a shortbread-crust cheesecake that is thick and dense. The only choice left is this one. After trying this cheesecake recipe, you won’t ever use another one again.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 5 pounds of sausages |
Ingredients
- 4 pounds coarse ground pork shoulder
- 1 pound coarse ground pork back fat
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon ground mace
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- ½ cup ice water
- 80 inches sausage casing, 1 1/2 inches wide
Instructions
- Using a spice grinder or food processor, pulverize the salt, black pepper and sugar. In a large bowl, mix together the pork shoulder, back fat, garlic powder, mace, coriander, cayenne and ice water. Mix in the salt, pepper and sugar. Use latex gloves when mixing to avoid contamination of the meat, and keep the mixture cold.
- Stuff the sausage mixture into the casings and twist off in 3 inch lengths. If you do not have a stuffer, the sausage can be formed into patties or rolled into logs. Refrigerate and use up in one week or freeze for up to 6 weeks.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 372 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 2 g |
| Cholesterol | 71 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 18 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 747 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 32 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Followed the recipe to a T. Delish only waaaaay too much fat. The recipe appears to assume (for some reason) an extremely lean pork shoulder so adding 25% more fat is too much. The result is a forcemeat that’s pale pink and thus too fatty. The taste is spot on perfect, though. Next time I will seriously adjust the fat amount based on the fat content of the pork shoulder piece.
For a better result, mix the spices and ice-water separately in a bowl and then add this slurry to the meat mixture. You will have a more even distribution and less work.
good stuff
Hands down the best Italian sausage I’ve ever had. I did use 1 TS lite brown and 1 TS white sugar. Reduced salt in half, couldn’t find mace so used nutmeg. I also added red wine balsamic vinegar 1/8 cup. I could try to describe the flavor but my discription wouldn’t do it Justus. Wicked good!
Made this a couple of times now – always goes down well! I split the batch and put some chili flakes in one half (my wife isn’t too keen these days on anything too spicy).
Made this a couple of times now – always goes down well! I split the batch and put some chili flakes in one half (my wife isn’t too keen these days on anything too spicy).
Fanatastic. My first try with my new KitchenAid sausage maker. I made a 10 foot circle which I will use as a dinner party centerpiece and two 9 inch sausages which my wife and I had for dinner. (1/4 cup water, covered for 15 minutes, turn, then another 15 minutes, uncover, five minutes, turn, five minutes. Golden brown and cooked through. Great flavor, great texture. Too much salt for me, but I am oversensitive. Bob
This “Italian Sausage – Tuscan Style” recipe is a good solid base for a plain sausage that would be good with so many other treatments (I’m thinking fancy mustards, but also would be good with so many other seasonings as optional). The only change I made was to add onion powder (my husband’s preference). Thank you Len Poli for sharing your recipe.
This was very good as is but I did make adjustments based on preference. I made a batch up and subbed red wine for the ice water. I skipped the salt. I let the mix meld overnight in the refrigerator and made a test meatball. Lacked a bit of flavor so I added fresh garlic, parsley and oregano. I used hot paprika and crushed red pepper to up the heat. Tried another test meatball and was quite happy with the result. Great recipe as is and easily adjusted to suit your preferences. I highly recommend allowing the flavors to blend overnight and making a test meatball!
I used half venison and half pork in this recipe was awesome! Used it on pizza and in spaghetti and even those who hate venision love this.
Len, you’re a genius. I cook with this both bulk and cased. Used an uncased version in the Pizza Balls recipe and it turned out great. Mild, but savory. A hands-down favorite.
wonderful recipe will definitly be a top recipe in my box. I did sub the water for red wine. I didn’t have any mace but it’s on my list. Thank you for this great one will be used over and oer again.
I’ve tried several recipes for Italian sausage and this one is by far the best. I scale it to one pound of pork, reduce the salt to 1 tsp and add a teaspoon of fennel. Perfect sausage without fillers for half the price! Thanks for sharing!
I used this recipe as a base to make 1lb. of sausage using ground pork (so I reduced all the ingredients by about 1/5th). I couldnt find star anise so I used a couple drops of pure anise oil. It worked great and turned out wonderful! Update: we use this recipe all the time and love it! We just made a “sausage seasoning mix”. We bumped the servings up to 40, added 1/2 an anise star (ground in the coffee grinder), added 1t paprika, teaspoon fennel, and doubled the black pepper. We just add 1 heaping tablespoon of the mix to a pound of meat. Delicious!
I used ground venison, I forgot to have it made into sausage this year. It turned out GREAT! Used it in biscuits and gravy, and will use it tonight in a stuffed pizza. Added a pinch of Italian seasoning.
I love the depth of flavor this sausage has. I grind my own pork shoulder because the grocery store’s ground pork is always bit and pieces of not very good meat. I added a little basil and oregano for this. Refridgate over night before stuffing so the flavors meld more. Makes divine spaghetti sauce!
Ver good. Enjoyed the spices, nice flavor. Husband really enjoyed and he is fussy about Italian sausage. Thank you. Update: I made Sweet and Hot meatballs with this sausage and waterchestnuts, with a sweet sauce of maple syrup and cider vinegar. My kids loved this at Thanksgiving as an appetizer and now I am making again for Christmas. Thank you
easy and good
Very tasty. We use ground turkey or chicken instead of ground beef. Since beef has more flavor than poultry, I will use this seasoning blend often to kick up the flavor.
The flavor was good but a bit too salty, probably from the salt in the casing. I used the sausage stufer attachment on my Kitchenaid mixer and it was quite easy!
Excellent recipe. We’re kind of new to sausage making, but this is one of the best we’ve tried. Good balance of flavor and seasoning. I added a little fennel just because I like the flavor.