Got myself a new toy...
It's partially why I was behind by over 700 posts from the weekend. <G>

Cabelas was having a 4 hour "black Friday" sale on Friday between 6 am
and 10 am. Since I get off of work at 7 am, this was perfect.

I'd read their newspaper ad and they had a nice selection of cool
things. Cabelas, as a rule, tends to be a bit overpriced on a variety of
things with the notable exception of ammunition. It's cheaper there than
at Wal-mart!

But, I digress...

They had a nifty little high torque meat grinder marked down from $99.95
to $49.95 for that 4 hour period and it looked good, so I bought one.

In the meantime, turkeys had dropped down to a decent price here at $.67
per lb. so we ended up stocking up on 5 extras weighing between 10 and
14 lbs. each. I do this every year as dad and I both love turkey. I
partially thaw them and cut off the legs, wings and thighs and bag them
up for 3 meals and re-freeze for a later date. I then de-bone the breast
meat and keep it for stir fry. The backs and breastbone are made into
stock.

So with the new "toy", I had a slight plan change. I de-boned the breast
meat from 4 of them as usual then cut it into grindadable strips. I then
removed as much meat as possible off the back and still put the rest up
for stock along with all of the skin. I did not add skin to the sausage.
The fifth and smallest turkey will be roasted probably tomorrow.

HEB had some lovely, reasonably lean pork trimmings for $.97 per lb.
so the sausage was made from 1/2 turkey meat (mostly breast) and 1/2
lean trimmed pork.

To each lb. of meat I added:

Coarse salt: 1/4 tbs.

(down from 1/2 tbs. that the original recipe I downloaded called for and
it was _plenty_ salty enough)

Fresh sage: 1/2 tbs.
Fresh thyme: 1 tbp.
Ground cinnamon: 1/8 tsp.
Fresh Mexican Oregano: 1 tbp.
Ground black pepper: 1/3 tsp.
Garlic Powder: 2 tsp.

Amounts of some stuff is approximated. The one nice thing about making
home made sausage is that you can change a recipe to your personal
tastes as well as herbs/spices on hand, AND you can make it lower in fat
and salt, and sugar free! The only commercial sausage I've ever found to
be sugar free is Boars Head.

Good sausage is expensive, generally running about $3.00 per lb. I
calculated this out to around $1.00 per lb. 4 turkeys later, we ended up
making 24 lbs. total and each batch of 12 took us about 3 hours
including deboning the turkey.

This stuff turned out to be rich and delicious!
I let the links solidify a bit overnight in the 'frige before cutting
them into single links for freezing.

Pics:

S1TheSetup.jpg
http://i11.tinypic.com/2e5ur2x.jpg

S2TheMachine.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/2sbk83l.jpg

S3TheMeat.jpg
http://i10.tinypic.com/4835iu1.jpg

S4Grinding.jpg
http://i14.tinypic.com/29z4h8y.jpg

S5TheStuffer.jpg
http://i11.tinypic.com/44lmgsj.jpg

S6SausageCasings.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/42l6qoi.jpg

S7CasingsWet.jpg
http://i14.tinypic.com/4br4mfp.jpg

S8SausageCondom.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/2ds2wrr.jpg

S9ReadyMixMeat.jpg
http://i14.tinypic.com/2a4xug4.jpg

S10FirstLink.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/2ai2352.jpg

S11FirstCasingSet.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/30d855g.jpg

S12TwleveLbLinks.jpg
http://i10.tinypic.com/49imjhi.jpg

S13SausagePlated.jpg
http://i14.tinypic.com/43rmpvr.jpg
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

Omelet wrote:
> Got myself a new toy...
> It's partially why I was behind by over 700 posts from the weekend. <G>
>
> Cabelas was having a 4 hour "black Friday" sale on Friday between 6 am
> and 10 am. Since I get off of work at 7 am, this was perfect.
>
> I'd read their newspaper ad and they had a nice selection of cool
> things. Cabelas, as a rule, tends to be a bit overpriced on a variety of
> things with the notable exception of ammunition. It's cheaper there than
> at Wal-mart!
>
> But, I digress...
>
> They had a nifty little high torque meat grinder marked down from $99.95
> to $49.95 for that 4 hour period and it looked good, so I bought one.
>
> In the meantime, turkeys had dropped down to a decent price here at $.67
> per lb. so we ended up stocking up on 5 extras weighing between 10 and
> 14 lbs. each. I do this every year as dad and I both love turkey. I
> partially thaw them and cut off the legs, wings and thighs and bag them
> up for 3 meals and re-freeze for a later date. I then de-bone the breast
> meat and keep it for stir fry. The backs and breastbone are made into
> stock.
>
> So with the new "toy", I had a slight plan change. I de-boned the breast
> meat from 4 of them as usual then cut it into grindadable strips. I then
> removed as much meat as possible off the back and still put the rest up
> for stock along with all of the skin. I did not add skin to the sausage.
> The fifth and smallest turkey will be roasted probably tomorrow.
>
> HEB had some lovely, reasonably lean pork trimmings for $.97 per lb.
> so the sausage was made from 1/2 turkey meat (mostly breast) and 1/2
> lean trimmed pork.
>
> To each lb. of meat I added:
>
> Coarse salt: 1/4 tbs.
>
> (down from 1/2 tbs. that the original recipe I downloaded called for and
> it was _plenty_ salty enough)
>
> Fresh sage: 1/2 tbs.
> Fresh thyme: 1 tbp.
> Ground cinnamon: 1/8 tsp.
> Fresh Mexican Oregano: 1 tbp.
> Ground black pepper: 1/3 tsp.
> Garlic Powder: 2 tsp.
>
> Amounts of some stuff is approximated. The one nice thing about making
> home made sausage is that you can change a recipe to your personal
> tastes as well as herbs/spices on hand, AND you can make it lower in fat
> and salt, and sugar free! The only commercial sausage I've ever found to
> be sugar free is Boars Head.
>
> Good sausage is expensive, generally running about $3.00 per lb. I
> calculated this out to around $1.00 per lb. 4 turkeys later, we ended up
> making 24 lbs. total and each batch of 12 took us about 3 hours
> including deboning the turkey.
>
> This stuff turned out to be rich and delicious!
> I let the links solidify a bit overnight in the 'frige before cutting
> them into single links for freezing.
>
> Pics:
>
> S1TheSetup.jpg
> http://i11.tinypic.com/2e5ur2x.jpg
>
> S2TheMachine.jpg
> http://i13.tinypic.com/2sbk83l.jpg
>
> S3TheMeat.jpg
> http://i10.tinypic.com/4835iu1.jpg
>
> S4Grinding.jpg
> http://i14.tinypic.com/29z4h8y.jpg
>
> S5TheStuffer.jpg
> http://i11.tinypic.com/44lmgsj.jpg
>
> S6SausageCasings.jpg
> http://i13.tinypic.com/42l6qoi.jpg
>
> S7CasingsWet.jpg
> http://i14.tinypic.com/4br4mfp.jpg
>
> S8SausageCondom.jpg
> http://i12.tinypic.com/2ds2wrr.jpg
>
> S9ReadyMixMeat.jpg
> http://i14.tinypic.com/2a4xug4.jpg
>
> S10FirstLink.jpg
> http://i12.tinypic.com/2ai2352.jpg
>
> S11FirstCasingSet.jpg
> http://i13.tinypic.com/30d855g.jpg
>
> S12TwleveLbLinks.jpg
> http://i10.tinypic.com/49imjhi.jpg
>
> S13SausagePlated.jpg
> http://i14.tinypic.com/43rmpvr.jpg
> --
> Peace, Om
>
> Remove _ to validate e-mails.
>
> "My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson
Nice job- you are one brave woman! How were the casings to handle- they
look slimy... did you do any without casings?

Omelet wrote:
> Got myself a new toy...
> It's partially why I was behind by over 700 posts from the weekend. <G>
>
> Cabelas was having a 4 hour "black Friday" sale on Friday between 6 am
> and 10 am. Since I get off of work at 7 am, this was perfect.
>
> I'd read their newspaper ad and they had a nice selection of cool
> things. Cabelas, as a rule, tends to be a bit overpriced on a variety of
> things with the notable exception of ammunition. It's cheaper there than
> at Wal-mart!
>
> But, I digress...
>
> They had a nifty little high torque meat grinder marked down from $99.95
> to $49.95 for that 4 hour period and it looked good, so I bought one.
>
> S2TheMachine.jpg
> http://i13.tinypic.com/2sbk83l.jpg



Is that a #8 grinder or a #12? (size of the plates and knife) It looks
a *lot* like the #12 grinder I bought from Northern a couple of years
ago for about $100.

Wondering how turkey + beef dry salami would turn out,
Bob

Omelet wrote

> This stuff turned out to be rich and delicious!
> I let the links solidify a bit overnight in the 'frige before
cutting
> them into single links for freezing.

Nice job, there, they look great
I have recently read something about sausage making on the italian
cooking ng, and one poster said that it's better to leave the sausages
at least 3 days to rest so that the salt can "do" them. This should be
good both for sausages made to be eaten fresh and for sausages which
are going to be aged, as salami. It obviously requires a very cool
place to preserve them, but not a fridge IMHO, since probably those
no-frost thingies would dry them too much...
A tip about making your own sausages, if you like garlic: do as in
Mantova (Mantua), along the river Po. BTW, that's also the birthplace
of Virgil, who described in his works the wine and the food of this
land two thousand years ago. The day before casing theyr salamis, and
usually also sausages to be eaten fresh, theyr butchers put some
roughly crushed garlic in a bowl of white wine and leave it overnight
in cold temperatures, a normal fridge will do well. The day after they
mix some of that wine to the meat, having removed the garlic cloves,
just after grinding the meat. In the southern parts of the province
they grind the garlic cloves too, and let some of them get into the
meat along with the wine. Very tasty. Obviously this is typical with
pork-only salamis and sausages, don't know about other kinds of meat.
--
Vilco
Think pink, drink rose'

On 2006-11-27, Vilco > wrote:

> cooking ng, and one poster said that it's better to leave the sausages
> at least 3 days to rest so that the salt can "do" them.

We used to put up several hundred pounds of pork/beef garlic sausage
and we'd eat unlinked sausage the same day it was ground as suasage
patties. Tasted great.

nb

In article .com>,
"merryb" > wrote:

> Nice job- you are one brave woman!

<grins>

> How were the casings to handle- they
> look slimy...

They are not. I greased the stuffing tube lightly with olive oil so the
casing would slide on more easily and feed better. They tend to be
fragile.

> did you do any without casings?

Just the leftover meat... It's fine for patties but I really like
stuffed sausages for grilling.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article >,
zxcvbob > wrote:

> Omelet wrote:
> > Got myself a new toy...
> > It's partially why I was behind by over 700 posts from the weekend. <G>
> >
> > Cabelas was having a 4 hour "black Friday" sale on Friday between 6 am
> > and 10 am. Since I get off of work at 7 am, this was perfect.
> >
> > I'd read their newspaper ad and they had a nice selection of cool
> > things. Cabelas, as a rule, tends to be a bit overpriced on a variety of
> > things with the notable exception of ammunition. It's cheaper there than
> > at Wal-mart!
> >
> > But, I digress...
> >
> > They had a nifty little high torque meat grinder marked down from $99.95
> > to $49.95 for that 4 hour period and it looked good, so I bought one.
> >
> > S2TheMachine.jpg
> > http://i13.tinypic.com/2sbk83l.jpg
>
>
>
> Is that a #8 grinder or a #12? (size of the plates and knife) It looks
> a *lot* like the #12 grinder I bought from Northern a couple of years
> ago for about $100.

Not sure... The grinder came with 3 plates. I prefer a coarser grind for
sauasage. That was the largest of the 3.

>
> Wondering how turkey + beef dry salami would turn out,
> Bob

Might be a bit dry... I think I need to add more fat next time. These
are very good but a tad dry.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article >,
"Vilco" > wrote:

> Nice job, there, they look great

Thanks!

> I have recently read something about sausage making on the italian
> cooking ng, and one poster said that it's better to leave the sausages
> at least 3 days to rest so that the salt can "do" them. This should be
> good both for sausages made to be eaten fresh and for sausages which
> are going to be aged, as salami. It obviously requires a very cool
> place to preserve them, but not a fridge IMHO, since probably those
> no-frost thingies would dry them too much...
> A tip about making your own sausages, if you like garlic: do as in
> Mantova (Mantua), along the river Po. BTW, that's also the birthplace
> of Virgil, who described in his works the wine and the food of this
> land two thousand years ago. The day before casing theyr salamis, and
> usually also sausages to be eaten fresh, theyr butchers put some
> roughly crushed garlic in a bowl of white wine and leave it overnight
> in cold temperatures, a normal fridge will do well. The day after they
> mix some of that wine to the meat, having removed the garlic cloves,
> just after grinding the meat. In the southern parts of the province
> they grind the garlic cloves too, and let some of them get into the
> meat along with the wine. Very tasty. Obviously this is typical with
> pork-only salamis and sausages, don't know about other kinds of meat.
> --
> Vilco
> Think pink, drink rose'

That sounds really cool... I just used garlic powder rather than fresh
but a wine based garlic extract sounds like it'd add a nice touch.

I'm considering making a small batch of italian sausage next time. The
main flavoring for that is fennel.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article >,
notbob > wrote:

> On 2006-11-27, Vilco > wrote:
>
> > cooking ng, and one poster said that it's better to leave the sausages
> > at least 3 days to rest so that the salt can "do" them.
>
> We used to put up several hundred pounds of pork/beef garlic sausage
> and we'd eat unlinked sausage the same day it was ground as suasage
> patties. Tasted great.
>
> nb

There is always leftover in the sausage tubing. :-)
We fried that as a patty...

Granted, stuffed sausage is not necessary (it can ALL be made into
patties) but it's a helluva lot of fun!

And easier if you like to grill it.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

Omelet wrote:
>
> I'm considering making a small batch of italian sausage next time. The
> main flavoring for that is fennel.
> --

I think you should make a large batch and send me some for
evaluation... :~D

...fred

Oh pshaw, on Mon 27 Nov 2006 04:58:45a, Omelet meant to say...

> Got myself a new toy...
> It's partially why I was behind by over 700 posts from the weekend. <G>

>
> S12TwleveLbLinks.jpg
> http://i10.tinypic.com/49imjhi.jpg

Scrumtious!!!

> S13SausagePlated.jpg
> http://i14.tinypic.com/43rmpvr.jpg

More Scrumtious!!!

Do you think they'll flatten out when you mail them to me?

--
Wayne Boatwright
__________________________________________________

Cats don't brag about whom they have slept with.

In article .com>,
"kuvasz guy" > wrote:

> Omelet wrote:
> >
> > I'm considering making a small batch of italian sausage next time. The
> > main flavoring for that is fennel.
> > --
>
> I think you should make a large batch and send me some for
> evaluation... :~D
>
> ..fred

Recipe? <G>
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article 9>,
Wayne Boatwright <wayneboatwright_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> Oh pshaw, on Mon 27 Nov 2006 04:58:45a, Omelet meant to say...
>
> > Got myself a new toy...
> > It's partially why I was behind by over 700 posts from the weekend. <G>
>
> >
> > S12TwleveLbLinks.jpg
> > http://i10.tinypic.com/49imjhi.jpg
>
> Scrumtious!!!
>
> > S13SausagePlated.jpg
> > http://i14.tinypic.com/43rmpvr.jpg
>
> More Scrumtious!!!
>
> Do you think they'll flatten out when you mail them to me?

Only if I squish 'em! ;-D
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

Omelet wrote:
>
> Might be a bit dry... I think I need to add more fat next time.
> These are very good but a tad dry.

Well, duh! Turkey breast meat, no skin,
and lean pork trimmings? They couldn't be
more dry if you were planning it that way.

Omelet wrote:

> I'm considering making a small batch of italian sausage next time.
> The main flavoring for that is fennel.

Fennel seeds are used in salami in many parts of Italy, expecially the
central and southern parts.
Among the most famous there are tuscan Finocchiona and many kinds of
Soppressata (also SoPressata with a single "p") from Basilicata, Campania
and Calabria. Finocchiona gets its name directly from fennel ("finocchio" in
italian, which is also slang for "***" BTW), while the second gets its own
from the pressure it undergoes during initial aging ("pressata" is the
italian for "pressed"), and may come both with or without fennel, be it
fennel or wild fennel seeds.
Maybe googling for those two names can give you some more hints.
--
Vilco
Think pink, drink rose'

In article >,
Mark Thorson > wrote:

> Omelet wrote:
> >
> > Might be a bit dry... I think I need to add more fat next time.
> > These are very good but a tad dry.
>
> Well, duh! Turkey breast meat, no skin,
> and lean pork trimmings? They couldn't be
> more dry if you were planning it that way.

Well, there was SOME fat in the pork trimmings. ;-) It's not possible to
remove marbling. You saw the pics.

I really was going for a lower fat product, but that does not always
work out as planned. They are very tasty and juicy tho'.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article >,
"Vilco" > wrote:

> Omelet wrote:
>
> > I'm considering making a small batch of italian sausage next time.
> > The main flavoring for that is fennel.
>
> Fennel seeds are used in salami in many parts of Italy, expecially the
> central and southern parts.
> Among the most famous there are tuscan Finocchiona and many kinds of
> Soppressata (also SoPressata with a single "p") from Basilicata, Campania
> and Calabria. Finocchiona gets its name directly from fennel ("finocchio" in
> italian, which is also slang for "***" BTW), while the second gets its own
> from the pressure it undergoes during initial aging ("pressata" is the
> italian for "pressed"), and may come both with or without fennel, be it
> fennel or wild fennel seeds.
> Maybe googling for those two names can give you some more hints.

A simple google for italian sausage recipes also works. ;-)

I'll pick the one that sounds best to me, and alter it based on personal
taste, and herbs/spices on hand.

Thanks for the input tho'!
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

Omelet wrote:
> In article .com>,
> "kuvasz guy" > wrote:
>
> > Omelet wrote:
> > >
> > > I'm considering making a small batch of italian sausage next time. The
> > > main flavoring for that is fennel.
> > > --
> >
> > I think you should make a large batch and send me some for
> > evaluation... :~D
> >
> > ..fred
>
> Recipe? <G>

I'll try to put something together... I never measure and ingredients
vary depending on what's on hand...

...fred

In article .com>,
"kuvasz guy" > wrote:

>
> Omelet wrote:
> > In article .com>,
> > "kuvasz guy" > wrote:
> >
> > > Omelet wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I'm considering making a small batch of italian sausage next time. The
> > > > main flavoring for that is fennel.
> > > > --
> > >
> > > I think you should make a large batch and send me some for
> > > evaluation... :~D
> > >
> > > ..fred
> >
> > Recipe? <G>
>
> I'll try to put something together... I never measure and ingredients
> vary depending on what's on hand...
>
> ..fred

Estimations will do... :-)

I cook the same way.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson