Christmas Eve Dinner Idea: Italian Sausage

This recipe will make 20 pounds of sausage. I usually make about 50 pounds. This is enough to last my family all year. It is just about as easy to make big batches since most of the work is set up and clean up.

There are some things you will need if you plan to make this stuff! You need a meat grinder, a sausage stuffer to put the seasoned meat in the casing, and hog casings (real hog or sheep gut). Now, if all this is too much trouble and you just want sausage for pasta sauce, then you don’t need any casings at all. You can also cook the sausage on the grill in small patties or brown them in a skillet like breakfast sausage. Most likely you can find supplies locally, but if you can’t, try http://www.sausage-stuffer.com. They have all the supplies you will need, including spices like fennel seed. You could also get by with just a stuffer if you have the meat ground where you buy it. I still like to do it my own way, that way I control exactly what goes in the grinder. On to the recipe!

10 lbs beef (I use chuck)
10 lbs pork (I use Boston Butt)

I get close to half and half, but if pork is cheaper, then I may use more pork, say ¾ to ¼. I don’t recommend using more beef than pork, because it can come out too dry, but there are risks in getting too much fat besides hardening of the arteries.

Be sure you allow for the bones in the weight to compensate. De-bone the meat. Grind the meat, mixing the pork and the beef. When you get it all ground, it is time to mix in the spices. You will need the following:

3 oz fennel seed (I like to soak them in a little water for a while before I use them. I put them in a small bowl and just cover them with water. The seeds will soak up all or most of the water. If you can’t find fennel seed, anise seed with work.)
1 oz parsley flakes
1.5-2 oz garlic powder (or however much you can stand!)
1 tsp cayenne pepper (you can use crushed red pepper depending on how spicy you like it)
2 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp salt (be careful, too much will ruin the taste of the sausage and too little will make it taste blah)
2 oz celery salt
¼ oz crushed oregano (don’t use ground oregano—you can vary a little with this but go easy because this can be overpowering!)
½ oz onion flakes (it’s hard to have too much onions, so you don’t have to be careful here)

Now comes the good part! Put the meat in a big tub. I use plastic tubs I bought at Sam’s (like the ones used in restaurants to bus tables). Sprinkle the spices over the meat and mix thoroughly. This takes a while and your hands will get so cold they’ll hurt, but don’t give up; the spices must be thoroughly mixed or you’ll be sorry! When the spices are evenly mixed, put the meat in the refrigerator while you clean up and rinse the casing.

Casing comes in hanks. One hank will make about 100 to 150 pounds of sausage. You can save whatever you don’t use by putting it in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. As you put it in the container, mix it with non-iodized salt. You can get it at your grocery store; you just have to look for it. Use plenty of salt. Don’t fill the container too full, for some reason the salt tries to escape. Put it in the freezer and it will last until you have used it all up. When you buy casing, it’s packed in brine. It is usually clean and has been flushed out before packaging, but you need to rinse it out just to get the brine off. You must untangle it from the hank. Try not to break it, as the longer pieces work easier on the stuffer. Six or eight pieces of casing will probably be enough, although I clean more than I use; it can always be put back. After you have rinsed the casing, put it in a bowl in separate stacks with one end hanging over the edge of the bowl so you can get to it easily and not have to untangle it each time you need a piece. I normally use hog casing; if you buy it locally you will have to take what is available.

Load the meat in the sausage stuffer. I use my meat grinder for stuffing as well as grinding. You just have to have the right accessories. Slide the casing on the stuffing tube of the stuffer or grinder and push it onto the tube until all the casing is on the tube. If it won’t all fit, you will have to cut the casing, saving the small piece for later use. Tie a knot in the end of the casing on the tube. Follow the instructions that came with the stuffer to fill the casing. Begin making the links by pinching the casing at the desired length (I make my links about five inches long) and twisting. It takes a little practice, but you will soon get the feel for it.

I package the sausage in Ziploc freezer bags, squeezing out all the air, then wrapping the plastic bag in freezer paper. This may be overkill, but I will never lose any sausage to freezer burn. Mark and date your packages!

If you can stand it, leave a package in the refrigerator for a day or two to let the flavor of the spices soak in, then cook it. I can never wait! Freeze the rest. If you are making it for a special occasion like Christmas Eve, then make it a few weeks in advance and freeze it. After a few weeks in the freezer the spices permeate the sausage and it will taste better than it does fresh.

One more great way to serve the sausage is in pasta sauce. Take the sausage out of the casing and brown it in a skillet like ground meat, then add it to your favorite sauce and simmer. You can also brown the whole links and add it to the sauce if you prefer.

As you may have noticed, this is our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We cook sausage, spinach balls, pasta with olive oil and garlic, and plenty of Parmesan cheese, stuffed artichokes, salad, bread olives and tomatoes with garlic. If you don't like garlic, you wouldn't want to be at our house Christmas Eve! If you do this, be sure to have plenty of antacid on hand and I assume no liability for the results!