Making Smoked Sausage

 

Today (Saturday) was our first time to try making sausage! It took us forever, but I was surprised at how easy it was to do. 

Last year, my husband had asked what I wanted for Christmas. I couldn't think of anything I really wanted, so I just tried to think of things we could possibly use around the house. In my search, I found a grinder/meal/sausage making kit for my KitchenAid mixer. I got it for Christmas, but it has been sitting on the shelf until today.

Over the last few months we have been gathering things we knew we needed to make sausage. We have also spent hours researching the process. We finally gathered the supplies we needed and found a weekend day free enough for us to try our hand at it. We recorded the whole process. You can find the full video here on my YouTube channel, My Modern Homestead.

Basically, to make sausage, you begin with your desired amount of meat and sausage. There is a bit of science behind that. We determined that we would use 15 pounds of meat with 3 pounds of added fat. This first time, we used our own meat plus some we bought. We also bought sixty pounds of fat that we separated into three pound portions for future projects. 

We kept that meat as cold as we could and ground it with a coarse grind plate and then a fine grind plate. Those came with the kit.

Next, we placed all the meat along with the spices, cure, and water into our 20 pound meat mixer from LEM. We did our best to mix it well without over mixing. That step is in the video, but unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture.

The next part was a little tricky. We had natural hog casings soaking in some water. I had to figure out how to separate one and get it loaded onto the stuffing tube. I eventually got it done, and we began stuffing the sausage. Both the grinding and the stuffing took forever with the equipment we were using, but after 10,162 hours, we got done!

Then we placed the sausage into the smoke house for a cold smoke. The house doesn't get hot enough to cook the sausage through. 

We then took the sausage down and bagged it up four links to a bag. The bags were placed in the freezer until we are ready to cook the links for a meal.

We ended up with fourteen bags.

Before we make more, we are going to invest in a bigger, heavier duty grinder and a different stuffer. What we used would be fine for a really small batch, but it just wasn't practical for the amounts we will be doing. I am now excited to try it again! We have our ingredients ready for our next batches but we will wait for our new equipment.

Do any of you make your own sausage? My husband wanted to make a sausage he could smoke and that could just hang in the pantry similar to how a salted country ham hangs, but he couldn't find any definitive information on that. Perhaps someone out there can offer him some wisdom and advice on the subject.

What have you been up to in your corner of the world? I would love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment down below.

I hope you enjoyed following along with us! I tried to include as much of the process as I could without making the post and video too long for you.

This is the information for the company from which I ordered our mixes. They have much more than spice mixes, though! Just call them to request a free catalog.

Home Butchering Supplies, LLC
715-623-0055

Love you all!

Until we meet again, may you be blessed! ❤️

How to Can Sweet Potatoes

May I start by saying that if you like canning sweet potatoes, bless you!

I don't think I've ever not liked canning something as much as I've not liked canning sweet potatoes!! Maybe if they had been fresher, the process wouldn't have been so bad. I don't know. 

If you DO want to try them, this is the process:

Start with nice, smooth potatoes. Most of mine were not. Scrub them well, boil them 12-15 minutes just until they are barely fork tender, peel them- the skin and yellow layer underneath, chop them into nice size chunks, and pack them into jars to 1 inch headspace. Cover them with boiled, hot water to one inch headspace. Seal the jars and process quarts for 90 minutes, pints for 65 minutes at 11lbs pressure for a dial guage, and 10lbs pressure for a weighted pressure canner. Make sure to check and adjust your pressure for your location.

Click here for my video tutorial on YouTube!

I wish you all the best, and may your experience not be so rough and tedious. 💕

In other news, we got two pigs last weekend. We were supposed to have three, but one got away in the loading process. She has since been recovered by the original owner, and we will be going to get her this weekend. Hopefully, she won't be as skiddish as her sister. Of the two pigs we brought home, only the piglet will come to us easily. She is the cutest little thing and will eat everything we put in front of her except onions. She is so much like a puppy. She "smiles", wags her tail, and grunts as she happily makes her way to us to see what treat we may have for her. She is so gentle and eats right out of our hand. This is her eating some peels from the sweet potatoes that I canned.

Maybe once we get the bigger pig's sister here, the bigger pig will come around, too.

I think, hope, the cold weather is past us now. We've had some wild and crazy weather here the last couple of weeks. The only thing we have put in the garden is corn. Somehow, it is all coming up! I don't know if we've ever had a year other than our first year when we didn't have to fight weather and animals to get it to come up. Praise the Lord! Thank you! Now, I need to work on getting our other things in the ground. I'll be working on figuring out where I want to put things for a little while this morning.

What have you all been up to? I would love to hear from you in the comments! I love hearing what is happening in your world even if it has nothing to do with the homesteading life!

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" 1 John 3:1

Until we meet again, may you be blessed! 💕

Homemade Taco Seasoning

 

Hey! Kick the habit! The buying taco seasoning packets habit, that is! Let the recipe below allow you to give up the packets! If you would like to follow along on video, click here to go to my video on YouTube!

Homemade Taco Seasoning

3 T chili powder

3 T paprika

2 t salt

2 T dried minced onion

4 t - 2T cumin 😜 -to taste

1 - 2 t cayenne pepper

2 t garlic powder

1-1/2 t dried oregano

Add 2-3 T of spice mix to one pound of browned ground meat.

A while back, my friend Buffi let me know my taco seasoning recipe didn't sound quite right. I was so confused! We LOVE our tacos around here. She kindly told me I didn't even have cumin in it. Huh??? That's my favorite ingredient in my seasoning! 

I did some looking around and realized the recipe I thought she had was no longer on my blog! I can't begin to explain what happened. I didn't purposely take it down. Anyway, I made today the day I remedied the problem! I thought it would be fun to bring you along!

I hope you enjoy the recipe!

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!

Strawberry Pepper Jelly

Hello all my lovely reader friends!

Yesterday, we made pepper jelly with strawberries my little guy and I just picked up at the strawberry patch. Come along and make some with me here on my YouTube channel, My Modern Homestead! 

Here's the recipe:

Strawberry Pepper Jelly

2 bell pepper, finely chopped
6 small to medium jalapenos, finely chopped
1 c finely chopped strawberries
1 T red pepper flakes
6-1/2 c sugar
1-1/2 c apple cider vinegar

6 oz liquid pectin

In a large pot, combine all ingredients except the strawberries and pectin. Heat over high heat until mixture comes to a rolling boil. Boil for five minutes. Add the strawberries and liquid pectin. Bring back to a boil and boil three minutes. Immediately remove from the heat and let the jelly cool for a minute. Skim off foam if needed. Place jelly in half or quart pint jars to 1/4" headspace. Water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars to a dry, draft-free area, and do not move them for 24 hours. Wash jars and store in a cool, dark area.

I used to be the one to get the big ice
cream. When did that happen without
my permission?

I really enjoyed getting to spend some one-on-one time with my little guy who is no longer little. He, infact, towers over me now. He is still my baby, though. All you parents understand that one. I love the fact that he still wants to go and do things with me. I will never take that for granted.

Next week will be a busy one! I have several videos in the works, and I've got several things that need to be canned. Both of my guys are outside at this very moment getting the garden prep finished up so I can get my stuff in the ground soon. I am so excited! I am praying it does well this year. I am really counting on some things I am out of to produce well for us. 

What are you up to, my friends? Have you got anything exciting going on in your world? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you!

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!