Here's a quick shot of my latest batch of "Texas Smokey Hot Links"<
insert link to PhotoBucket here> with the Easter Duck shown for size comparison. (As you know, the Easter Duck comes down the chimney each Easter and brings sausages to all good little girls' and boys' granddaddies.)
<can't get the picture from phone to computer to Photobucket. Fighting a computer virus on one machine and Windows 8 on another. Aaarrrggghhh!!!>
The recipe (
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... +hot+links ) was prepared by buying a pound of ground beef, then scaling the recipe. I keep 80/20 ground pork butt frozen in one-kilo bags, so I can whip up some sausage on short notice. In this case, I needed 880 grams out of the kilo, so I mixed up the rest with a scaled amount of chorizo spicing and had it for breakfast the next few days.
But enough of that. I let the mix season overnight, then got out my trusty "Ross-n-Russ Ram Rod" stuffer.
(Search the website, starting at http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... ght=ramrod for how to build it.) From initial sanitization, through loading and stuffing, to final cleanup took about an hour and twenty minutes. This amount of sausage is ideal for the "ramrod," but at a little over 3 pounds, isn't enough to justify getting out a vertical stuffer or (shudder) a horn stuffer.
There is always a little left over, which in my case I stuck into a snack-size plastic bag. No sense loading another casing, just to use less than a foot of it. If you had the photo, you would see the duck eying the bag suspiciously. Now you know why.
To sum up, I make small batches of sausage almost exclusively. Freezing mince in one-kilo lots makes trying a new recipe (or making an old one) quick and easy, because the grinding has already been done. Thaw, mix with spices, refrigerate overnight, then stuff. The "ram rod" approach to stuffing uses little time and few resources, and its PVC parts are dishwasher safe.
...great way to try all sorts of recipes, quickly and easily. Try it. You'll be happier'n an Easter Duck.
