Over the years when I was making lots of sausage I fine tuned the process to my liking.
When I first started I just chopped up the meat and ran it all through the grinder. That's what a grinder is for right? No, you'll spend a lot of time cleaning the blades of chopped up sheath and sinew. The when you eat it you spend more time picking the same stuff out or your teeth.
I would bone the pork and then muscle it out. Then I would take every bit of sheathing, sinew and fat off of the muscles leaving only pure pork. The trimmings went in the rendering pot. After a good lard frying all those little things are crunchy and they have a bit of meat with them too. Then I would slice the meat cross the grain about 3/4" to 1" and cube from there. Then I would chill the meat. Cold meat grinds, warm meat mushes. I liked a coarse grind. Then in a huge stainless bowl I'd add seasonings to taste. It is easy to add a bit more seasoning and very hard to take it out (especially salt). If you get too much, it is amazing how much more meat you have to add to get it back to good.
I would usually under-season because as the sausage smokes the flavor runs through it and gets a bit stronger.
To test, as I was mixing I'd drop a dollop in a frying pan and give it a taste test then drink some water or other watery substance....
I don't remember the proportions because each batch was it's own. I almost NEVER followed the recommendations on the packaging when using ready mix seasoning. I always put less.
Then I'd pull the blades out and stuff the casings, giving them a few twists about every 18". You want to leave plenty of room between links because each twist is two ends to tie the string to and you want to have plenty of casing held by the sting (I used only cotton twine). You don't want to walk out to the smoke house one morning and find your hard work laying on the floor because the casing slipped out of the string.
It is possible to get too much smoke on the sausage. Some people only put smoke once a day, and that is probably enough.
As the sausage is smoking you have to check it periodically to look for bubbles in the casing. Poke them with a needle when you find them. Also hang the links so that they are not touching each other or anything else. If they are touching it will create a bad spot. On the morning of the fourth day, pull it out of the smoke house, chill it, wrap it and freeze it (don't forget to label and date). Don't forget to leave a link or two out to eat that night. Two days is probably long enough and the sausage won't dry out as much.
I've probably left a few things out but as I said earlier, it's been a while since I made any.
Yy, It looks like you got a good start on the sausage making. It is a lot of fun and tasty too!
Alan
