# Some thoughts on sausage making...



## Mucho Bocho (Apr 16, 2014)

Sausage making has always been a fun topic so I wanted to share my experience making professional fresh and cured sausages hoping to assist others that want to play with this form of food. I'm by no means THE expert and am hoping others will be inspired to share their thoughts too.

I'm going to keep this discussion to making Fresh style sausage. That is sausage that does not require the use of nitrate to make safe to eat. 

I make sausages that is free of sinus, silver skin, glands, low quality watery fat. This discussion is largely focused on pork sausage, but I've made fish sausage using the same techniques.

Meat Selection:
For Pork, the Boston Butt ( Upper hog shoulder) is king and an excellent choice because it has a range of white and dark meat. Try to purchase the highest quality you can find, definitely not "self basted" meat.

Fat:
Unsalted fresh hog fat back is best. (Cowl/kidney fat is pretty awesome too but hard to get). If you can't get back fat, go for fresh hog belly.

Grinder:
The single biggest secret to great sausage is keeping the fat and meat COLD and SEPARATE (unless making an emulsion, another topic) while grinding/mixing/stuffing. Critical that the temperature of your product does not exceed 38-40 degrees F. The longer it takes you to grind the sausage, the harder it is to keep it cold. I have over a grand in a professional set up: Grinder/meat tumbler/vertical stuffer). This setup only gets used in batches over 50LBS. So maybe once a year.

For batches of less than 50 pounds I use a manual #12 hand crank grinder pictured below. Rant: A hand grind will give you much more control over grinding your product. Little electric grinders and kitchen aid attachments create a lot of friction/heat, worse the housing is plastic insulating that heat. If your machine is turning without sausage continually flowing from the head, your creating unnecessary heat. Its easy and fun to turn the crank on a manual. 

Advise, get a #22 manual stainless steel hand crank grinder on eBay for $99. Will be the single biggest improvement you could make. Good idea to flatten your blade and die before grinding too.

My process:
Separate the Boston Butt and remove anything that is not muscle. Sometimes the Butt will have some hard fat on the outside of the muscle group--save that. Cut meat up in about 3/4" pieces. Fat: Remove the skin from the back or belly and cut fat into 1/2" cubes. KEEP MEAT AND FAT SEPERATE.

Mix your salt/sugars... with 1/2 cup of purified water per pound of meat (add herbs and spices to meat AFTER grinding.) Your meat mixture should look like soupy dog food. You want some liquid in there, will facilitate grinding and make your product juicier. Put in refrigerator for a day to cure and turn occasionally. Do not mix meat and fat at this stage.

A few hours before your ready to grind:
Put your grinder/auger/blade/die, meat and fat into the freezer. Grind the meat when it becomes almost hard, kinda 1/2 frozen. Move as quickly as possible, grind quickly and get your ground product back in the freezer ASAP. Your looking for long worms of meat. Do the same for the fat. A good way to clear the grinder is to run some bread through it at the end of grinding.

Leave the product in freezer, clean up the mess made from grinding. Don't let meat/fat freeze.

Add herbs and spices to a cup of water and mix into meat (don't over mix), then add fat to meat/seasoning mixture. Don't over mix but distribute somewhat evenly. Its ok if the mixture is wet and loose.

Put back in refrigerator. Clean the mixing mess.

These days I don't stuff in hog casings. I mostly use my sausage as an ingredient so find that portioning them in 1 LB bags and freezing for later use works best for me.

These are the recipes I use:
http://lpoli.50webs.com/Sausage recipes.htm

Some of you have seen these pics, some may have not. But for illustration purposes:


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## EdipisReks (Apr 16, 2014)

Awesome post! I've recently gotten into making sausage, and this is great.


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## WildBoar (Apr 16, 2014)

Inspiring post; this is definitely something I want to try.


Mucho Bocho said:


> For batches of less than 50 pounds I use a manual #12 hand crank grinder pictured below...
> ...Advise, get a #22 manual stainless steel hand crank grinder on eBay for $99.


What's the difference between a #22 and the #12 that you use? Is the #12 bigger?


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## Zwiefel (Apr 16, 2014)

Dennis, You should think about getting into this a bit more enthusiastically/seriously.


:justkidding:


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## Mucho Bocho (Apr 16, 2014)

Dave #22 is larger I use a manual 12 but my electric is a 22. Then22'is Twice as fast as the 12 allowing the grinder to stay colder longer.


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## Erilyn75 (Apr 22, 2014)

I'm in love with this thread. I hate my KA attachment, it puts grey flecks in my grind and never stays cold. Ends up as a Nasty mess. 

I didn't know you added that much water to sausage. Do you still add that amount if you're not stuffing it in casings?


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## apicius9 (Apr 22, 2014)

Beautiful thread, Dennis, thanks! One of these things I always wanted to do, but never made a priority. I was thinking using casings, but for me as a single that seemed too much work, unless I would just give most of it away. As alternative, I was thinking about canning sausage in mason jars - would you have any experience in that also? 

Stefan


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## Bill13 (Apr 22, 2014)

I'm feeling inspired! I have the kitchen aid and my aunts hand crank from the 50's somewhere.

My uncle was a Doctor in WV in the 40's and on, since no one had any money he would deliver a baby in your home for 6- 12 dollars depending on what you could afford. The farmers were so happy with his rates when they butchered the hogs they would give him some. They bought the grinder because as my aunt would say they had more pig than they could eat and sausage was a good way to get rid of some of the cuts. She also said my uncle was not a very good businessman:laugh:


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## panda (Apr 23, 2014)

you should host a carolina meet and do a tasting of those!


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## Mucho Bocho (Apr 23, 2014)

I'd love to host a charcuterie gathering in NC Panda. Seems nearly impossible to gather folks, even in the same state. 

Thanks Stefan, I'm over stuffing in casings. To be honest, I just don't cook whole links like that anymore. What I do these days if I want a link of sausage is to put a few ounces of ground sausage on shrink wrap and roll it into a log and float it in a 170 degree water bath for ten minutes or so. Then ice. Then unwrap and cook them in a warm cast iron pan. They brown up quite nicely. They come out looking more akin to a brown-n-serve breakfast sausage but I'm ok with that.

Erilyn, I do use that much water or more. As you grind the meat the protein fibers will hold onto the liquid giving your sausage more moisture, spring and savory juiciness.


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## panda (Apr 24, 2014)

start a thread lets see if we can garner some interest. if there is one season i can take a weekend off, it is during the summer.

you try using chix stock or apple juice instead of water?


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## AFKitchenknivesguy (Apr 24, 2014)

Absolutely inspiring thread.


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## Talim (Apr 24, 2014)

Is this the #22 grinder that you were talking about? Is it also good for grinding up meat for burgers?http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-MTN-Gea...729?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ad42863f9


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## 29palms (Apr 24, 2014)

I roll my sausage in saran wrap as well and just poach a little to set. When I use cased sausage in a recipe I remove the casing anyway.


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## rami_m (Apr 24, 2014)

ok, why do you need to freeze the grinder?


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## Mucho Bocho (Apr 24, 2014)

Talim said:


> Is this the #22 grinder that you were talking about? Is it also good for grinding up meat for burgers?http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-MTN-Gea...729?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ad42863f9



Yep that's the ticket Talim. You'll never be in want of an electric again. 

Panda, maybe we could coordinate something this fall?

Rami, the key to great sausage is keeping everything very cold. When the grinder it turning, it creates friction/heat. A frozen grinder, blade and die will reduce that heat to a minimum. 

Jacob, it is best practice to grind and then returned the ground meat back to the refrigerator before mixing/stuffing. 

About grinders, after washing in hot water I put all the parts in a 200 degree oven for an hour or so to sanitize. You can never be too clean when making sausage. I don't touch the ground product with my bare hands at any time. I use insulated BBQ gloves to add the meat to the grinder. Then mix the meat and fat with a rubber spatula. Can never be to clean.


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## adletson (Apr 24, 2014)

I'm planning a big sausage making session this weekend. I've got some casings and plan on making 2 different types of sausage. One is definitely going to be unstuffed breakfast sausage. Anyone have a good recipe? For the second sausage I'm looking for ideas. I've never made a stuffed sausage so looking for something unique but beginner friendly.


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## Mucho Bocho (Apr 24, 2014)

Adletson, You could not do better than the formulations from Len Poli--My personal Sausage Hero Discovering this site really opened my world of sausage making. 

http://lpoli.50webs.com/Sausage recipes.htm

I think this is the breakfast sausage you were looking for. I made it last week. Winner

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Salsiccia-Sicilian1.pdf


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## Talim (Apr 24, 2014)

Mucho Bocho said:


> Yep that's the ticket Talim. You'll never be in want of an electric again.



I just bought one. I found the same grinder on Amazon and Amazon warehouse has a couple of "used" ones for even less. Now off to go read those links. Thanks again MB.


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## Mucho Bocho (Apr 24, 2014)

Good for you Talim. There are several great books on sausage and unfortunately (as much as I like the guy) Rhulman's charcutterie is not the definitive guide. Its an excellent primer but for professional sausage science and technique, two stand-out titles are:

Rytek Kutas (I love to say his name, it sounds so sausagy)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0025668609/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Perhaps my favorite and go to when I'd doing advanced fermenting or long term curing:

Stanley and Adam Marianski

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982426739/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

For recipes, I've never found anything better than Len Poli.

You know we will all be looking for pics of your wears, right?


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## chibok (Apr 24, 2014)

Second pic, back row...what are those big mamma-jammas?!


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## erickso1 (Aug 25, 2014)

Sorry, bumping an older thread, but didn't want to see the topic die out completely. 

Must say the Rytek book was the first cooking book I personally ordered. It contained the recipes my Dad used for Italian sausage and Breakfast (fresh) sausage. They would do it every fall (usually on Apple Cup weekend while the Cougars played the Huskies). The whole family would get together and grind a 50/50 blend of deer and pork to make 40 to 50 lbs of bulk sausage. Always was and still is my favorite, so hopefully I'll get that on my list soon. Just need to read Mucho's post a couple more times, as well as his links.


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## Vesteroid (Aug 25, 2014)

Glad you did bump this. I have been making and smoking sausage for years and learned a few things from reading this.

I usually make the bulk of my sausage in winter where I can smoke at low temps, but do enjoy breakfast sausage....try using costco boneless chicken thighs semi frozen for the breakfast recipie....it's pretty darn surprising how good it is and a little bit healthier I suppose.

My son cooks them like hamburgers....of course a growing 17 year old will eat anything he can find.


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## rahimlee54 (Aug 25, 2014)

I have still gotta get the hand crank grinder. I am getting more and more into meat grinding recently and I know the KA attachment is holding me back.


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## BeerChef (Aug 28, 2014)

If anyone in the philly area ever wants to learn how to make sausage I'm the sous chef at a wurst haus and would be more then happy to have you come in and learn. We make tons of crazy house made sausage.


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## MontezumaBoy (Aug 28, 2014)

erickso1 said:


> Sorry, bumping an older thread, but didn't want to see the topic die out completely.



Thx for Bumping! Missed this one completely and, has happened so many times on this forum, I am amazed & thrilled at the time, effort and skill that people take to share their experience and knowledge ... Huge thanks to Mucho for such an awesome & helpfull thread! Also to all that replied, of course, but it definitely takes someone starting the conversation. 

This has inspired me to get back into sausage making / been 10+ years / luckily I still have the equipment as I always knew I would want my boudin again, just it will likely be much better now and with all the links / thoughts hopefully I will make many more to choose from 

Please keep those older threads bumps back to the 'here and now' going! :razz:


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## Clarence (Aug 30, 2014)

I have a packet of instant northern Thai sausage mix. Comes with the collagen casing apparently. I'll have to work on thaat sometime.


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## DDPslice (Sep 14, 2014)

Awesome thread!


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## Zwiefel (Aug 27, 2015)

Talim said:


> I just bought one. I found the same grinder on Amazon and Amazon warehouse has a couple of "used" ones for even less. Now off to go read those links. Thanks again MB.



Bumping this thread since MB drew my attention to it from my thread about getting started with cured meats...

Talim, it's been almost 18 months since your post....how are you getting on with your projects? any discoveries worth sharing with someone who's about 18 months behind you? 

Also, MB: why water instead of some sort of stock?


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## Mucho Bocho (Aug 27, 2015)

D, I've not heard of using stock to make sausage before, not saying that it wouldn't work. I used stock/gelatin in the offal terrine I made.


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## DamageInc (Aug 27, 2015)

Mucho Bocho said:


> D, I've not heard of using stock to make sausage before, not saying that it wouldn't work. I used stock/gelatin in the offal terrine I made.



I know in Danish sausage making you pour ice-cold stock into the sausage mixture. The cold stops it from splitting and you get much more flavor.


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## Mucho Bocho (Aug 27, 2015)

Damage, Interesting. Could you post a recipe, sounds intriguing. Love to learn what others from around the world do with tube meat.


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## Zwiefel (Aug 27, 2015)

DamageInc said:


> I know in Danish sausage making you pour ice-cold stock into the sausage mixture. The cold stops it from splitting and you get much more flavor.



This is the sort of thing I was thinking of....but I was curious as to what it might do on a technical level (Ph, dissolved solids, etc.).


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## DamageInc (Aug 28, 2015)

Mucho Bocho said:


> Damage, Interesting. Could you post a recipe, sounds intriguing. Love to learn what others from around the world do with tube meat.



I only have the recipe in Danish but I could translate it. When making sausages, to achieve a nice texture, half of the meat is roughly grinded/chopped, and the other half is made into a meat paste as a binder. And while you are chopping your binder in a food processor, you pour in ice cold stock very very slowly, making the mixture thinner, but not splitting it (kinda like a meat hollandaise). You also have to be careful with the amounts, as too much stock will make the meat split under cooking, causing "meat sock syndrome" which is basically a piece of meat suspended in liquid in the casing. Not nice.

This video is in Danish but it should give you a kind of understanding if the process. https://youtu.be/DFYXU9GKXzc?t=7m46s

And then you mix the binder with the rough, season it to your liking, then encase it. It is important that your sausage mixture is ice cold at all times to stop it from splitting. It may only be heated up when encased and ready to be blanched.

I like these values. Makes a nice and meaty sausage, as there is no flour or eggs.
1 kg lean pork
500 g fatty pork, like cheek or belly
500 g lean beef
6-7 dl ice cold bullion
25 g fine salt
5 g nitrate salt (this is just for the pink color. Can be omitted and replaced with regular salt)
3-4 garlic cloves
3 g cracked pepper
3 g sweet paprika
2 g nutmeg
4 g onion powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 drip of liquid smoke
4 meters of fine lamb intestine

After the sausage is cased, you may want to "age" it for a few days in the fridge to let the flavors really meld. Then steam the sausages for 10 minutes and they are ready to grill or pan fry.

To be honest, I have no idea if any of this is unique to Denmark. I'm pretty sure it isn't but it is the way I prefer to have them made.


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## Mucho Bocho (Aug 28, 2015)

Thanks Damage for the recipe, looks spot on. Its interesting what each country deems to be sausage. Sausage in the US is coarse ground meats stuffed in a 40~50mm hog/colligen casing. Usually made with pork and beef. 

The guys in the video, obviously made an emulsified sausage, which in the US is called a hotdog. Hotdogs are very polarizing too. Its too bad that we're not more open to other emulsified sausages. Baloney is another ES that is consider poor mans food too. Could anything be so simple and tasty as a warm Baloney sandwich with yellow mustard and pickle. 

Was cool to see their electronic kitchen gadgets. Like the layout of the kitchen too. I've also never seen a Thermomix run before. I approach emulsifieds differently, perhaps they were making compromises because it was made for TV. I couldn't understand one word, excel Liquid Smoke. Thanks for sharing.


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## DamageInc (Aug 29, 2015)

Mucho Bocho said:


> Thanks Damage for the recipe, looks spot on. Its interesting what each country deems to be sausage. Sausage in the US is coarse ground meats stuffed in a 40~50mm hog/colligen casing. Usually made with pork and beef.
> 
> The guys in the video, obviously made an emulsified sausage, which in the US is called a hotdog. Hotdogs are very polarizing too. Its too bad that we're not more open to other emulsified sausages. Baloney is another ES that is consider poor mans food too. Could anything be so simple and tasty as a warm Baloney sandwich with yellow mustard and pickle.
> 
> Was cool to see their electronic kitchen gadgets. Like the layout of the kitchen too. I've also never seen a Thermomix run before. I approach emulsifieds differently, perhaps they were making compromises because it was made for TV. I couldn't understand one word, excel Liquid Smoke. Thanks for sharing.



May I ask which compromises you noticed?


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## Mucho Bocho (Aug 29, 2015)

Making quality sausage is a dancing act with temperature. When making charcutterie, the meat, fats and liquids would always be below 40 degrees, less run the risk of an oily sausage. Not implying that's the case here, but their meat grinder didn't looked properly chilled. Didn't look like the meat and fats we chilled enough either, as indicated by the meat that oozed out of the grinding head. 

Also, when stuffing, air bubbles will form and need to be pricked while stuffing. Also, running the grinder with constantly feeding will only render the fat or warm the meat, neither is desirable when making any sausage. Having everything below 40 is especially critic with emulsifies. I'm bet they were tasty and i'm sure they would probably have take a few more steps in not in an effort to make sausage making entertaining.


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## DamageInc (Aug 29, 2015)

Mucho Bocho said:


> Making quality sausage is a dancing act with temperature. When making charcutterie, the meat, fats and liquids would always be below 40 degrees, less run the risk of an oily sausage. Not implying that's the case here, but their meat grinder didn't looked properly chilled. Didn't look like the meat and fats we chilled enough either, as indicated by the meat that oozed out of the grinding head.
> 
> Also, when stuffing, air bubbles will form and need to be pricked while stuffing. Also, running the grinder with constantly feeding will only render the fat or warm the meat, neither is desirable when making any sausage. Having everything below 40 is especially critic with emulsifies. I'm bet they were tasty and i'm sure they would probably have take a few more steps in not in an effort to make sausage making entertaining.



James (the brown haired one) states many times that everything needs to be as cold as possible. I'm betting they edited out the chilling as James has been making sausages for years and knows what he is doing. The reason he is violently slamming the meat into the stuffer is to avoid air bubbles. But I get your point.


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## goatgolfer (Sep 1, 2015)

Mucho Bocho said:


> ...
> 
> Also, when stuffing, air bubbles will form and need to be pricked while stuffing. .... sausage making entertaining.



I was doing the hand grinding, stuffing routine using Brian Polcyn's book. He is a legend here in Detroit. Went ahead and bought the Grizzly 5# vertical stuffer https://d27ewrs9ow50op.cloudfront.net/pics/jpeg1000/h/h6252-5b5244e67ca60c8e18a2a617d6bcfe61.jpg but it turned out to be way more serious than I could handle. So, it's gathering dust in the box. That doesn't mean I can't make sausage patties though and Merguez (North African Lamb sausage) is my favorite. Penzeys has Berbere spice now and it's perfect for home made Merquez. I'll find someone that wants that Grizzly though. It's too pretty to sit alone in the closet.


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## Mucho Bocho (Sep 28, 2015)

I finally found a recipe that taste like the Linguica/Chourico from Gaspars and Amarals from New Bedford, MA.

Portuguese Linguica

3 1/2 pounds pork shoulder or wild boar meat
1 1/2 pounds pork fat
34 grams kosher salt
6 grams Instacure No. 1 (optional)
1 tablespoon dextrose or white sugar
10 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon hot paprika or cayenne
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon crushed black pepper
1/2 cup dry milk (optional  it helps the sausage retain moisture while smoking)
3/4 cup red wine, preferably a Portuguese wine
Hog casings

After a day in the refrigerator drying I smoked them. 80 to 140 degree pit. 145 degree sausage core. Their drying now and need maybe a week or so to firm up and cure. 

I think one of the secrets to quality smoked sausage is washing them after smoking. Immediately after smoking, I rinse them with hot water then submerge the sausages in an ice bath for 15 minutes. Then remove and hang dry for a week in the refrigerator, but they could be eaten the day after smoking.


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## Zwiefel (Sep 28, 2015)

Those look great MB! 

What is achieved by rinsing them after smoking?



Mucho Bocho said:


> I finally found a recipe that taste like the Linguica/Chourico from Gaspars and Amarals from New Bedford, MA.
> 
> Portuguese Linguica
> 
> ...


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## Mucho Bocho (Sep 28, 2015)

It removes the creosote taste that dissolves in the fat/water droplets that form as the sausage sweats. Washing leaves behind a cleaner smoke taste, plus your hands won't smell like a camp fire after handling them. Not that thats a bad thing. HA


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## Dardeau (Sep 28, 2015)

That looks like a winner! At some point when I have access to a stuffer without going and getting in the way at Cochon, I want to try to clone Conecuh sausage for that taste of home. You can buy it here in Louisiana now, which has considerably slowed my need for the experiment. Maybe I'll make half this recipe, and that'll get my ass in gear.


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