There is nothing better than fresh, homemade sausage made from farm-raised pigs. With this recipe you can make 10 pounds of sweet and savory pork sausage that your whole family will enjoy! Freeze it in one-pound bags and make a delicious meal anytime.
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We raise hogs every summer so that we can have a freezer full of bacon, pork chops, and sausage to feed our family throughout the year. Since we process our own animals, we have the freedom to get the cuts and specialty meats that we enjoy.
One of our favorite things to make (and eat) is sausage. Over the years, we have tried different recipes for sweet, spicy, and savory sausage and this year we developed our own with a blend of our favorite ingredients from each. The result is a versatile sausage that is great on its own, with eggs, or mixed into spaghetti sauce.
Making Your Own Sausage
When we first got into processing our own pigs, most of what we found were recipes for 1-2 pounds of sausage. This didn’t fit our needs when we had 60 pounds of fresh ground pork sitting in the cooler. Through research and some trial and error, we created a recipe for making sausage in bulk that is perfect for us.
We make 10 pounds of sausage at a time. If this is too big of a batch for you, feel free to pare down the recipe.
What makes sausage making fun is experimenting with the ingredients. You can use more, or less, of any of the ingredients to make it your own. Want a hotter sausage? Add more red pepper flakes or some cayenne pepper or chili powder. Want a sweeter sausage? More brown sugar or maple syrup will do the trick.
As you make this recipe or alter it, be sure to stop and do a taste test. Just take some, throw it in a hot pan, try it, and then adjust as needed.
For more reasons to raise a hog for your freezer every year, click here to read our related article.
Equipment Needed for Making Pork Sausage
- Boning knife
- Cutting board
- Meat lugs
- Meat grinder
- Kitchen scale
- Measuring spoons
- Bowl
- Stuffer
- 1 pound meat bags
- Bag tape machine
- Poly bag tape
As you process your hog, use a boning knife to separate cuts and save the scraps for sausage. Any trimmed fat should be kept separate from what you deem as “grind meat.” You will need both to make your sausage.
We use a standalone ½ HP Cabela’s meat grinder, it gets the job done and does it well. However, what would make the job quicker and easier is a larger commercial grinder. This is on our wish list! A grinder attachment for a Kitchen Aid appliance will work too, but plan on being there a while.
Our sausage stuffer is a 10-pound vertical, manual stuffer. It is very simple to use as well as take apart to clean. We love it!
The bag tape machine we have is quick and easy to use, the alternative is staples. Crimping each bag is time consuming and more trouble than its worth in our opinion.
Bulk Pork Sausage Recipe
- 8 pounds lean ground pork
- 2 pounds pork fat
- 2.5 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2.5 tablespoons real maple syrup
- 5 teaspoons ground sage
- 10 teaspoons salt
- 5 teaspoons black pepper
- 2.5 teaspoons red pepper flakes
- Pinch of ground cloves
- 2.5 teaspoons parsley
- 1 ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- 5 tablespoons paprika
- 5 teaspoons onion powder
- 5 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2.5 teaspoons thyme
- 2.5 teaspoons oregano
Following this recipe, you will end up with 10 pounds of pork sausage.
A quick note about pork fat. For sausage making, you do need some fat. As you can see, our sausage has a 20% fat content, we like the consistency and flavor of this specific ratio. If it’s too dry for your liking, you can increase the fat percentage. If you are stuffing your sausage into casings, you will want the fat content higher at 30-40%.
Directions for Making Bulk Pork Sausage
- 1. Before you get started, I recommend putting pieces of the meat grinder (the throat, auger, and grinder plates) into the freezer to chill. As the grinder works, it heats up and can melt the fat. It’s not bad, but it can make it a bit messy. For best results, the meat and grinder components should be cold to start.
- 2. You will run your grinder three times in the sausage making process. You will coarse grind your fat and lean meat separately, then after mixing, you will run it through the fine plate to make a nice uniform sausage.
- 3. First, you will prepare the fat that you set aside in the butchering process. Run the rump, back fat, and any other fat trimmed off cuts of meat through the coarse grinder plate into a clean meat lug. Set it aside for now.
- 4. Next, prepare your lean ground pork. After removing any unwanted fat, gristle, or silver skin from the meat you want to grind, it is ready to go into the grinder. Run the meat through the coarse grinder plate and into a clean meat lug. Set this aside.
- 5. Now you are ready to mix up your sausage. At this point, I disassemble the grinder, give it a quick clean, and throw the components back into the freezer. They will have time to chill while you measure out ingredients. When you put the grinder back together make sure to put on the fine grinding plate this time.
- 6. Using your kitchen scale, weigh out 8 pounds of lean ground pork and 2 pounds of pork fat and place them in another meat lug. When combined, this will give you a sausage with 20% fat content.
- 7. In a bowl, measure out and mix all the seasonings and spices for the 10 pounds of sausage. Add them to the meat lug with the weighed ground pork and pork fat. If you have someone available to help you out, they can do this while you run the grinder. In our house, processing meat and cooking are group activities, and we frequently have friends and/or family there to learn and lend a hand.
- 8. With clean (or gloved hands), mix the meat, fat, and spices together until thoroughly combined. You don’t want any pockets of pure fat or dense pockets of seasoning.
- 9. Run the mixture through the fine plate of the grinder, into a clean meat lug. You now have your finished product- 10 pounds of delicious, homemade sausage!
- 10. To freeze long term, we use one pound meat bags. You can save yourself labeling time by purchasing ones with pork sausage printed on them.
- 11. Now, it’s time to stuff the bags! For a long time, we used a stuffing attachment on our grinder. We recently purchased a standalone stuffer, and it was totally worth the investment. Having the right tool for the job makes all the difference. Stack up the one-pound bags of sausage and then seal them in the next step.
- 12. We use a bag tape machine to seal our sausage. It is a simple machine to use, but it does take some practice to get the motion down. All you need to do is twist the bag closed and run it through the slot of the machine, which tapes it closed for you. Have an extra roll of poly bag tape on hand, just in case you run out.
- 13. Put the bags of sausage in the freezer and use within a year for the best quality and flavor.
Mother, farmer, author, and teacher by trade… She loves tending to things and watching them grow!