Homemade Italian Sausage (Hot and Sweet)

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Delicious homemade ground and stuffed right at home! The perfect ratios for the most tender and tasty sausage.

Prep Time2

Rest time2

Total Time2

Course: ingredient, Main Course

Cuisine: American, Italian

Diet: Gluten Free

Servings: lbs

Calories: 668kcal

Cost: $60

Place all of your grinding attachment pieces in the freezer one hour prior to setting up. Remove the bone from your boston butt and chop it into 1-2 inch pieces. Place all of the boston butt on a baking tray. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Set up your grinding attachments. Then remove the meat from the freezer. Using the larger diameter grinder, grind your pork butt through the machine and into a bowl. Keep an eye on the grinder, and if the fat starts getting caught, pause and reset. If using a KitchenAid mixer, I usually grind on a 7 setting.
Once all of the meat is in a bowl, combine your 6lbs of meat with the seasoning for hot or sweet Italian sausage (shown above). Mix really well. Wrap with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
Place the hog casings in a bowl of cold water. Wrap and place in the fridge.

Set up the sausage stuffing system. If using the KitchenAid attachments, use the larger of the two cylinders. This works best for hog casings. Remove the casings from the fridge. Place the bowl in the sink. Run water through the casings to remove as much salt as possible. Then place the casings in a bowl of warm water for 30 minutes.
Remove the casing you're going to start with from the warm water. Drizzle it with olive oil. Thread the casing onto the sausage stuffing attachment. Do not tie it off.
Remove the sausage from the refrigerator. Run the meat through the machine until it gets to the very tip of the sausage stuffing attachment. Turn the machine off. Tie a knot in the casing, leaving no air in the casing.
Run the sausage into the casing. Once you stuff the casing with 4-5 inches of meat, twist the casing, and continue stuffing the next sausage.
Once all the sausage is stuffed, tie a knot, then refrigerate overnight before cooking. Either cook the sausage within 2 days or place it in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Placing the 1-inch pieces of meat in the freezer before grinding, will make them easier to grind and less likely to block up the machine.
If the machine gets clogged up, it could be that the machine is warming up the meat, and the fat may start to melt and get stuck around the grinder. If this happens often, try to keep the meat in the freezer while you're grinding.
When combining the ground meat with the seasoning, don't overmix. Try not to squeeze the meat because the more you do, the tougher the sausage will be.
When twisting off the sausage casings, it's okay if they become semi-untwisted while going through the whole casing. Once you tie off the complete sausage, you can retwist them all.
Always place them in the fridge overnight before cooking. This will make them less likely to burst while cooking.
Always brush the sausages with olive oil before cooking to prevent the casing from popping or sticking.