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Vinegar, Pickles, and Pickling: Sausage

MAKING AND KEEPING SAUSAGE Sausage. - Fresh pork, beef, and other meats may be preserved in the same manner as sausage meat by seasoning them highly with spices and packing them in air-tight cases, or in earthenware or other tight receptacles, and running over them a layer of melted lard or tallow to exclude the air.

Intestine Cases for Sausage. - Remove from the pig's intestines the loose fat and outer membranes.

Turn them inside out and cleanse them thoroughly in borax water.

Bleach by letting them soak for 24 hours or more in water containing 1 ounce of chloride of lime to the gallon. Rinse thoroughly in clear soft water and scrape or tear off a part of the inner lining until they are as thin as may be without tearing or puncturing them. Finally, wash them thoroughly several times in warm water.

Seasoning for Sausage. - Salt, pepper, and sage, according to taste, are ordinarily used for seasoning sausage. Summer savory is also frequently used, and other spices, as allspice, cloves, ginger, etc., are sometimes recommended. But, as a rule, salt, pepper, and sage are sufficient, and will be preferred by most persons. The proportion of seasoning recommended varies, and it is a good plan in mixing sausage meat, to fry a little of the meat after seasoning and add more of the ground meat or seasoning, as desired, until the flavor is satisfactory. The following are all tested. recipes, and by comparison, a selection may be made according to whether it is desired to have the sausage highly seasoned or not: For 10 pounds of ground sausage PRESERVATION OF MEAT AND VEGETABLES 701 meat, use 4 ounces of salt, 1/2 ounce of pepper, and ounce of sage.

Or for the same quantity, 5 tablespoonfuls of sage, 4 tablespoonfuls of salt, and 2 tablespoonfuls of pepper.

Or for each pound of meat, 1 heaping teaspoonful of salt, 1 of pepper, and 1 of sage, with the addition to each 3 pounds of meat, if desired, 1 teaspoonful each of allspice, ginger, and summer savory.

Or for over 25 pounds of meat, 12 ounces of salt, 2 ounces of sage, and 2 ounces of pepper.

Or for 10 pounds of meat, 4 ounces of salt, 1 ounce of sage, and 1 ounce of pepper. - Grinding Sausage Meat. The trimmings of the hog's carcass are ordinarily ground into sausage meat, the proportion of fat and lean being varied according to taste. Some prefer fat to fat meat to lean. Others lean.

To Prepare Sausage. - To prepare good sausage, it is desirable to have a sausage grinder or suitable meat cutter, although the sausage meat can be chopped in a wooden tray with a LARD Meat Coat of Melted Lard." chopping knife or on a block by means of a heavy knife or cleaver. It will be found easier in mixing the spices thoroughly into the meat to dry and pulverize them as finely as possible, cut the meat into rather. small pieces and sprinkle the spices over it before it is ground. It will thus become thoroughly incorporated with the meat in grinding. The sausage grinder is ordinarily fitted with a device for filling the cases. If link sausage is to be made, care must be taken not to fill the sausage cases too full, but to pinch and twist them at intervals to make them link properly.

Or sausages may be packed in cases of muslin or other clean white goods about 24 or 3 inches thick, forced in by means of a clean round stick of hard wood, laid down in jars, and covered with brine or melted lard.

Or the cloth cases may be dipped in melted lard and hung up to dry, care being taken that they have a uniform coating of lard to exclude the air.

Or the sausage meat may be laid down in earthenware pans 4 or 5 inches deep, and a coat of melted lard to inch deep poured over them to exclude the air. As long as the coating of lard is not broken, the sausage meat will keep indefinitely.

Or if the dish is not too large, it will usually keep after being opened until required for family use. Or after slices have been removed for use, the open end can be covered with a coating of melted lard until more is needed.

Or large earthenware jars may be used for this purpose, although, in most cases, they are not as convenient.

To Improve Sausage Meat.-The addition of about by weight of ground beef to pork sausage, is preferred by many, as it makes the sausage less greasy and firmer in texture. Or for immediate use, powdered bread crumbs at the same rate may be added for this purpose. But this should not be used if the sausage meat is to be laid down for a long time as it will not keep so well.

Bologna Sausage. - The so-called bologna sausage is a mixture of approximately equal parts of pork and beef or other meats highly seasoned and packed in large cases, 3 to 6 inches in diameter, obtained from the intestines of beeves. The following mixtures are recommended:

Grind up together in a sausage machine or meat cutter 4 pounds of beef and 2 pounds of pork free from fat or gristle, to which add 6 pounds of fresh fat pork cut in thin strips and chopped on a block by means of a heavy knife or cleaver into pieces about of an inch square or less.

Season this quantity with 8 ounces of salt, ounce of saltpeter, 8 ounces of coffee sugar, and ounce of bruised pimento. To exclude the air, the cases must be packed with as much pressure as they will stand without bursting, and this may be done by tying them at the bottom and pressing in the meat with a round block of wood or pestle, nearly but not quite large enough to fill the inside of the case. If the meat is not packed tightly enough, the sausage will not keep.

Rub the outside of the cases with salt butter. Tie them tightly at both ends and hang up to dry for 3 weeks, then smoke as for hams or bacon.

Or cut into small pieces an inch or two square 3 pounds of pork, 1½ pounds of beef free from fat or gristle, and 1 pound of clean fresh beef suet. Sprinkle with a mixture of spices consisting of 3 ounces of salt, 3 tablespoonfuls of black pepper, 2 teaspoonfuls of Cayenne, 1 teaspoonful each of cloves and allspice, and a small onion. chopped fine. If the meat cutter is coarse, run through a second time and pack tightly in cases 4 or 5 inches in diameter. Knot both ends and cover with strong brine for a week or 10 days. Change the brine and let stand another week.

After which dry and smoke them as for hams or bacon. Rub the cases with butter and store them in a cool dark place. - Mixed Sausage. - Cut in small pieces equal parts of fat pork, lean veal, and beef suet. For each 6 pounds of meat add the rind of a lemon grated, a small nutmeg grated, ounce of powdered sage, 2 teaspoonfuls of butter, 4 teaspoonfuls of salt, and 1 teaspoonful of summer savory. Pack in cases or lay down in jars and cover with lard.

Beef Sausage. In summer, when fresh pork is not obtainable, raw beef may be ground up with beef suet in the proportion of about 1 part of suet, 2 parts of lean beef, and the whole seasoned with 1 teaspoonful each of pepper, salt, sage, and summer savory ground through the meat cutter or sausage grinder, and made into cakes to be fried, or laid down in earthenware pans under a coating of lard until required for use.