Homemade Andouille Sausage

 I've had homemade Andouille sausage on my mind lately.

  

My original plan was to make my sausage with a pork butt so I would have enough fat; after comparing prices I decided to go with pork chops and add extra fat.

In order to mix the fat/meat ratio evenly I cut the fat and meat into strips and layered them in a tall container.

 

Each time I layered the meat and fat I also sprinkled on the seasoning. You can find the recipe here when I first posted about making Andouille Sausage. This time I omitted the thyme at Jonathan's request and the sausage still came out perfect.

 So, here is my pork all ground together with the seasoning just waiting to be stuffed into a casing.

Last time when I made this sausage the butcher was out of casing; so I was so excited when I called and they said "yes" we have some!

 

 Here is how it looks; this small package is enough to make 25-pounds of sausage.

According to the package I was to soak the casing in warm water for 30-minutes. Next I ran water through the casing to rinse the inside; I loved how the casing filled up with water and looked a lot like a balloon.

Once the casing was ready I then oiled my sausage attachment and slid on a nice long section;

 Once I reached the end I tied a knot.

As the meat began filling the casing a lot of air was trapped; next time I'll wait to tie my knot until after the air pushes out.

 And here is how the very first sausage links looked. I used cotton string to tie each section.

And here is how all the links looked once I was finished stuffing; they started looking better as I went along.

 

Earlier that morning Pat started a nice hot fire in the grill and by the time I had the sausage ready the majority of the fire had burned down making it perfect to smoke the meat.

I had several links burst but thankfully the meat was already cooked so the links held their shape.

I made this sausage on the 3rd and today, just over a week later, it's already gone! I shared it with several people and Jonathan took it for lunch several days. 

Guess I better get busy and make some more; it's better than any store sausage I have ever had.