Italian Sausage

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds lean ground pork butt
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
1/8 tsp dry basil (or 1/4 tsp fresh)
1/8 tsp dry oregano or 1/4 fresh)
1/8 tsp cracked rosemary
1/8 tsp hot red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 1/4 to 3 teaspoons fennel seed
4 TBS beef or chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 TBS parsley, chopped, (with stems removed)
Casings (water packed)

Instructions

Yield: 20 oz (cooked weight). Buy lean butt or an even leaner cut of pork. Hand-trim all visible fat from the outside, then cube the meat, removing interior fat as you find it. Then course-grind it and glean the ground meat, picking out grissle, cartilege and veins of fat. Grind one more time. After second grinding, place meat in a large bowl, add dry seasonings and blend by hand to mix thoroughly to ensure it is spread throughout the meat. Add stock and mix again by hand. Stuff by hand or using sausage stuffing attachment on electric meatgrinder (do NOT use blade in meatgrinder when stuffing) Casings should NOT be packed in salt. Get fresh casings from the butcher. Ground turkey can be used in this recipe, reducing fat by about 1 gram per ounce. It will make a drier sausage. You can offset that a bit by adding an extra two to three TBS of broth, or substitute 1/4 cup white wine for the stock. The wine will act as a tenderizer. If you plan to prepare the finished sausage by simmering it in liquid or in a tomato or pasta sauce, turkey works quite nicely in this recipe. If, however, you like Italian Sausage made on the grill, stick to the pork version.