Home Sausage Making by Charles G. Reavis, Evelyn Battaglia

Let me start off by saying that I love sausage. Last year, Joel was taking brats and smoking them on the grill and they were amazing! And this was just plain ol' store bought brats we were eating. I can't wait to make our own brats and smoke them this summer!! WOOT WOOT!

Okay, so this book is great for a beginner, there's information about ingredients and picking them as well as tools that you'll need, pros and cons of different varieties. Now we already have an electric meat grinder, so I wasn't in the market to change, but a hand grinder does sound like it would be awesome.

The recipes themselves are divided into several different genres from pork to game to poultry to fish to vegetable. Throughout the recipes are areas that focus on techniques, including a lengthy section on aged meat sausages, something I'm not sure I'm quite ready to give a go. And there are stories from various different sausage makers and their tips. The one that I heard over and over through the book is to be willing to try something new and don't expect perfection, but know that it will be tasty.

I was very excited to see a recipe for apple and pork sausage. Joel's favorite sausage is apple and comes from a small butcher shop in Queen Anne, a neighborhood in Seattle, WA. I made up a batch last night. It was actually quite fun and I think it has the potential to be tweaked to give him something comparable if not better than what he remembers.

Here's a couple pics from my sausage making adventure.

When you like the idea of mis en place but you hate doing dishes, things like this happen.

I was amazed at the pink of this cut. I'm not a big fan of raw meat, but this didn't seem to bother me.

Though, like I said, I hate dishes. Fortunately, there isn't a lot of clean up involved in meat grinding.

I made patties as I haven't found a local source for casings yet. But when I do, watch out!

The entire family enjoyed them and will probably become a regular breakfast meat. Can't wait to try them with some fresh pressed cider and straight from the tree apples.

A digital copy of this book was provided to me from Storey Publishing for the purpose of review through NetGalley. I'm never required to give a positive review but I'm always thankful when I can.

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