Sweet Italian Sausage
User Reviews
4.8
82 reviews
Excellent
-
Prep Time
2 hrs
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Total Time
2 hrs
-
Servings
20 links
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Calories
98 kcal
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Course
Main Course, Appetizer
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Cuisine
Italian
Sweet Italian Sausage
Report
This Sweet Italian Sausage recipe blends pork or wild boar with pork fatback and spices including fennel seeds, black pepper, nutmeg, oregano, and optional fennel pollen. After mixing and chilling, the meat is ground through coarse and fine dies to create a textured sausage. Adding parsley and white wine at the end integrates fresh and subtle notes, resulting in classic Italian-style sausage suitable for linking in hog casings.
Description
The recipe for Sweet Italian Sausage starts with lean pork or wild boar mixed with pork fatback for juiciness and flavor. A seasoning blend of kosher salt, sugar, fennel seeds, freshly cracked black pepper, nutmeg, dried oregano, and optionally fennel pollen provides the characteristic aromatic and slightly sweet profile of Italian sausage. Fresh chopped parsley and chilled white wine are added for brightness and moisture.
The meat and seasonings are mixed thoroughly and chilled to maintain safe meat temperature. The mixture is ground in two stages through coarse and fine grinder dies to create a balanced texture that is neither too coarse nor too smooth. The sausage can then be stuffed into soaked hog casings for linking, making it ready to cook as traditional Italian sausage links.
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Ingredients
- 4 pounds of lean (ish) pork or wild boar
- 1 pound pork fatback
- 36 grams kosher salt about 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon
- 30 grams sugar about 3 tablespoons
- 18 grams fennel seeds about 2 heaping tablespoons
- 10 grams black pepper about a heaping teaspoon, freshly cracked
- 1 gram nutmeg about 1/4 teaspoon
- 1 teaspoon oregano dried
- 1 fennel pollen optional, heaping teaspoon
- 1/2 cup parsley chopped, fresh
- 1/2 cup white wine chilled
- Hog casings (if you are linking your sausage)
Instructions
- Get out about 15 to 20 feet of hog casings and soak them in warm water.
- Cut the meat and fat into chunks you can fit into your meat grinder. Mix together the salt, sugar, half the fennel seeds, black pepper, nutmeg, oregano and fennel pollen, then mix this with the meat and fat until every piece has a little on it. Put in the freezer until the meat and fat are between 30°F and 40°F. Put your grinder parts (auger, dies, blades, etc) in the freezer, too, and put a bowl in the fridge.
- Grind half of the mixture through the coarse die on your grinder, and half through the fine die. This creates a more interesting texture. If your meat mixture is still at 35°F or colder, you can go right to binding. If it has heated up, you need to chill everything back down. Use this time to clean up the grinder.
- Once the meat is cold, put it in a large bin or bowl and add the remaining fennel seeds, white wine and parsley. Mix well with your (very clean) hands for 2 to 3 minutes -- a good indicator of temperature is that your hands should ache with cold when you do this. You want to to mix until the meat binds to itself. You can also do this in a stand mixer set on its lowest setting, but I find you don't get as good a bind as you do when you do this by hand.
- You now have Italian sausage. You can leave it loose, form it into patties, or link it. I link mine most of the time. Put the loose sausage into a stuffer and thread a casing onto it. Stuffing sausage is easier with two people, one to fill the links, the other to coil, but I do it solo all the time. Stuff the links well but not super-tight, as you will not be able to tie them off later if they are too full. Don't worry about air pockets yet. Stuff the whole casing, leaving lots of room on either end to tie them off; I leave at least three inches of unstuffed casing on either end of the coil.
- To form the individual links, tie off one end of the coil. Now pinch off two links of about six inches long. Rotate the link between your hands forward a few times. (Here's a quick video on making the links) Look for air pockets. To remove them, set a large needle or a sausage pricker into a stovetop burner until it glows (this sterilizes it), then pierce the casing at the air pockets. Twist the links a little and gently compress them until they are nice and tight. Repeat this process with the rest of the sausage.
- Hang your links on a wooden clothes drying rack for at least an hour, or up to overnight if you can hang them in a place that doesn't get any warmer than 40°F or so. This lets the links cure a little, filling their casings and developing flavor. Once you've taken the links off the hanger, they can be refrigerated for up to 3 or 4 days, or frozen for up to a year.
Nutrition Information
Show Details
Calories
98kcal
(5%)
Carbohydrates
3g
(1%)
Protein
11g
(22%)
Fat
4g
(6%)
Saturated Fat
1g
(5%)
Cholesterol
37mg
(12%)
Sodium
742mg
(31%)
Potassium
223mg
(5%)
Fiber
1g
(4%)
Sugar
2g
(4%)
Vitamin A
130IU
(3%)
Vitamin C
2.6mg
(3%)
Calcium
25mg
(3%)
Iron
1mg
(6%)
Nutrition Facts
Serving: 20links
Amount Per Serving
Calories 98 kcal
% Daily Value*
| Calories | 98kcal | 5% |
| Carbohydrates | 3g | 1% |
| Protein | 11g | 22% |
| Fat | 4g | 6% |
| Saturated Fat | 1g | 5% |
| Cholesterol | 37mg | 12% |
| Sodium | 742mg | 31% |
| Potassium | 223mg | 5% |
| Fiber | 1g | 4% |
| Sugar | 2g | 4% |
| Vitamin A | 130IU | 3% |
| Vitamin C | 2.6mg | 3% |
| Calcium | 25mg | 3% |
| Iron | 1mg | 6% |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Genuine Reviews
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.8
82 reviews
Excellent
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