Got an email about some sausage making supplies and casings. Instead of private, I chose to post the members question and my reply here: [This message originated at GardenWeb] Did you happen to catch the show I think it's called "Good Eats" with Alton Brown. He did a show about making sausages etc...I was just wondering if you saw it and your opinion on it. He use d collagen casings on his Italian sausages. Al My reply: Hello, No, I missed that show, but recall that he made a sausage show a while back. He used the meat grinder with attached stuffing nozzle to stuff the sausages as opposed to a separate stuffer. I use my meat grinder just for the meat grind, and then have a separate meat mixer where the spices are added as well as some water and liquid smoke (optional). Then. my stuffer is now motorized and allows me to fill 11 pounds of sausages per filling. The stuffer is vertical uses a big round piston and drive screw. http://www.texastastes.com/p39.htm Its a red frame with green color motor that takes the place of the hand crank. I bought it from a distributor called Weston Supply. They used to have these as well as professional meat slicers and when I was searching for them, Weston bad clearance sales that allowed me to get these for less than half the price. The method Alton used to stuff was to cut the pork into 1 inch pieces and then mix in the spices at that time. The stuffing was then done using a course cutter plate of about 1/2 inch. There are two types of collagen casings. The larger fibrous ones are inedible and are used for cured luncheon meats like salami, pepperoni, etc. The edible collagen casings are quite thin and are dry, and shrunken up (like an accordion) into a short tube length. I use a very small 1/2 inch diameter one for making pepperoni snack sticks, and my sausage stuffer labors greatly as its a lot of force to push meat into a 10 inch long 1/2 inch diameter tube. In any case the edible collagen comes in two colors, clear and brown (mahogany). Clear would be for things like breakfast and italian sausages. The mahogany color is for darker sausages like pepperoni and chorizo. I use mostly fresh (natural) sheep casings for my breakfast sausages as the cost for a hank of casings is a bit cheaper than the molded and edible collagen ones. Sheep and hog casings are not as consistent in their sizes or diameters. The natural casings also need to be rehydrated by soaking in water about 10 or more minutes. They last forever and are packed in course salt and refrigerated. Years ago, a whole hank of sheep casings (enough for about 150 pounds) cost only about $9. But today, they are way up there in price. At first, when I was making italian sausages years ago, I used supermarket type hog casings under the Hormel brand. These tended to be short pieces and had holes and were not sized very well, so you could get 1 inch to almost 2 inches in diameter in the same container. The holes in the casings were a real pain, but you found this out when they were rinsed and filled with water prior to the soaking. I used to see 2-5 foot lengths too, and that's not easy to deal with either when you stuffing 11 pounds of meat at one time. In any case, you can use either natural casings or the edible collagen ones for making italian sausages. I have some natural hog casings I bought which are slightly larger and properly sized for use in making Kielbasa. The sheep casings are used only for my breakfast sausages. Breakfast sausages use sage, ground black pepper, and coriander for its spices. For italian, I like adding lots of garlic, peppers, onions, and also fennel and even oregano, summer savory, or even hot red peppers.. For some, I mix in high melting point cheddar cheese. I also make brats with beer added (dried beer). The Kielbasa use lots of garlic, marjoram and also some whole mustard seeds. My grinder plates vary from smaller than 1/8 inch diameter holes to almost 3/4 inch holes. The pork fat is ground separate form the pork meat. I use a smaller plate for the pork fat, as it distributes better in a mix, than large chunks the same size as the pork meat. The sausage making suppliers sell dried beer, high temp cheddar cheese, dried peppers, and dried onions which are easier to deal with as they do not have extra water. The bottom line though, is to know exactly how much salt, herbs, and spices to add to the coarsely cut meat, as well as how much pork fat to use. Once its ground to the proper size, and salt and spices mixed in, I cook up a small piece to taste and see if it needs more or less salt or more herbs. You could end up with a bland sausage or an overly salty one if the recipe was not followed exactly. You don't have much control over the way the meat mixes with spices and salt while in the grinder and while its stuffing the sausage casings. That's the main reason I chose a separate stuffer and separate meat mixer device. Like every other recipe, it all goes back to your own taste preferences too. Beef fat should never be used in sausages. Pork fat can be refrozen without any concern about quality. Never use salt pork or pork fat back as these are cured and will melt away giving a wet sawdust texture. Ken

Actually I'm not serving it with cheese and crackers. The next thread I posted tells what I am actually serving. It's Sunday class, most are coming in from church, and just take a bite size of this and that. This post was edited by glenda_al on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 16:54

I don't spend a lot of time cooking-my kitchen is awful, no usable counter space so I do a lot of very simple foods, but when the urge strikes, I make more diverse dishes. Following are my faves - Beef Main Dish: I make a family dish, we call it agasate. It's a braised eye round roast, then removed from the pan to soften a couple of chopped onions and some garlic. Put roast back in, cover with water and set to boil. Once roast is cooked, remove and cook down the juices to make a thick gravey-almost like french onion soup. Serve over thick noodles and be generous with the freshly grated parmesan. - Ground Beef Main Dish: Meatloaf and scalloped potatoes - Chicken Main Dish: Chicken alfredo w/broccoli served over noodles -Ground Chicken or Turkey Main Dish: - Pork Main Dish: Baked pork chops and roasted veggies - Vegetarian Main Dish: Baked penne with marinara - Pasta Main Dish: Pasta with my homemade meat sauce - Out on the Grill Main Dish: rib eye steak smothered in crushed garlic - Main Dish Salad: Grilled chicken, chopped apple and pecans over spring greens - Fish Main Dish: Fish tacos-usually made with either mahi mahi or cod, with shredded cabbage, lime & cilantro - Other Seafood Main Dish (such as Shrimp, Scallops, Etc.): I hate shellfish, so I never make anything like that. - Vegan Main Dish: pad thai - Homemade Soup: beef bourguingon or split pea with ham - Main Dish Sandwich: Oven roasted turkey, swiss cheese, cranberry mustard on crusty french bread. - Non-Vegetable Side Dish: ? Stuffing? - Veggie Side Dish: Roasted veggies-beets, carrots, red and white potatoes and parsnips are staples. - Quick & Easy Dessert: Ice Cream! Fresh pineapple when feeling ambitious. - Breakfast Main Dish: Overnight peach french toast

The only reason I’d try sous vide is that the dogs would marinate in their own juices (“purge” is what the cool kids call it) and then get grilled with a coating of that liquid, which I could also reduce down and spice up for a glaze . . . I did about 30 lb of ribs for a party last year. Sous vided in gallon freezer bags with aromatics, salt, sugar, spice, all bags hanging in a cooler that I’d prefilled with hot water. if They spent 12 hours under sous vide, then when I got an “order” for ribs I just grabbed a bag and grilled for ten minutes. This worked well with my limited grill area. I might try similar with the dogs. Hmm, will have to plan the right soundtrack. To pay homage to the Top Dog of my college days, it would be Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Talking Heads, Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, Pretenders, and the other stuff we were listening to then. I was a Top Dog regular again in 1997-1999, when I returned to Cal for grad school. Things were different, Telegraph had been taken over by chain stores and bubble tea shops, most of the bookstores were gone, only one record shop left, maybe one head shop. The college kids, and they were kids to me, looked a lot more serious and strained. Not so much free spirited kids with sandals and philosophy books. The average kid was an Asian teen, humping a huge backpack of books like a Marine on patrol, grimly trying to maintain a “B” average against 30,000 of the smartest kids in the world. Top Dog was a little bit of the Berkeley of my youth, but I wasn’t. One night a friend and I went to Top Dog, it was about 1 am, we were both in tuxedos, someone called me “sir”, I felt old and gray :-(