Homemade Sausage Spice Recipes

[jonp]

Wife and I bought a sausage grinder from Cabela's using our points and used the Cabela's branded spices for the first batch of links.

What does everyone use in the way of packaged spice mixes and does anyone use a homemade recipe?

[cwlongshot]

Most pre made mixes are junk. Might taste ok but sub quality ingredienxe or allotnof salt you dont want or need.

But bulk slices YOU LIKE and use them. What Sausage are you looking to make? Breakfast, Sweet Med or hot, Italian, Summer, Hunters...

I make Sweet and Breakfast. Onion & Garlic powders Sage, Fennel, Ground blk and salt.

I made small batches and tried them. Found what I liked. To me Italian says Fennel and Breakfast says sage. BOTH need Onion and Garlic.

Good luck!!

CW

[Winger Ed.]

Get to digging around on the net. There's a few sites that have dozens and dozens of recipes.
I make sausage once a year and often try different recipes. I haven't found a bad one yet.

[Outpost75]

The real Italian dry sausage “ salame crudo “ is made with boar meat or venison and fat, cut with a knife, not ground in a grinder. The preservative is a mix of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic, sea salt and other optional spices. Wine is usually added to the mix, which is carefully stuffed into natural casings , taking great care not to leave air pockets inside the salami, which is then hung in a cellar to dry.

The location of the cellar and the climate of the place make half of the mystery of this art. What is called
Genoa salami in America is locally known as Salame di Sant’Olcese, a suburb of Genoa up in the Hills ( where the wild boars roam). Its characteristic is a good quantity of garlic in the mix. The town of Varzi in the Hills south of the Po river is the home of the best salami. All the pig goes went into salami, the hams included, as raw ham is not made there.

Pre-refrigeration they used saltpeter and spices to preserve the meat. The real thing, made in the traditional method and kept in a cool cellar, should keep until the next year’s salami is ready to eat. If they age too much, they dry up, depending on their weight and diameter. A good five pound Varzi lasts longer than small cacciatorini. The soppressa of the republic of St Marcus have bigger diameter and keep their softness for longer time. In days gone by the pigs were slaughtered in after the new year in January, because the weather was cold.

In the war of 1859 the army‘s meat followed the soldiers on the hoof, being butchered in the evening, boiled over night and eaten with broth and bread for breakfast.

If you have a salami which is old and hard, leave it overnight wrapped up in Barbera red wine and it will be ready to eat the next day. Pasteurizing salami is a wicked thing.

[jonp]

Right now, breakfast sausage. I planted a herb garden next to the kitchen door and have most of the herbs fresh and ready to go.

[DougGuy]

I use Legg's #10 it's good country style breakfast sausage seasoning. Their #6 sounds good too, you can go to their site and look at the variety of sausage seasoning they sell. Good stuff!!

I also use extra sage and crushed red pepper in addition to the Legg's seasoning.

[Blanket]

I really like the pork breakfast sausage our local meat counter makes and asked to buy the spice packets they use. Was cheaper than I could buy the ingredients, like $15 for enough to make 250 lbs. Mix ground pork and deer 50/50.

[nannyhammer]

+1 for A.C. Leggs #10 seasoning, I also add 1-2 teaspoons cayenne, 1-2 teaspoons red pepper flakes for every ten pounds if you want heat. Sometimes it ends up a little warm but has excellent flavor for bulk breakfast sausage.

[Gregorious]

https://www.conyeagerspice.com/

Interesting company, might have what you seek.

[Jeff Michel]

http://www.sausagemakersupplies.com/ They will have anything you need. A.C Leggs is just about foolproof. Home brewed recipes are ok if you know your stuff and are proven to be palatable. I see R&D people throwing out 100's of pounds of product everyday at work when they formulate new recipes that a dog wouldn't eat. It's all cut and try and you will find your the owner of product you won't or can't eat if your traveling in uncharted waters. Leggs and Con Yeager make their spice blends in 25 pound batch increments. You can make smaller batches but it's nigh on to impossible to separate the spices evenly and your quality will suffer. Get some friends together and make yourself a batch to split up. It will keep your sausage fresher and the quality will be be improved because it won't be laying in the freezer for months. As a suggestion, if you make any "additions" to a recipe, make it small, and the cook a piece and taste it. Small additions of a strong spice, e.g. Mace, will have you carrying your batch of Bratwurst to the curb if your not light handed. After blending, put it in the refrigerator for a day before you stuff it or package it. It gives the spices a chance to flavor the meat evenly. I used to do my own formulations and have been collecting recipes for forty years, but having the spices laying around getting old or spoiled and more expensive than you would first think, the end result was not that good. For 2.85 for the spice pack, it's fresh, proportioned correctly, microbial tested and me and my associates have three or four months worth of sausage to work through. The majority if not all use these two suppliers for their prepackaged spices. Have fun.

[Lloyd Smale]

leggs and witts make good packaged sausage. I use leggs #10 all the time. everything is pre measured and you end up with the same thing every time. Sure you could save a few bucks and buy all the spices but if its just plain breakfast sausage or bratts you want to make theres no need to bother.

[Lloyd Smale]

leggs and witts make good packaged sausage. I use leggs #10 all the time. everything is pre measured and you end up with the same thing every time. Sure you could save a few bucks and buy all the spices but if its just plain breakfast sausage or bratts you want to make theres no need to bother. I use this place for all my sausage. summer, snack sticks, breakfast and even some odd ball stuff. I still make a lot of my own bratts but honestly there not much better. Some speciality sausages I make myself. But leggs 10 is tough to beat for breakfast sauage and the meat cutters summer sasuage and snack stick kits come with casings ties and everything you need and youd probably end up paying more if you bought it all separately and ive yet to find a better summer sausage. Everyone that's tried it says the same. I stay away from the box mixes gander mountain Walmart ect sell. But some even like them. if you want to do your own this is a great book https://www.sausagemaker.com/Great-Sausage-Recipes-and-Meat-Curing-p/26-1010.htm

[jonp]

Leggs #10 seems worth a try but it's all on your heads :wink:

Now, collagen vs natural casings. Any difference as the collagen are quite a bit different and with the natural I've seen both hog and sheep. Difference there?

[Lloyd Smale]

collagen is fine for snack sticks. For bratts and breakfast links I like natural. Hog are bigger and work well for bratts. For smaller breakfast sausage I use sheep. Really sheep are the best but there more expensive and a bit harder to work with because there more delicate and my least favorite sausage making chore is trying to flush out those little sheep casings. That I usually leave to the wife or lots of swear words are used. But to me theres something about those little breakfast links. Might be in my head but I think any sausage used for a breakfast sausage tastes better in links then without them. My guess is they do have you frying all the fat out of the meat. Fat that has the same spice flavoring as your meat and we all know fat tastes good .

[Hogtamer]

Another vote for the Leggs and another vote for what Jeff said. IMO pork butts make the best sausage, about 30% fat. I do like to add say 2 tablespoons of coarsely chopped red pepper flakes,
4 tablespoons of minced fresh garlic, 1/2 cup minced sweet onions and 1/4 cup minced fresh sage to a 25 lb recipe with the Leggs. The fresh herbs and spices add a little extra moisture and flavor that takes your sausage from wow to WOW! Mixing is important too. Too assure you have the spices evenly mixed, after the meat is cut into grinding size pieces sprinkle spices and herbs evenly over meat and for 25 lb add about 2 cups white wine or apple cider over that. Mix and mix again until everything is evenly distributed and the liquid helps with that. I think sitting overnight is good too, then mix again before you grind. Make sure to keep everything cold, sometimes harder here in the south! As for casings, don't make that good sausage then stuff it in junk! Hog casings are cheap and wonders of nature. They let smoke in but hold moisture too.

[jonp]

We bought an 8lb Picnic Shoulder on the way home. Ground it with the fat but didn't add any and used Cabelas Breakfast Sausage Spice/Collagen Casings that came in a pack we bought at the same time as the grinder to get us started. Stuffing was interesting and resulted in some odd looking links but it was our first try. We didn't add much water, we just added enough to the spice to make a paste and mixed it into the pork.
Fried some up this morning. Very lean it seemed but tasted great. At .98/lb cheap sausage. On sale I've seen Shoulders down in the .50/lb range.

On Sausage Maker Supplies http://www.sausagemakersupplies.com/natural-hog-casing/ the cases come in different sizes. Any ideas for breakfast sausage?

[Jeff Michel]

Collagen for little pigs and smoked sausages. Sheep casings for casing wieners and knockwurst and hog runners for everything else. 16-18 mm is good size for for breakfast sausage. 25 mm for Italian, Bratwurst,Fresh Kielbasa. For most uses, pork butts are just about perfect tissue to fat ratio for sausage, add 3% water for spice blending and moisture loss. Soak your natural casings for at least an hour before use and keep your collagen cases dry. Collagen is nice to use, fast but expensive.

[pertnear]

This is based on an old Alsatian recipe from Castroville, TX. Been the family deer sausage standard forever.

Sausage Seasoning
(Per 100 lbs of meat)

2 lbs canning salt (4 cups)
6 oz black pepper
2.5 oz garlic powder
8 oz coriander
1.5 oz cloves
1.5 oz All-Spice
1.5 oz nutmeg
1.0 oz Sage

Optional: Add red-pepper flakes to your taste

[blackthorn]

Go to your search bar and type in www.woodforsmoking.com, and you will find some very interesting information.

[Kent Fowler]

Also check out Allied Kenco in Houston. They have a pretty large catalog dedicated to sausage making supplies.

[Pipefitter]

Bought myself a meat grinder and sausage stuffer for this past Christmas, only made 2 batches so far. Here is one site that I found some recipes on,https://www.meatprocessingproducts.com/sausage-recipes.html, so far everyone that has tried Country sausage #2 has loved it.

[Hogtamer]

Get a hank of fresh hog casings from your local slaughterhouse. Don't buy frozen as there is often a lot of holes. The leggs mentioned is a good breakfast sausage (southerners think, anyhow) The recipes with nutmeg, allspice, cloves is what I associate with a cured smoked type sausage. I mostly like em all, Italian types the least. Here's my last batch of andouille...
235717 235718

[sundog]

Pertnear, restaurant in Castroville serves Alsatian sausage. That stuff is outstanding! I make it a point to eat there anytime I visit, sadly have not been for awhile, because the daughter moved.

[Moonie]

good stuff over at sausagemaker.com as well.

[snowwolfe]

Another vote for using pork butts. They are the perfect combination of fat to lean for sausage. They often go on sale for $.99 a pound so stock up when you find them. We have 80 pounds in the freezer as I type.

[hc18flyer]

Frisco Spices is a sister company to the Hobart Commercial Kitchen dealer in Omaha. They have a complete line of seasonings and sausage mixes, with excellent I instructions. We like their Summer Salami, and use their Pepperoni for jerky seasoning. They are happy to ship anything you need. We add the Citric acid just before stuffing. We are very happy with their products! Just finished 100# of sausage and 25 # of Pepperoni sticks today. Tom

[William Yanda]

In the past I have used Watkins. Raleigh might have some if they are still around.

[762 shooter]

Leggs #10 is my go to breakfast spice. I usually add some extra sage.

762

[Smoke4320]

Waltons.inc has supplies, spices, equipment on their web site plus on their meatgistics ink lots of info/ recipes / helps
Thesausagemaker.com also good
Pork butt is perfect fat balance for sausage and brats
Spent a year trying different breakfast sausage mixes both commercial and web recipes. Wife likes leggs #10 the best

[pertnear]

Pertnear, restaurant in Castroville serves Alsatian sausage. That stuff is outstanding! I make it a point to eat there anytime I visit, sadly have not been for awhile, because the daughter moved.

Yes, the original recipe Alsatian sausage was fantastic. Glad to hear someone was still making it. Been a while since I've been to Castroville since all the old kinfolks have died off. I'll definitely look for some sausage next I pass through there. :D

[BD]

Sage, salt, pepper, onion powder, sage, garlic powder, sage a little red pepper, more sage and some sage. Add other stuff to taste.

[pertnear]

BD, I'm a sage lover too, but a little goes a loooong way! :D

[PB234]

My experience is with natural hog casings which I order on Amazon. One has to soak them for a bit to get out the salt they are packed in. My experience with sheep casings is they are not salted and have to be kept refrigerated. Many distributors do not have refrigerated warehouses and the sheep casings are not good when received. Have a couple packages of the natural pig casings waiting for time to make sausage. Part of the fun is to mix up one's own spice mix and try different sausages. Lots of info on the Web.

You know exactly what went into the sausage you are eating.

[Hogtamer]

Hog casings must be refrigerated as well please!

[gbrown]

Hog casings must be refrigerated as well please!

I don't know if you are referring to unsalted or not, but the ones I get are salted--and I mean salted. They are referred to as dry casings and they are well pickled. Sold in stores in packs and bundles unrefrigerated. Soak in a 5 gallon bucket for at least an hour, preferrably overnight and flushed really well. Of course, any not used are frozen for safety and future use. Could put 'em in an old coffee can and fill with salt, they would probably last forever. That's how the people of the south preserved their pork 200-250 years ago. Cut it into chunks and pack it in layers of salt.

[Jeff Michel]

Salted hog casings are just about indestructible, but they will spoil if mishandled. They should be stored under refrigeration to keep the smell down. The holes in natural casings are from round worms. Fun fact: Casings haven't been produced as usable product in the US for years. All the Hog casings sold in the US are imported from China. In several hog slaughtering plants I visit, salvage the intestines, salt them, box them and send them to the PRC for further processing. You can imagine the difficulty finding a person who wants to clean and scrape intestines for a living, that's why it got moved out of this country. And all the Processing plants that use casings get them from the same source. This does not include sheep or collagen casings.

[gbrown]

Salted hog casings are just about indestructible, but they will spoil if mishandled. They should be stored under refrigeration to keep the smell down. The holes in natural casings are from round worms. Fun fact: Casings haven't been produced as usable product in the US for years. All the Hog casings sold in the US are imported from China. In several hog slaughtering plants I visit, salvage the intestines, salt them, box them and send them to the PRC for further processing. You can imagine the difficulty finding a person who wants to clean and scrape intestines for a living, that's why it got moved out of this country. And all the Processing plants that use casings get them from the same source. This does not include sheep or collagen casings.

You got me curious about where the casings come from. I snooped around on the net, and found 3 places, Waltoninc, Sausagemaker, and Deweid, a major supplier of various stores, including Allied Kenco, Houston, where I get my supplies. Waltoninc & Sausagemaker each indicate their casings come from the U.S. or Denmark. Deweid lists Europe, N. America and China. I can't imagine with the modern pressures of competition, that cleaning intestines isn't well automated. Probably a lot of intestines come from China, I grant you that, but another thing you need to keep in mind, is that intestines are in a big part of Asian cuisine. I figure they have plenty of market for them over there.

[Jeff Michel]

They come back in 50 KG barrels and repackaged at the final destination (US) if they are to be resold at retail. It is fairly automated......now. Wasn't always that way. Stateside, the automated process consists of removing the contents and rinsing the intestine. As to removing the inner and outer layers of the intestine it is a scraping process. The way I understand it, is extremely difficult to calibrate (difference in thickness) a machine to do without significant loss due to tearing. In all my years as an Inspector, I have never seen a casing produced (into a realistic amount) into a final, usable product and practically every plant that slaughters over a couple thousand a day, saves intestines for export. Chitterlings are different, they are just cleaned out, rinsed and chopped up. I am required to check for letters of guarantee for wholesomeness from the producers and importers and without exception, it's China. Ironically it's not even classified as edible until it's stuffed. A non meat ingredient if you will. If you look, it doesn't bear an inspection legend. In all fairness, I have not been to every pork cut in the US, perhaps there is a bouquet operation in this country that may produce it's own casings but the cost would be right up there. I can't speak for the Danes, they might do their own, they have a long history of meat processing. I have some pretty good first hand knowledge that most if not all meat packers do not want their customers to know where exactly in the world their product originated. There was a requirement, long since rescinded, that required that all meat and poultry be identified on the label as to the country of origin . Needless to say , the industry pushed back hard due to consumer perception. Everything imported into this country is reinspected before it's allowed into this country and requirements of the exporting country has to meet or exceed our standards, these are verified continually for compliance. Once into this country, it can be labeled the same as domestically produced meat and poultry. Sorry for being long winded.

[PB234]

Jeff Michael, thanks for sharing your knowledge. About to take the package out of the refrigerator and take a look at it.

[jonp]

Thanks to everyone for all of the advice and leads. I ordered some Leggs #10 and some Andouille spice to try out. I have not ordered Hog casings yet. Even the ones I saw that came in a bucket salted said to refrigerate but they would last a year so we need to make room for them. I'm thinking of getting a small fridge and keep it in the garage.

[Elkins45]

Another vote for using pork butts. They are the perfect combination of fat to lean for sausage. They often go on sale for $.99 a pound so stock up when you find them. We have 80 pounds in the freezer as I type.

I use them to make venison sausage taste more ‘normal’ because deer fat is nasty, and totally lean sausage is dry and crumbly. Cutting lean venison by half with a pork butt results in a pretty good but still relatively low fat mix.

I bought a kit for making venison bacon that used 50% ground pork butt and venison formed into loaves and smoked. You slice the loaf thin and fry it like bacon. It was actually pretty good.

[cwlongshot]

So. Have ya tried any yet? (Sorry if I missed the post if ya did)

I had some of my last batch this am!

CW

[jonp]

So. Have ya tried any yet? (Sorry if I missed the post if ya did)

I had some of my last batch this am!

CW

yup. all came out quite good. can't wait to try other stuff including the new seasonings we just ordered but there are only two of us so we can only eat so much.
I am very much happy to make my own sausage, brats, hamburger etc and try to avoid the extra chemicals, additives etc.

[cwlongshot]

Amen!!!

[starbits]

can't wait to try other stuff including the new seasonings we just ordered but there are only two of us so we can only eat so much.


I am sure there are plenty of us that would be happy to help you out with that.

Starbits