Episode: Our State on a Plate Royal Show Special
Broadcast: 27th September 2015
Presenter: Daniela & Stefania

Italian Salsiccia!

Ingredients:
- 1kg of pork shoulder meat (30% fat)
- 20g of salt
- 15g of sugar
- Spices such as fennel, chili, paprika, freshly cracked pepper, minced garlic
- 1 glass of wine (Your choice)
- Intestine of pork or sheep (Casings)
- Roll of string

Method:
1) The intestine/casings should be rinsed very well with warm water and you can soak in some warm water with some salt until ready to use, some people add a slice of lemon in the water.
2) As you cut the shoulder meat into pieces to pass through the mincer, remove any slimy/slippery fat. Only the solid fat is kept for the sausage making.
3) Remove any nerves from the meat (You can ask the butcher to do it for you).
4) Pass the meat through a mincer to mince at whatever thickness you desire. Make sure the meat is nice and cold as it is easier to pass through the machine.
5) Marinate the meat with all the spices and herbs, let it rest for a few hours. Some people let it rest overnight. (You can test the mixture by cooking some to see if you need to adjust any of the flavors).
6) Prepare the sausage machine secured on the workbench, with the sausage attachment. Use some of the pork fat or olive oil to lubricate the inside of the machine and the nozzle/funnel.
7) Thread the intestine/casings over the nozzle/funnel of the machine. Pull as much of the length of casings onto the funnel.
8) Start passing the meat through it until it starts to come out of the nozzle; at this point you are ready to secure the end of the bladder/casing with the string, tie a not. (Make sure that there are no air bubbles as you start your piping. Make sure that you have the stuffing plate not grinding plate onto your machine; otherwise you are going to grind the meat again. Don’t forget to use the meat stomper when feeding meat into the machine, not your hands!)
9) This part needs two people, as one starts to pipe through the meat, the other supports the sausages coming through. You can determine how dense you want a sausage to be. You can tie knots at what ever you desire, depending on the size of sausage you want as well. Don’t over fill them as you can split the casings.
10) If at any point the casings ruptures, just turn the machine off and squeeze the meat out from the broken case, cut the casings with scissors and tie a knot. It doesn’t matter if the link is smaller than the rest.
11) Once the sausages are ready to hang, choose an area like your garage to hang them and dry.
12) The sausages can be cooked fresh or dried for a minimum of 3 weeks. Then slice them and enjoy them with some Italian bread!
13) The sausages can be stored up to a year if they are properly vacuumed packed, even freeze well!