One sunny day in November I finally got to do something I have been wanting to for a long time, home-made sausages. As our friend Russel has a food grinder and a sausage stuffer kit we went to his house in Brooklyn. On the way we stopped by at the butcher to get the meat and the pork casings. The butcher got so excited about our project that he gave me plenty of pork fat for free! This was what we made…

4 lb venison
1 ½ lb pork fat
some red chili, fresh or flakes
15- 20 juniper berries
rosemary
sage
4 teaspoons mustard seeds
5-6 garlic cloves
salt
pepper
and
pork casings – They came 50 feet long in a small container. I used hardly any. However the casing can be stored sealed in the fridge for a long time.

Clean the pork casing by rinsing it in water. Let it soak in fresh water while preparing the filling. Mush the juniper in a mortar, together with chili, mustard seeds, rosemary and sage. Cut the venison and the pork fat into smaller pieces and ground the meat in a food grinder.  Its important to keep the meat cold, in fact it can actually be a little frozen. Add the prepared spices to the ground meat,  and season with salt and pepper. To be sure the sausage has enough flavor, I recommend you fry some up to taste before you start stuff the casing. Get your stuffer ready and slip on the casing to the pipe and finish with a small knot at the end. Feed the grinder (*or whatever you are using) and gently fill the casing. At last, when all meat is filled, make “knots” in between the sausages by twisting the casing.

As the weather was lovely, we decided to have a barbecue. I served the sausages with a warm tomato salsa and a fresh salad.

*If you don’t have a sausage stuffer kit you can try to use a cake decorator.

Also check out my Pork Sausage