Make Sausage at Home!

My mother asked me recently if I still had the grinder attachment that she gave me to use with my KitchenAid Mixer. I looked, and found it in the bottom of my pantry - the same place I put it when she gave it to me! So, I decided that I needed to use it, but wasn't sure what for. So, my search began and I finally decided that I wanted to make sausage! I found a recipe online that had rave reviews and decided to try it. I purchased an 8 pound pork shoulder on sale for 78 cents a pound. I had read that they are the best cut to use for sausage because it has a good amount of fat content. You can also use turkey or venison, which I'd like to try next! I had to purchase a couple of the spices as well because I didn't have them.

I woke up Sunday morning in the mood to make the sausage! I hooked the grinder attachment up to the KitchenAid, which was very easy even though there were several different parts. Then I called my dear husband into the kitchen to cut the pork into pieces. We ground the pieces coarsely, and in a matter of minutes, we had about 8 pounds of ground pork. I mixed the spices in a bowl while the sausage was grinding. I then spread all the ground pork out onto a cookie sheet and sprinkled the spice mixture on the pork and mixed very well.


Since we were planning to freeze this sausage, we decided to roll the sausage into "logs" so that we can just easily cut slices when we are ready to cook it. I rolled it in wax paper and then placed it in a freezer bag. Each log was about 1 1/3 pounds. It would take a little more time, but you could go ahead and make patties and freeze those. I cooked some of the sausage yesterday morning, and it was delicious! The kids loved it, too! The flavor is perfect...not too bland, not too spicy. If you like spicier sausage, which I sometimes do, you can add a little more red pepper. So, here's the recipe for this fabulous sausage...

2 lbs ground pork, venison, or turkey
2 tsp dried sage
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp dried marjoram
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 pinch ground cloves