemade Sausage Patties. If you're going to make patties only, after mixing the seasonings into the ground pork, you have no need to run the meat through the stuffing tube, but simply make your patties any size you like, and put them on a cookie sheet and into the freezer for an hour or two. Then you would individually double wrap the patties in plastic food wrap, put them in a large zip lock bag, or other air-tight container, and back into the freezer.
Removing the Gland in the Pork. The gland shown in the photos is located at the fat end of the pork shoulder butt. You'll easily find it when you are cutting your meat into strips for the grinder, if it isn't partially visible to begin with.
Leaving the gland in might give a bitter taste to the homemade sausage.
Chilling Homemade Sausage Equipment. On keeping all equipment and meat cold: If the meat and equipment isn't kept as close to freezing as practical, the sausage will "smear," making your homemade sausage look much fatter than it really is. Smearing is caused by the fat warming and very slightly melting, "smearing" over the lean meat. Of course the homemade sausage is not fatter, and there is no harm done. The benefit is that your homemade sausage will look as lean as it really is, before cooking. Of course when you start to cook it, it makes no difference at all.

Step 1: Purchase the meat. Pork Shoulder Butt Roast: 4.13 lbs. @ $1.49 lb. = $6.15
Step 2: Remove the bone from the shoulder butt.
Step 3a: Cut the pork into strips.
Step 3b: Remove the gland. The first photo shows the gland at the point of each knife. The second photo shows the gland itself after removal. After the meat is cut in strips and ready for grinding, put it in the freezer for about half an hour. Also, put the grinder head, meat pan and the container you’ll grind the meat into in the refrigerator and chill.
Step 4: Set up the Grinder. This shows the meat and grinder all ready for action. Grind the meat through the medium sized grinding plate, usually 3/16”. See our Meat Grinders, Course 201 course for information on grinder setup.
Step 5: Grind the meat. This step grinds all of the meat you have already sliced.