Sausage Making

As we have been rearing our own meat I decided, if it were possible, to make sausages out of the turkey meat. I bought a book on Amazon 'HOME SAUSAGE MAKING' by Susan Mahnke Peery and Charles Reavis and two other indispensable bits of kit, a mincer and a sausage stuffer. All available from they are very helpful on the phone and can advise on recipes and supply skins as well as equipment. You will need work top that has a free space to clamp under it and a free end for the winder for mincer and stuffer.

So far we have made three types of sausage, venison, turkey and beef. The turkey sausages were made using meat from turkeys we reared last Christmas. We used both the meat and some skin combined with streaky smoked bacon to provide fat content. The meat was cubed and soaked in Port overnight ,we added some pin head rusk and a little Royal Venison seasoning, salt and cranberries all minced together and stuffed in a chipolata skins, they didn't last long. We have invested in a vac packing machine which will prolong their shelf life,at least in the freezer, by around 3 times to about 9 months, however it wont stop us eating them quickly.

It is important that the meat used for sausages has not been frozen before, as it may lead to bacterial build up in the meat and result in food poisoning, we only buy meat from farmers who we know can guarantee well prepaered fresh meat.

Stuffing sausages is an acquired skill as you need to slowly wind the handle while gently feeding the spooled skins down the nozzle, too fast the skins burst or are so full you can't twist them to make individual links, we made a few curled Cumberland style sausages until we go the hang of it.