full but not too tight Get it too tight, and your sausage will burst when you try and twist it off into links or when the casing shrinks during cooking Once you’ve extruded the meat into the casing, tie off each end with a piece of butcher’s twine or knot it, then twist it into individual links of whatever size you’d like Tie a small piece of twine around each joint to keep the links tightly sealed Don’t want to bother with all this fuss? Don’t worry, you don’t have to Casings are great because they create a natural cooking vessel for your sausage, as well as add plenty of texture and snap, but well-made sausage can just fine on its own, formed into patties or logs When shaping casing-less sausage, keep a bowl of cold water nearby to moisten your hands Wet hands make handling sausage much simpler Below you’ll find a few recipes for basic sausage seasoning mixes While most of the recipes in this book are American in origin or at least seen through an American lens, I’ve included a few sausage recipes from around the world, because once you know how to make good sausage, it seems such a waste not to get a variety of simple recipes under your belt After that, we’ll talk about cooking them If using casings, all sausages should be stuffed into hog casings unless otherwise noted USE THE METRIC SYSTEM! Y ou may notice that while many of the recipes in this book are written in standard U.S measures (that is, cups, pounds, and ounces), you’ll occasionally see me giving metric units (grams and liters) Why the inconsistency? While imperial units are the preferred unit in the United States and work perfectly well for recipes in which precision is not of utmost importance (say, making a quick pan sauce or a batch of scrambled eggs), for certain recipes, generally baking and charcuterie, a little too much salt or a bit too much water can spell the difference between success and failure It’s at times like this that the metric system excels Why? Several reasons • It’s more precise Right off the bat, your basic ... After that, we’ll talk about cooking them If using casings, all sausages should be stuffed into hog casings unless otherwise noted USE THE METRIC SYSTEM! Y ou may notice that while many of the recipes in this book are written in standard U.S... measures (that is, cups, pounds, and ounces), you’ll occasionally see me giving metric units (grams and liters) Why the inconsistency? While imperial units are the preferred unit in the United...seasoning mixes While most of the recipes in this book are American in origin or at least seen through an American lens, I’ve included a few sausage recipes from around the world, because once you know how to make good sausage,