Thursday, March 10, 2011

Scott's Spicy Sausage


At Bluefield Acres, we grind and blend our own sausage using fresh meat from naturally raised American Guinea Hogs. You can use the following recipe to blend your own sausage, but it may need adjustment depending on the pork you use. Our Guinea Hogs graze for much of their food, which may account for a higher salt content in the meat. We're not sure why the meat is saltier, but we use less salt in our GH sausage than we would if using commercial pork (about 2 grams less).  If you are raising your own hogs on pasture or forage, please keep this in mind, as you may find it necessary to play with the recipe to make it work with the terroir of your farm (soil, climate, topography) and the eating habits of your animals.

If starting from scratch, cut separated meat and fat from your animal into cubes, then blend at 80% meat to 20% fat. Cool in refrigerator before grinding, then course grind this mixture once without spices and refrigerate again until cool. We use an LEM grinder.


Next blend in the spices at the following measurements and grind the blend twice on course to medium (depending on your preference). We prefer our sausage course ground and mix it to have a low fat content.

1 lb meat/fat
6 grams of salt
2 grams black pepper
1.1 grams red pepper flakes
0.6 grams chipolte
2.4 grams brown sugar
* sage - see below
50 ml water

*2 teaspoons sage per 5 pounds meat/fat

Remember to cool the sausage in the refrigerator between grinds to keep the meat from getting too hot, and always wash or freeze grinder attachments between grinds to prevent contamination.

Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for posting this! Since getting our G.O.S. hogs we'll be making our own sausage. My hub unit and I got in a discussion about making sausage and he wanted to just buy the "sausage seasoning" from the store. The Horror!! I told him it was full of all sorts of stuff I don't want to eat, so this makes me a happy girl to be able to show him you can make your own seasoning up! Thanks so much and I hope Scott is happily blade-smithing away, and that you are wonderful as well! God Bless!

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  2. You are most welcome! We love reading all your foodie posts and look forward to hearing how your sausage turns out. We were very surprised by the higher salt content in our GH meat, and I'll be interested to hear if your GOS meat is saltier than commercial pork too. I think it's all about the dirt, but I have no proof to back up my theory.

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  3. I'll for sure let you know, it will be interesting to find out!

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