From this most basic of sausage recipes you can expand to a huge number of sausage flavorings, variations and traditions. But lets start easy and uncomplicated.

For example Toulouse Sausage originated in the southwest region of France. A classic addition to cassoulet. :

3#pork butt trimmed

1#fatback

30 g salt

3 g white pepper

3 g nutmeg

lamb casings in salt solution

1. To begin clean your pork butt of all sinew and glands. Leave the fat. I know that messes with our 3-1 meat to fat ratio but they’re more like guidelines than actual rules.

A boned out porkbutt will usually contain one gland. Remove anything that looks like this.

2. cut the pork and porkfat into strips that will fit into your grinder. Mix with the salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

3. chill the fat and meat.

4. grind the meat and fat through the 3/8 inch disk/die

5. chill the fat and meat

6. prepare for stuffing the casings. Place your hank of casings in a container of water so that the strands separate, the casings tend to knot up as you pull them out. The casings are all connected at one end, tied to a ring or clipped or whatever. This enables you to find the end of one of the casings. Pick one strand and cut at the ring. Pull it out of the pile of casings in the container of water into another container of water. When you come to the end of the casing leave it hanging over the edge of the container so you can once again find the end. Next the casings must be flushed. Run water through the entire length of the casing. Next load the casing onto the stuffing tube. You can load more than one casing on the tube at a time. Better to have too much casing on the tube than too little. The left over casings can be liberally sprinkled with salt and refrigerated for further use.

7. In a large bowl mix the fat and the meat and the spices dissolved in a little cold water. Use a stiff spatula or latex gloved hands and a folding motion. The mixture will grow firm and compact, will become “sticky”, and a white film will form on the surface of the bowl. This is the extracted proteins grabbing the water and the fat. When this procedure is done correctly, the result is juicy sausages.

8. Load your stuffer. Tamping the sausage mixture down to get rid of all the air bubbles. Bubbles bad. It is important to do it now because the brat will continue to set as time goes by making the stuffing more difficult. Attach the casing loaded stuffing tube.

Bring the sausage mixture to the end of the tube. Tie the end of the sausage casing. Begin stuffing the sausage with a slow steady pressure. The casings should be nice and plump and evenly filled. How full the casings become is dependant on how fast the casings come off the stuffing tube in relation to how fast you are cranking the stuffer. It takes a little feel and a little practice. The stuffed casings can be wound onto a wetted sheet pan. As you come to the end of each casing, simply tie off the end of the full casing and tie the end of the empty case that you are going to fill. Once the stuffer is empty tie off the end of the casing, and link the links into the size you want. Pinch at the length you want and then twist. Pinch again at the next length and twist the other direction. It goes very fast once you get the hang of it. Next prick the sausages to remove any air bubbles. Store the sausages uncovered in the walk-in. The surface needs to dry out so it won’t burst upon cooking.

The Toulouse sausages can be slowly browned in a pan over low heat or grilled.