Highly saturated fats like beef or lamb become waxy and will form an unpleasant coating inside your mouth as they cool On the other end of the spectrum, chicken or duck fat is almost completely liquid at room temperature Only pork fat is firm but not waxy at room temperature, and it has a relatively neutral flavor, making it the ideal fat for any number of sausages Whenever I make, say, a nice lamb merguez (a North African sausage flavored with harissa), I’ll combine my lamb with some pork back fat or even nice fatty bacon (making sure to adjust the salt level accordingly to account for the salt in the bacon) Same for my venison sausage, which I make from the organic proceeds of my annual hunting trip I usually try to limit flavoring ingredients to about percent of the total weight of the sausage, often far less I’ve included a number of recipes in this chapter to get you started and to provide basic guidelines for some of the more popular seasonings, but really, your imagination and your palate are the only things restricting you in this realm Experiment a bit and see what you can come up with If you’re afraid to inadvertently ruin an entire batch of sausage meat with overzealous seasoning, start by scaling down: season just a tiny portion of your meat, then cook a small patty of it in a skillet or in the microwave (I usually just throw a quarter-sized patty on a microwave-safe plate and zap it for about 15 seconds, until it’s cooked through) This’ll allow you to taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary before any full-on commitment To Stuff or Not to Stuff There’s no two ways about it: stuffing sausages is timeconsuming If I want to make a big batch of casing-stuffed sausage, I’ll generally devote at least a couple hours of leisurely kitchen time to the task—and that’s coming from someone who practiced stuffing sausages in a professional setting for many years Complete amateurs can expect to mess up a at least a few times, ending up with burst casings, unevenly shaped sausages, and meat-smeared clothes before getting it right Most meat grinders and attachments come with funnels designed for stuffing sausages They will work in a pinch but can be a real headache to use The main problem is that they don’t push the meat through forcefully enough, so stuffing the sausages takes five or ten times longer than it should All the while, the meat is slowly warming up I’ve had better luck stuffing sausage with a pastry bag (this requires two people—one to squeeze the bag, the other to pull the casing off the end as the meat comes out), but if you’re really serious about sausage making, you’ll want a piston-based stuffer that pushes the meat out with a lever rather than trying to force it out with a screw The result is faster, tighter sausages with fewer air bubbles Most good butchers will sell you hog or lamb casings packed in salt To use them, rinse them inside and out with cold water and let them soak in a bowl of cold water for at least half an hour Then open up one end of a casing and thread it over the end of the sausage stuffer, leaving about 6 inches hanging off the end Slowly extrude the sausage meat, using one hand to guide the casing off the end of the stuffer When stuffing sausages, you want the casing to be ... The main problem is that they don’t push the meat through forcefully enough, so stuffing the sausages takes five or ten times longer than it should All the while, the meat is slowly warming up I’ve had better. .. had better luck stuffing sausage with a pastry bag (this requires two people—one to squeeze the bag, the other to pull the casing off the end as the meat comes out), but if you’re really serious... To use them, rinse them inside and out with cold water and let them soak in a bowl of cold water for at least half an hour Then open up one end of a casing and thread it over the end of the sausage stuffer, leaving about 6