RMDM Kitchen: Holiday Sausage

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Welcome back to the RMDM Kitchen. Today we’re discussing one of my favorite topics – sausage. More specifically I want to talk about the holiday sausage that I made a few weeks ago with the help of a friend and my wife. This is something that I have wanted to do for a while and am hoping that in time I can perfect my process so I can possibly offer a unique gift for my family and close friends. As I joked with another good friend of mine that while some people send cookies or nuts during the holidays I want to send pork. Who knows, maybe in my next career I can become the Abe Froman of Charlotte!

Now I am by no means an expert at making sausage. I’ve only made my own about half a dozen times, so I made it a point to consult with my wife’s cousin who has been in the meat business for years, including serving as a butcher’s apprentice in Germany. In speaking with him about what I was trying to do he recommended that I make a Weisswurst. While it is traditionally made with pork and veal, I would be substituting the veal with some venison that I had when I made my sausage.

The recipe detailed below is relatively simple, as is the process, and will yield about 3.5 pounds of sausage that is 60% meat, 20% fat and 20% water and seasonings. While the recipe itself is in metric units there are several online conversion calculators to get your seasoning mix right. You can choose to case the meat mixture after it is ground and seasoned, or you can leave it loose and cook it up in patties.

It all comes down to a labor of love, as when I made my batch of holiday sausage that yielded about 40# of finished product I had yet to upgrade to an electric grinder. If you are so inclined I encourage you to give making sausage at home a try. Enjoy!

Weisswurst Recipe

(1 kg = 2.2#)

1 kg Pork
1 kg Veal
670 g Pork back fat
600 g Ice water
167 g Evaporated milk
22 g Salt (kosher)
2.5 g White pepper
.75 g Mace
.75 g Ginger
.75 g Cardamom
.75 g Nutmeg
.5 g Black pepper
1 g Garlic (ground, double if using fresh minced fine)

Directions

 Grind the pork, veal and pork back fat with a fine grinder plate
 Add 2/3rd of the ice water and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes
 Regrind the pork, veal and fat mixture with a fine grinder plate
 Add remaining water, evaporated milk and seasonings
 Mix well, then refrigerate for 30-45 minutes if casing meat mixture