I took a class not too long ago at The Local Butcher Shop and came home with a total of 5 pounds of Sweet Italian Sausage and Goat Merguez. I learned that making sausage is actually quite easy and involves only a few steps and I hope this inspires you to give it a try.
Basically, you start with some good quality coarsely ground meat, including Pork, Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, Goat, or even Seafood, which you can ask your butcher to grind, or do it yourself. Next, with impeccably clean hands or with rubber gloves, mix in your spice blend (the photo above is Merguez — a sausage with North African flavors such as Harissa, Sumac, Fennel and Garlic) and a chopped, fresh herb. Wash your casings and stuff them (not too densely) using an attachment on your meat grinder (KitchenAid has attachments for grinding and stuffing). Then twist the sausage into the size link you prefer (twisting each link in the opposite direction) and cut them apart, or if you have a smaller casing, you can roll it into a spiral, like I did with my Goat Merguez.
I have to say, after making my own sausage, it’s tough to go back to store-bought. One of the tips from The Local Butcher Shop is to include some chopped fresh herbs (like Sage, Oregano, or Cilantro) and that really does make a difference in the flavor.
Unfortunately, since the recipe for Sweet Italian Sausage and Goat Merguez are protected via copyright, I’m unable to share them with you, however, I did find a recipe for Simple Homemade Sausage Patties on Martha Stewart’s website (from Lucinda Scala Quinn’s cookbook Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys) that you might like and it doesn’t even require the casings.
Here are some additional links for purusing:
http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/
http://ruhlman.com/2011/02/meat-curing-safety-issues/
If you have a good local butcher shop in your neighborhood, you can try to buy the casings and curing salt from them, otherwise, you can buy them online. Now I just need to find the time to make another batch!
Food Outside The Box 
Thanks so much for this information Kim. We do have the attachement to make sausage and have discussed doing this but haven’t so far. With your good tips, we will definatley try to make our own. We love Isernios Chicken Breakfast Sausage and maybe we can try to duplicate their recipe. We will let you know how we fare.
Mmmmm. Chicken Breakfast Sausage sounds like a yummy idea too. Would love to hear how it turns out.
Thanks for the nice read 🙂
wow, these look amazing! i have always wanted to get a meat grinder attachment for my kitchen aid… a girl can dream.