Update on Sausage

First of all, it takes a lot longer than the videos below show. They were experienced and had an electric grinder and stuffer. I have an an antique cast iron hand cranked meat grinder witht a dull blade. I also have 6 and 3 year old helpers. We all participated in the making of it. What the videos I posted a couple of days ago show taking about 15 minutes really takes several hours.

Anselm Samuel and Basil Wenceslas peeled garlic and turned the handle on the grinder. Athanasia mixed the ingredients (pork, salt, garlic, sage, paprika),turned the handle on the grinder as we were stuffing, and she also cooked a little bit and tasted it before we stuffed it into the casings. I did all the knife work, and filled the casings while others (mainly Athanasia) turned the handle. At this point, we have 8 lbs of beutiful sausages in the freezer. They shall remain there until just before we leave for Church on the Eve of the Nativity. They should be thawed and ready to cook by the time we get out of bed the next morning.

Cleaning the casings was fun. Anselm asked, "Are those some kind of special plastic?" I said, "No. They're pig intestines". His reaction was very funny. Basil said, "I like pig intestines". What I think he liked is that they looked like water baloons when I was washing all the salt out of them. He kept wanting to play with them.