How To Make: Homemade Sausages

Having been enjoyed for hundreds of years, sausages are eaten all over the world, with countless different shapes, sizes and ingredients used to produce differing flavours. Typically featuring a blend of ground meat (or plant-based alternatives in more recent years), salt and seasonings all encased and generally twisted into links, sausages at their most basic are fairly simple to make at home. Sure, a mincer and filling attachment will come in handy, but homemade sausages are also achievable without any specialist equipment when following a few tips and tricks.

Tips for making homemade sausages

While it’s difficult to beat a traditional sausage, a few hacks can be followed to easily make sausages at home without any specialist equipment or ingredients. If you don’t have a mincer, I would highly recommend investing in one – even one of the less expensive ones for sausage making. However, you can cut corners by using pork mince or sausage meat. While you’ll have less control over the texture, you’ll have more control over the seasonings when making sausages this way as opposed to buying premade.

Moreover, if you don’t have a sausage stuffing attachment for your mincer (if you have a mincer at all), you can use a funnel as a make-do tool. Make sure the funnel is well-greased and follow the same cooking instructions as listed below. However, this process will take longer. Not only will the process need to be carried out manually, the hole is also smaller than ideal, so you’ll need to use something to push the meat through the tube. Ideally use a chopstick or a skewer, but be careful to avoid piercing the skin too much.

Piercing the skin slightly is totally fine, however, and may be necessary to get rid of air bubbles.

Before mincing, cut the pork shoulder into approximately 1-inch cubes and cut the pork fat into slightly smaller pieces. Keep separate and place in the freezer for 30 minutes until firm. This will prevent the meat from turning to mush in the mincer.

Synthetic casings can be used for sausage making, but natural hog casings are far superior. Many butcher’s stock them, but they’re also readily available online and last for a fair while in the fridge if stored properly.

Homemade sausages should contain around 2 percent salt content compared to the amount of meat used. So for a 2.1kg batch of pork, you’ll need 42 grams of kosher salt. Using kosher salt isn’t strictly necessary, but unlike other salts it’s made solely of sodium chloride, containing no trace minerals or iodine. It’s also less harsh than table salt, so should be used more liberally. If using table salt, however, cut the amount in half. Rather than using 42 grams for this recipe, use just 21 grams, and remember to scale accordingly. To work out the necessary ratio for using kosher salt, times the amount of meat (in grams) by 0.02.

Sausages are also highly adaptable when it comes to seasoning, with countless options. For this recipe, I tend to use an Italian-style seasoning as Italian sausages aren’t just world-leading, they’re also hard to find in the UK and are often expensive – only available from specialist suppliers. You can, however, play around with seasonings, or just simply stick with salt and pepper, and maybe just a pinch of nutmeg.

When it comes to cooking your homemade sausages, frying, grilling or oven-cooking are all fine, but sausages are also particularly well suited to air frying, which will cook the sausages evenly. Air fry at 200C for 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes.

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Homemade Sausages

Sausages are fairly simple to make at home, even without specialty equipment

Course Main Course

Cuisine Global

Keyword Italian Sausage, Pork, Sausage, Sausages

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 18 sausages (approx.)

Author Jon Hatchman

Equipment

• Mincer (recommended but not essential)
• Sausage stuffing attachment (recommended but not essential)

Ingredients

• 1.6 kg pork shoulder
• 500 g pork fat back or other pork fat
• 42 g kosher salt see notes
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• Natural hog casings or synthetic alternative

Seasoning for Italian-style sausages (optional)

• ½ tbsp dried parsley
• 1 ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried sage
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• ½ tsp dried basil
• ½ tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp ground fennel seeds
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp red chilli flakes or more, to taste
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar

Instructions

• Cut the pork shoulder into approximately 1-inch cubes. Cut the pork fat into slightly smaller pieces. Keep separate and place in the freezer for 30 minutes until firm. This will prevent the meat from turning to mush in the mincer.
• If using natural hog casings, remove from the packaging and rinse thoroughly. Leave to sit in warm water for at least 30 minutes.
• Once chilled, run the pork shoulder through the mincer on its coarsest setting, transfer to a bowl and set aside.
• Run the pork fat through the mincer, also on its coarsest setting. Place in the bowl with the minced pork shoulder. Add 42 grams of kosher salt to the bowl, plus 1 tbsp of freshly cracked brown pepper. Mix thoroughly. Add any seasonings at this point.
• For Italian-style sausages, combine the parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, basil, rosemary, ground fennel seeds, paprika, chilli flakes and sugar and mix into the minced pork mixture. Transfer the seasoned pork to the freezer for another 30 minutes or so, then run through the mincer once again on a finer setting (if possible).
• Transfer the finely ground pork to a bowl and mix until emulsified – like kneading dough.
• At this point, there are options. You can form the sausages into patties and cook immediately, which won’t require any stuffing. You can stuff the sausages with a specific mincer attachment (which is highly recommended) or use a funnel with a skewer or chopstick to push the mince through.
• If you have a sausage stuffing mincer attachment, tightly attach it and rub the tube with a little oil before sliding on a single casing. Leave around 3-4 centimetres of overhand.
• Slowly stuff the meat into the casing to fill it up, pulling the casing as necessary to allow it to flow downward. Repeat the process until the entire casing is full, but be sure to make sure at least 3-4 cm of overhang is left on either side.
• Once the sausage is around 12-15cm long, pinch the farthest end with both hands to close both ends, then twist the sausage to tighten. Repeat with the remaining links. Use a skewer or cocktail stick to prick the skins in order to remove any air bubbles.
• Place the sausages on a baking sheet and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or ideally overnight, to allow the casings to dry out. Flip at least once while drying.
• To cook the sausages, shallow fry over medium heat for 12-15 minutes until cooked through, place in the oven and cook at 190C/170C fan/gas 5 for 20-25 minutes, turning occasionally, or air fry for 15 minutes at 200C, turning every 5 minutes.

Notes

Synthetic casings can be used for sausage making, but natural hog casings are far superior. Many butcher’s stock them, but they’re also readily available online and last for a fair while in the fridge if stored properly.

Homemade sausages should contain around 2 percent salt content compared to the amount of meat used. So for a 2.1kg batch of pork, you’ll need 42 grams of kosher salt. Using kosher salt isn’t strictly necessary, but unlike other salts it’s made solely of sodium chloride, containing no trace minerals or iodine. It’s also less harsh than table salt, so should be used more liberally. If using table salt, however, cut the amount in half. Rather than using 42 grams for this recipe, use just 21 grams, and remember to scale accordingly. To work out the necessary ratio for using kosher salt, times the amount of meat (in grams) by 0.02.

Sausages are also highly adaptable when it comes to seasoning, with countless options. For this recipe, I tend to use an Italian-style seasoning as Italian sausages aren’t just world-leading, they’re also hard to find in the UK and are often expensive – only available from specialist suppliers. You can, however, play around with seasonings, or just simply stick with salt and pepper, and maybe just a pinch of nutmeg.

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