Italian sausage!!!

[TheRealLobo]

Throw one or two of those into a cast-iron frying pan, add about a half an onion, a cut up bell pepper, and a buick. Cook until the buick starts to melt, discard the buick, and put the rest on the sub roll of choice. Yummmmmmmmm, grinders.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Lobo, certainly you are not talking about a car. WTF is a buick? You forgot to add cheese.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

My favorite independent grocer has a marquee that is constantly updated, telling me of the specials on my way into work. For the past several days, pork shoulder was advertised at $0.99 a pound. Thinking this was el cheapo pork, I finally gave in. I was wrong, this was grade A Boston Butt, trimmed and defatted. Bummer was the limit of two...

I got 13 pounds of nearly bonless pork. Deboning took 5 minutes and Mr. Enterprise grinder/sausage stuffer made short work of the rest. What I couldn't stuff (the filler tube etc.), I made into patties for supper. Folks, we have a winner here!

What you need to do the same:

One batch, easiest to handle.

5 pounds of the best pork. Must be fresh and low fat. Little marbling but no lumpy fat. This makes stuffing difficult since pork fat is low in saturated fats and is quite liquid.

1 1/2 tablespoon of fresh whole Fennel seed. Fresh means a good green color.

1 tablespoon of Anise seed. Again, fresh and color.

1 tablespoon of Kosher salt. I know, Kosher salt on pork. Get it out of your system, it isn't that funny ;-}

1 tablespoon of brown sugar.

1 tablespoon of coarse black pepper. Again, fresh rules. Grind your own.

2 large cloves of garlic. Slice it thin and mince, then crush in a press or mortar and pestle.

Casings. Salt preserved and can be mail-ordered.

Cut the pork into strips your grinder can handle. If you are using a press, grind then season. If using a grinder/stuffer, season the meat by combining the dry, then carefully spreading the garlic paste over the meat. Let the meat rest in the 'fridge for 1-2 hours and distribute the seasonings.

If you are pressing, load the tub and stuff, making links of desired size. I go for 1/3 pounders, twisting the segments off and final tying later. You have perfect control of feed rate and by varying the tension on the casing, you can control fill-out. Careful as many thinner casings will rupture.

If you are using a grinder/stuffer, you need to maintain control of the auger as its doing two functions, grinding and packing. If you try for too much tension, you will cause a back-up in the auger. Too little and the links are flabby. Remember, you can always tighten links after stuffing by twisting the casing.

In either method, casings must be soaking wet in cool water for at least an hour before use. If they dry, they will stick and rupture.

BTW, Mr. Enterprise is the name I gave to my grinder as that is what is cast into the side of it. Good old made in USA, tin-plated cast iron hand crank machine. Yes, my arm is tired but the sausage is well worth it. It was given to my parents by church friend. Her husband used it for years to make Italian sausage. I got this receipe with the kit.

How lean? I got a teaspoon of fat from the two 1/4 pound patties I fried.