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Sausages, Home-Made
Three or four recipes are here given for making sausage-meat. Tastes vary, and the quantity of seasoning used must vary with them; but the process of manufacture is always the same. It should be remembered that though scraps and trimmings of meat may be used for making sausages, they should be perfectly sweet and palatable, and should be carefully freed from skin and sinew, also that the sausages will be lighter, though not quite so inviting in appearance, if the meat is coarsely rather than finely shredded. No. 1.--Shred half a pound of sound beef suet, and one pound of lean beef. Mix thoroughly, and pound the mince in a mortar. Season with salt, pepper, and spices. If skins are not used, the sausages may, if liked, be dipped in egg and bread-crumbs before being fried or baked. No. 2.--Mince finely two pounds of lean pork and one pound of fat bacon. Add a seasoning of two tea-spoonfuls of salt, one of pepper, two of powdered sage, with a pinch of grated nutmeg and powdered mace; finely-shredded shallot may be added, or not. Thoroughly mix the seasoning with the meat; three-parts fill the skins with the meat, and hang them in a cool place till wanted. No. 3.--Mince separately three pounds of lean and two of fat pork. Mix them, and add three table-spoonfuls of powdered sage, two ounces and a half of salt, and one ounce of pepper. Blend the ingredients thoroughly. A small nutmeg, grated, and a tea-spoonful of powdered mace may be added, or not. No. 4.--Cut the crumb of a penny loaf into slices, soak it in water till it is soft, then squeeze it dry in a cloth. Mix it thoroughly with two pounds of lean pork and a pound and a half of fat pork; add pepper, salt, lemon thyme, powdered sage, and grated nutmeg. Half fill the skins with the mixture, and bake or boil the sausages when wanted. They should be used as soon as possible, as the soaked bread will prevent them keeping. No. 5.--Mince separately a pound of beef suet and a pound of lean pork. Mix the ingredients, and pound them thoroughly, and with them two large table-spoonfuls of grated bread-crumbs. Add a seasoning of salt, pepper, and powdered sage, and bind the mixture together with the yolks of two eggs. No. 6.--Take half a pound of lean veal, half a pound of pork, fat and lean together, and half a pound of beef suet. Shred all finely, and mix thoroughly. Add a small nutmeg, grated, a tea-spoonful of salt, a quarter of a pound of finely-grated crumb of bread, three sage-leaves chopped small, half a salt-spoonful of pepper, and four inches of lemon-rind finely shredded. A pinch of marjoram and of savoury may be added if liked. Put the meat into skins, or form it into cakes, and dress the sausages in the usual way. Probable cost, sausages, 9d. to 1s. 3d. per pound, according to the quality of the meat used.
Six formulas for fresh sausage meat, differing mainly in seasoning and the proportion of fat. The book is right that the method never changes; what needs translating is the salt, the vessels and the storage.
- Keep the meat and the equipment coldThis is the hinge. Fat that warms above about 60F smears rather than shreds, and the cooked sausage turns greasy and crumbly. Chill the meat until it is firm to the edge of frozen, and chill the grinder parts too.
- Salt levels vary wildly between the numbersNo. 3 gives 2½ oz salt to 5 lb of meat, close to 3 per cent, which is noticeably salty by modern taste; 1½ to 2 per cent (roughly 15-20 g per kilo) is the usual range now. No. 2's two teaspoons to 3 lb is on the low side. Fry a teaspoon of the mix as a tester before filling casings.
- An ounce of pepperNo. 3's full ounce of pepper to 5 lb is about four tablespoons, aggressive but not a misprint by Victorian standards. Halve it if you are unsure.
- A penny loaf and a salt-spoonThe weight of a penny loaf varied with period and grain price, so there is no exact equivalent for its crumb; weigh to about 4 oz for 3½ lb of meat. A salt-spoon is a quarter teaspoon.
- Pounding in a mortarWhere the recipes say pound, they want the mince worked until it becomes sticky and cohesive. A stand mixer with the paddle for a minute or two does the same job; stop as soon as the mass clings to itself.
- SkinsNatural hog casings from a butcher are the equivalent; soak and rinse them. The book directs that the skins be only three-parts filled (No. 2) or half filled (No. 4), which leaves room for the meat to swell without splitting.
- "Hang them in a cool place till wanted" means the refrigeratorThese are fresh, uncured sausages with no nitrite and no measured cure, so they belong at or below 40F and should be cooked within two days. The bread-based No. 4 keeps least well, as the recipe itself warns.
- Cooking and yieldCook fresh pork sausage to 160F internal; fry over moderate heat rather than high, or the skins burst before the centre is done. No. 3 makes about 5 lb, roughly twenty sausages; the smaller mixtures give 1½ to 2 lb, enough for four to six.
The word sausage comes through Old French from Latin salsus, salted, a reminder that salt was the point long before seasoning was: minced trimmings packed into gut and salted were a way of using every part of a pig killed at home. Cassell's offers six variants rather than one because sausage meat was a domestic staple with strong regional and household preferences, and sage-heavy pork mixtures of the kind in Nos. 2 and 3 are often said to be the ancestors of the English breakfast sausage. The soaked bread in Nos. 4, 5 and 6 is generally traced as the forerunner of the rusk still used in British sausages, valued for a softer texture and for stretching expensive meat; the book's note that bread shortens keeping quality is accurate. The recipes close with a probable cost of 9d. to 1s. 3d. a pound.