My Secret Life as a Sausage Maker

By: Katherine Montalto | May 13 2010
Posted in Cook It - Chicago

Everyone is trying to avoid additives and preservatives in their food. Most commercial sausage is loaded with scary-sounding ingredients. So what do you do, give up sausage? Only if you want to live a sad and unfulfilled life! I like to make sausage by hand for many reasons, the first being, I know exactly what’s in it if I make it myself.

Katherine Montalto

I tend to make my sausage free of lips and ears, and whatever else may be lurking in commercial sausage. You can be creative when making your own. Yes, you can make a turkey sausage with cranberries and Swiss cheese! Homemade sausage can be pretty inexpensive if you know where to find reasonably priced ingredients. Sausage is also a great way to use otherwise thrown away meat trim. Fruits and cheeses that have been sitting around for a while can be used before they turn. Believe it or not, they make flavorful sausage fillers.

If you live in Chicago you are in luck for gathering the necessary supplies. There are some amazing places to pick up sausage paraphernalia. One of the most exciting meat shops in Chicago is Peoria Packing. Be sure to wear a coat because the whole store is a meat freezer. You’ll be given plastic gloves to safely handle the meat. If you plan on making a lot of sausage, this is your place. Whole pork shoulder and all 51 feet of hog intestine you’ll need for casings are sold there. If you’re looking to make a smaller batch, head over to Paulina Market, where you can grab a small plastic tub of casings.

You can use a simple hand crank sausage maker or get a cool attachment for your kitchen aid mixer. Be sure to invite people over to help as sausage is at least a 3 man job. For quick and easy sausage tips check out sausagemania.com and download an awesome list of recipes that automatically calculate your ingredients when you enter in the meat weight. Grill on!