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Making fresh sausage at home can be a bit intimidating at first glance. How does one go about grinding the meat? What makes it taste like sausage and not just ground meat? And how in the heck do you shape it into links? After all those questions about homemade sausage run through your mind, inevitably you’re going to ask yourself, “Why bother?”

The reason is simple – if you make your own sausage you know exactly what’s going into it. Instead of buying sausage made of mystery meat, sugar, and preservative and coloring additives you can choose the meat, add any spices or fresh herbs that you wish and skip all that other junk. Suddenly, sausage is no longer a questionable choice of protein, it’s a healthy, flavorful part of your Primal eating plan.

Besides that, you might even find that you enjoy the process of making sausage. There is something really satisfying about rolling your sleeves up and putting some time and effort into preparing your food from start to finish – not to mention the pride and peace of mind that comes from knowing exactly what you’re eating. And when you break down the process of making fresh sausage and take it step-by-step, it’s really not as hard as you think.

Equipment

Grinding your own meat is at the heart of sausage making, so you’re going to need a meat grinder. If you’re really serious and plan to grind meat regularly for large batches of sausage, investing in a commercial meat grinder is worth considering. For smaller batches of sausage, you can buy a meat-grinding attachment that fits on a stand mixer, like a KitchenAid. This type of grinder is ideal for most people. Last but not least, there is always the option of a manual meat grinder, adding an upper-body workout to every recipe

No matter which type of meat grinder you use, you’ll also need to have a stuffer that attaches to it. A sausage stuffer is a tube that feeds the ground meat into the sausage casings to create those beautiful links.

Of course, you don’t have to link your sausage. You can simply grind and season the meat then leave it in bulk form. We’re not going to lie: shaping ground meat into sausage patties is a cinch and less time consuming than stuffing the meat into links. However, if you want to go all the way and link your sausage, you’re going to need a stuffer attachment to pipe the meat into the casings.

Ingredients

Casing is the edible tubing that the ground meat is stuffed into so that the sausage keeps its shape. Traditional, natural casings are animal intestinal membranes, usually from hogs. They are typically packed in salt and need to be soaked and flushed with water before using. Commercially made sausages are often stuffed into casings that have been manmade from collagen obtained from cattle hide. Collagen casings are more durable and evenly shaped and don’t have to be cleaned, which is why manufacturers prefer them. However, natural casings are less expensive and work really well for home sausage-making. Ask you butcher shop to order casings for you, or order them from an online specialty butcher.