After our trip to Mildura, we thought it time for David and myself to make our own sausages. With both of us owning the obligatory red enamel KitchenAids with mincing and sausage attachments, we were good to go. Mostly my fault, time had run out for us to make sausages to hang as the weather had warmed up considerably. So these were going to be fresh sausages. For BBQing, baking in the wood oven, crumbling into risotto, it wont matter they will be used in good measure!
Before I go on, a big thank must go out to Tom Savis, from the Rising Sun Hotel . He gave us the hog casings as well as 2 shoulders of pork, already boned out and ready to go.
Day One – 2 Guys Mincing
Ok back to the mincing. As well as the pork shoulder, David sourced 5kg of prime Buffalo rump from Something Wild at the Central Markets. It was a black red colour with absolutely no fat, so another 1.5kg of pork fat will be added to the mix to stop them from drying out. The first day of this 2 day exercise will be mincing and adding the flavours so that it can marinate and fuse over night. We’d decided on 4 flavours and they will be:
- Buffalo, Pistachio, Garlic and Beer
- Pork with Chilli 3 Ways and Honey
- Pork, Toasted Fennel Seed and Chilli
- Pork with Orange Rind and Chinese Five Spice.
Day one turned out to be quite a long day. It’s amazing how long it takes to butcher down 2 large shoulders of pork, sort ingredients, feed the hopper to mince the goodness, swap over the Kitchenaids as they eventually over heat and so on. By 4.00pm we were done! It was then time to shower-up and head into town for celebratory ales at Back Street Social and dinner at the Apothecary.
Day Two – Stuffing the Sausage
Today is the fun day. The first step is to wrap some test spoonfuls of the flavoured meat into foil parcels and then cook through on the stove.The foil stops the meat from charring and then tasting like hamburger. We can test the levels of salt and spices until we’re happy and a little bit full. Once that was done, we rinsed, then flooded the hog casings in a nice ‘Shardy (some up to 8m long!) and started the process of filling the bad boys. After a slightly shaky start with 2 sausages bursting – I think my grip on the meat was too tight, we were off and running. So well in fact, that after making almost 90 prime sausages, we only broke 2. Not bad for 2 x amateurs fuelled by vodka and soda on a spring day in Adelaide.
Day Two – Nightime Tastings
Sausagefest! Sure it’s overkill to tip half a barrow of timber into the wood oven to cook a pan of fresh sausages, but hey I have several tonne stacked in the corner and it feels like a festive end to the day. The help in the tasting, our friend Tom from the ‘Sun is popping over with his freshly smoked Chorizo to toss in the pan. A couple of cold ones later and we were good to go. Using a beautifully old stainless steel pan, a present from my next door neighbours chef son, we were on our way. In go the snags with a good lug of olive oil and we all stand in awe of the sizzle against the glow of the coals deep in the oven. 2 Vale Ales later and they’re done! They smelt amaze-balls! I pulled my trusty opinel from the drawer and sliced up the snaggy fare. And the winner was . . . Port with Orange and Chinese Five Spice! Simply stunning flavour combination that we made up on the spot after we investigated the contents of my pantry. An equal first place must go to the oven roasted Chorizo, of which we will make next time. The other combos were all equally fantastic, with the Buffalo being the most healthiest and lean of the 5 tested.
