The sausage supply places I do business with have many books on sausage making and recipes. My favorites are- Alliid Kenco, Butcher Packer, and The Sausage Maker. These companies are great to do most business with. Its where I found the high melting point cheddar cheese in a fine diced cut, as well as the dried beer flavor. I use dried sweet green and red peppers in some of my Italian types. I NEVER try to get my sausages to look as white as store bought, thats just WAY TOO MUCH FAT!!! Instead, I use a litte water based fat replacer, as well as soy flour for 'fillers', but these are maybe a cup or two for 15 pounds of meat. I do not use pork FAT BACK or SALT PORK as these are both cured and salty. If gound and added to sausages, the melt and run out very fast, and leave a mealy, dry, wet sawdust consistancy to the sausgae meat. My sausages usually have about 25% prok fat ONLY. Also, for the chinese type, grind some fresh ginger and garlic, then add some of the Ah So Red BBW sauce for ribs. Its a really good sausage combination! Recently, I made about 300 Peking Ravioli (AKA Pot Stickers), and even used finely diced water chestnuts and water chestnut powder (instead of cornstarch) to firm up the filling once they were cooked in the pasta shells. I used to go to a site with about 500 recipes submitted by people all over. Many recipes were very similar except for the herbs amounts used. The site has since gone down. Wish there was another like it, but have not found any yet. Most of my various sausages are made from many different recipes, as I like to experiment with herbs and their combinations. Most of my batches of breakfast sausages are the same, however, with pepper, coriander, and sage as the basics. Polish Kielbasa are usually made with Marjorum, and garlic. The companies listed also have seasoning kits for most common sausage types. Butcher Packer has the dried beer and cheddar cheese.

I have a very large assortment of FS canisters. Sizes from the 6 qt. all the way down to 1 pint. The smaller diameter ones have domed tops instead of the concave type on the big 6 quart models. I have been buying many of the canisters for several years now and was still able to get another of the narrower but taller ones just for the loins. The phosphates help the pork hold onto moisture, as well as acting as a binder. It MUST be dissolved in water all by itself, and can take several minutes of continual stirring. I usually do it in a drinking glass. About a tablespoon or two of the phosphates are used per gallon of brine, more than that and it can bet a 'bleachy' taste. Once dissolved, its added to the balance of water in the brine mixture along with the nitrite cure #1. A good digital scale able to weigh up to 25 pounds can help too. Mine was cheap and is a godsend when it comes to weighing meats before and after injection of brines. I also use it to weigh the ground pork for sausages, so I can usually figure out how much seasonings and salt to use. I like to inject the brine as much as possible into a loin. Its because its quite dry once its cooked, and with the extra brine it helps or retain more moisture. You can't overdo the injection, as it can only hold so much of the brine. I usually use the same injection ratio for pastrami/corned beef. 4 oz per gallon of the nitrites is way too much!! Sausage Maker site- http://www.sausagemaker.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2 Has the cures and usually needs about 1 teaspoon per 5 pounds of meat. With a gallon of brine, the nitrite can be up to about a tablespoon. Keep in mind the nitrites are only about 30% of the actual pink granuated product, the other 70% is salt. They do this so you can measure more accurately by diluting it so it will not be as difficult to measure. Sometimes the bags of brine mix will include the nitrite as an added packet and they also usually have some basic instructions on how much to add to the quantity of water. Think of the measurements of the total liquid in the brine, and not the weight of the pork loin. Adding maple syrup to the brine is fine. In a gallon of brine, a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup is very small. I would add about a half cup to a gallon of brine. Keep in mind it will make it slightly sweeter, but still has a mild maple flavor when used with a little liquid hockory smoke flavor. The brine mixes usually have salt, brown sugar and some other minor things. Usually when I bake mine at that low 175 degree oven its about 3 hours in the oven. After 2 hours I raise the oven temp to about 200 degrees. I use a digital probe thermometer to measure internal temp. 160 is the max, 150 is fine too. Follow the instructions on the cure mix for baking etc. I don't have a smoker here so I use the liquid smoke. When I do beef pastrami that can be in the oven about 6 or more hours before it reaches 140-150. If you plan to make some with the added herbs, they would be chopped up in the brine, but NOT injected as they can clog the needle. In that case but don't add the smoke, maple or any other flavors. Sage, thyme, and even pepper, and garlic are OK, but the amounts you mention are still a bit small for a gallon of brine. If your only going to do a 5 pound piece, then make a half gallon of brine and half all the other additives. Never reuse a brine, never mix it and then refrigerate if its not injected right after mixing. For sugar, they use dextrose which holds up better to heat compared to cane. As mentioned, the brine mixes already contain brown sugar. Bake the loing untrimmed, fat side up. I cover mine with foil so it doesn't dry out too much while baking. Your loins should keep for at least 10 days in the cold part of the fridge.

I've been using this recipe that someone posted to this forum in the last few months. Unfortunately, I didn't make a note of who posted it. Hopefully, they will pop in & lay claim to it! Homemade Italian Sausage 2 lb. well-marbled pork butt med ground 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, well packed 1/4 cup dry white wine or ice cold water 1 clove garlic (I use 3-4 cloves) minced 1/2 T. ground fennel seed 1 T. dried basil 1 t. red chili peppers, minced 1/2 t. salt 1/2 t. dried oregano 1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper 1/2 t. thyme Mix all ingred together in large bowl. Using sausage stuffer, fill casings, twisting off 8" links or freeze as patties or in bulk. That's the recipe. I've been making it with ground turkey, omitting the cheese & wine, using the 3-4 cloves of garlic & doubling the am't. of fennel. Cheese because I'm not crazy about cheese & the wine because I haven't had any on hand when I've made the recipe. And the salt because DH is on a salt-restricted diet. I've been using the frozen chubs of ground turkey from Aldi's. The mix is plenty wet w/o the wine or water. Also, I've freezing it in 1# bulk am'ts to use in spaghetti & lasagna. I've tried a couple of other recipes in the past & this one is my favorite by far. Last batch I made up w/ 6# of meat. And using the turkey from Aldi's (1.19 a lb.) it's really inexpensive to make & better tasting than the Ital sausage I can get at the market (Johnsonville, Jimmy Dean, etc.) Anyway, am really glad that you started this thread. I never thought about toasting the fennel OR adding tarragon. Tarragon & fennel are my next two favorite herbs...after cilantro, of course. :)

sowngrow, she didn't move to Texas until 2006 and she moved to the Seattle area when her husband got transferred while they were still taping the Next Food Network Star, so she was in Keller for two or three years. She met her husband in Paris while she was working there, she's travelled extensively, she's got an MBA and she had a cooking show on television before in the Los Angeles area which was, apparently, cancelled pretty quickly. So, if she wants to convince me she's just a little ole' stay at home Mom from Texas, cooking for her 4 kids on a budget, she's got to lose the stories about her wonderful meals while she lived in Paris and she's got to be real about how much those meals she's cooking really costs. I can't cook most of her meals for $10, even here in Michigan where groceries are relatively inexpensive. She did a lemon scampi that I remember with a pound of shrimp and 2 lemons. Lemons are nearly $1 each and shrimp is $7 or $8 a pound. The budget is already blown and there are no side dishes yet, let alone the pasta and other ingredients for the scampi. Now, I don't have a problem about any of the things she's done or places she's gone, but I'd prefer that she just be upfront about it and not do the "aw shucks, I'm a housewife on a budget" bit. I guess I'm really unclear as to why the Food Network needs to create a "persona" for people, instead of just letting them cook and be whoever they are. Annie