Das ist mir Wurst! (Translation: That’s sausage to me!)

For over 50 years, my mother, Irmgard, made homemade German sausages. It was the mainstay of every barbeque my family had while I was growing up. Sure, there would be burgers, but they were secondary to Irma’s homemade sausages. For the last few months, Gary has been talking about getting out the old meat grinder that my mother gave us many years ago to try his hand at sausage-making. Finally, last weekend, we invited friends to help us with this multi-day adventure. I cleaned up the old tools (meat-grinder and attachments)

and  Gary purchased the pork and casings. I didn’t realize Gary was buying 40 POUNDS of meat until the process was well under way. And so it began. Good thing that we had extra arm-power in our friend Bob Zaugg and lots of help with everything else from accomplished chef, Barbara Zaugg.
After many hours of grinding, we mixed in the spices, different spices for the German sausage and a completely different complement of spices (plus some ground veal) for the Italian sausage. The Italian sausage version was created by my sister, Erika Florentine, after marrying into an Italian family. Both recipes are included below.

We saved the filling of the casings for Labor Day to give us plenty of time to prepare (soak) the casings). The end result was a great barbeque featuring Irma’s sausage as the star of the show. Rave reviews were enjoyed from all.

Irma’s German Sausage
10 lbs. ground pork (purchase pork butt or shoulder, trim most of fat from meat)
2 cups chicken broth
1 lb. onions, chopped and sautéed
1/2 bulb garlic, peeled, chopped and sautéed with onion
8 – 10 teaspoons salt
1-3 teaspoons pepper
1/2 to 1 teaspoon nutmeg
Coarsely grind meat. Add all other ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Stuff casings.
Can be frozen for a couple of months. Thaw in refrigerator and grill until perfectly browned.
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Erika Florentine’s Italian Sausage
2 1/2 lbs. boneless lean pork
1/2 lb. boneless veal
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped fine
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
2 teaspoons crushed fennel seeds
4 teaspoons salt
1 to 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoons ground thyme
4 crumbled bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground netmeg

Coarsely grind meat. Add all spices. Mix thoroughly. Stuff casings or freeze in one pound packages for pizza or pasta dishes.