One of my favorite things to do with wild hogs, particularly older hogs that may be a bit gamier than their younger kin, is to make sausage. For first-time sausage makers, the simplest sausage to make is a standard American style breakfast sausage.
While there are several packaged commercial seasoning blends on the market (Leggs Old Plantation Number 10 Blend is one of my all-time favorites), mixing your own seasoning allows you to customize your sausage to your familys personal preference. The following recipe is a good starting point for a mildly spicy breakfast sausage, but dont hesitate to mix it up and a bit and add more or less seasoning to taste.
You dont need many tools to make your own sausage. For breakfast, or any non-casing sausage, a sharp knife and a meat grinder will do. Grinders can be an old style hand-cranked model, or more modern electric versions like the Weston Realtree line.
Since wild pigs are leaner than their farm-raised cousins, I usually add a bit of pork fat to my sausage grind for better texture and to help the patties hold together while cooking. The amount used depends on just how lean your pork is, but a half pound to a pound of trimmed pork fat to five pounds of lean meat is a good starting point. You can get pork fat from just about any butcher shop that trims its own meat.
5 pounds lean wild pork, cut into roughly one inch cubes and chilled in the freezer
1 pound pork fat from butcher shop, cut into one inch cubes and chilled in the freezer
Begin by running the chilled meat (chilling meat before grinding keeps the grinder from clogging up and helps the meat feed faster) through the small plate on your grinder, alternating a piece of fat for every four or five pieces of meat to get an even blend.
Fry up a batch in a cast iron skillet and let me know what you think
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Fry up a batch in a cast iron skillet and let me know what you think
Begin by running the chilled meat (chilling meat before grinding keeps the grinder from clogging up and helps the meat feed faster) through the small plate on your grinder, alternating a piece of fat for every four or five pieces of meat to get an even blend.
You dont need many tools to make your own sausage. For breakfast, or any non-casing sausage, a sharp knife and a meat grinder will do. Grinders can be an old style hand-cranked model, or more modern electric versions like the Weston Realtree line.
While there are several packaged commercial seasoning blends on the market (Leggs Old Plantation Number 10 Blend is one of my all-time favorites), mixing your own seasoning allows you to customize your sausage to your familys personal preference. The following recipe is a good starting point for a mildly spicy breakfast sausage, but dont hesitate to mix it up and a bit and add more or less seasoning to taste.
1 pound pork fat from butcher shop, cut into one inch cubes and chilled in the freezer
This is what I uncovered in the bed of my brother’s full size pickup truck. As you can see, it was a clean/professional dress job.
Even though other linked sausages, other than Polish, were fairly fine ground, they still become somewhat dry when oven cooked at anything above very low temperatures. Fine ground patties from bulk were very good when fried up at high heat. This sow’s meat seems to want to be cooked either hot and fast or low and slow in order to achieve good palatability characteristics. However, hot and fast is not an option with the Polish due to the coarse chunks of lean that need to be tenderized by moist-heat cookery. Another option with the fine ground links is to strip the meat from casings; either before cooking to use as bulk or after fast cooking – since casings may then remain tough.
Pork in one half of the preceding lug was transferred into another, nearly equal amounts of the Polish seasoning mixture was poured on top of each one, then hand fisting/mixing began. Ground pork was used to wipe out the spice containing pot.
Striped-up pork for grinding. An effort was made to distribute different carcass regions somewhat equally among the lugs & totes. The covered lug on left contained both the fat and lean components for fresh Polish, an estimated 60 to 65 pounds total weight.
One view of all but about 25 pounds of the Saturday’s work. Some of the 307 pounds of product had already been given away by the time we wrapped up production.
How to make Wild Boar Sausage! W/ Sausage Gravy Bonus!!! Tasty Tuesday
FAQ
What is the difference between whole hog sausage and sausage?
How is whole hog sausage made?
What is pig sausage made of?
What parts of a pig go into a sausage?
How to cook hog sausage?
The most popular way to cook hog sausage is on the frying pan, but there are a few others worth trying. As I mentioned above frying hog sausage is one of the most popular methods of cooking them. Frying them is also one of the easiest methods. To get the most from the sausage you should use a cast iron pan.
Is sausage casing healthier option to eat?
Cellulose casings and some natural casings are perfectly fine to eat. Sausage casings are used to hold and shape filling inside so that it can be cooked. There are natural sausage casings and synthetic varieties, and most of them are edible. The healthiest way to cook them is by boiling or baking. Sausages provide high levels of vitamin B12 and iron, both of which are essential for healthy red blood cells and hemoglobin production.
Is whole hog pork sausage a good chub?
Bob Evans, Jimmy Dean, Webber and others have done well marketing whole-hog pork sausage in retail chubs; made from culled sows. Sow meat is also well suited for precooked sausage production because that meat, in common commercial fat percentages, does not readily pack & bind too tightly when ran through mass production patty forming machines.
What is Chinese sausage?
Chinese sausage refers to any sausage originating from China, and it is ordinarily a sweetened, salted and smoked dry pork version. It may contain ingredients like soy sauce, rice wine and rose water. Chinese sausage is tasty on its own, though it makes a flavorful addition to stir-fry and other Chinese dishes.