What do I need to start making my own sausages?

[KamadoSimon]

I saw a post on here about home-made sausages & thought I would love to have a go at that - and then hot smoking them on the bbq.

For those of you that make your own, what equipment can you recommend to grind the ingredients & then fill your sausages? We have a kitchen aid mixer for which I can get a grinder & sausage stuffer attachment, but before I spend out on those (£75 is the cheapest I found these two for), I thought I'd ask what people are using!

Also any ingredient suppliers that you can recommend for the herbs / spices / casings / rusk etc?

Cheers,

Simon

[keith157]

There are a number of forums dedicated solely to the production of sausages, most have links to suppliers, for herbs I use
http://www.cotsherb.co.uk/ which was recommended on here, and tongmaster http://www.tongmaster.co.uk/ for rusk, seasonings etc.

IMHO spend the money for your kitchen aid attachments, a dedicated electric mincer & stuffer will probably cost more. However a funnel & some dowel will happily (although slowly) fill skins for you.

happy stuffing.

[Steve]

I've used Franco's a few times for ingredients, service has always been great http://www.sausagemaking.org/

The Kitchen Aid mincing attachment is very good. A good manual grinder will cost you in the same region so buying the Kitchen Aid attachment is probably a good call.

Keith mentioned Cotswold Health Products above, I use them for a lot of bulk herbs and spices, they have always been excellent for me.

[KamadoSimon]

Thanks guys - given that the Kitchen Aid stuff seems built to last, it's not as bad a price as it first seems.

I shall order that lot up & start researching some recipes for the children & I to start making...

[keith157]

Steve mentioned Franco's that's one of the dedicated sites with lots of good reports and recipes

[Pooky]

That Kitchenaid attachment looks really good. My mate has got a hand cranked machine (Chrimbo present from his wife a couple of years ago - good girl!), that clamps to the table, which I think was a similar price - It's good but you either need to grow an extra set of hands or it's a two man job - One on the crank, one on the nozzle/skins (Although seasoned sausage makers would laugh in my face for saying that, no doubt!). The lesson we learnt early with it, is to not skimp on the amount of fat that goes in your mix - First couple of attempts, we thought we had plenty, but they turned out a bit dry.

The other vital thing, is that you play Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" while you're doing the grinding (Cane optional)

[Swindon_Ed]

I use a Kenwood mixer with the mincer attachment which is ok, but before you go out and spend £300 on a load of kit I would recommend talking to your butcher, as mine will make my sausages for me and allow me to provide the spice mix and only charge me for the cost of the meat. One of the benefits of this is that you'll end up with more uniform sausages.

If you are determined to make your own (and it is quite fun) ask your butcher for some hog casings as I get mine for free and they store in the fridge for ages.