Cooking: Sweet Italian Sausage

Mr. Farmer had a great idea this year: making an entire pig into sausage. Little Miss Farmer would probably name Sweet Italian Sausage as her favorite homemade food (she's 12, so if you ask for her favorite food, she will most likely say, "pizza"). We made 75 pounds of Italian Sausage so far this week in 25 pound batches. Fifty pounds were sweet, and 25 pounds were hot.

In Case You Were Wondering What 50 Pounds of Sausage Looks Like...

Here's the Super-Secret (Nah!) Recipe:

25 lb ground pork
1/2 c plain table salt (not iodized)
5 tbsp ground black pepper
1/4 c + 2 tbsp cracked fennel seeds
2 1/2 tbsp coriander
1 1/4 c sugar
2 1/2 c water
2 1/2 tbsp oregano
2 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp granulated onion
1 tsp winter savory


We mixed these ingredients by hand, adding one or two at a time and spreading them out over the meat to try to keep it as even as possible. Then we put it through the sausage stuffer into casings. Of course it would be just as delicious as patties or rolls.

NOTE ON SUGAR: We reduced the amount of sugar from last year's recipe, and it is still pretty sweet. If you are using this recipe and are considering adding any other sweet ingredients (fresh green/red bell peppers, fresh sweet onions, sweet paprika), it would be a good idea to decrease the sugar to just 1 cup. This is truly sweet sausage.

NOTE ON SALT: As a habit, we use a reduced amount of salt in our cooking. After all, there is salt on the table, and it can be added later, if needed.