SAUSAGE MAKING INSTRUCTIONS

By Zoe Colville, The Chief Shepherdess
 
I’m the tenant farmer of a farm in Kent, in Southeast England. We opened our butchery, 'The Little Farm Fridge,' last year during lockdown. We sell our products directly from the farm to reduce our carbon footprint and provide consumers with full traceability. We've offered some sausage-making classes where everyone gets a kit with everything they need to make sausages for a lovely dinner (apart from the wine!). They also sign up for a Zoom workshop so we can walk them through the process and help if they get stuck (which happens on the first try!). It's a really fun activity for everyone, and even the kids can get involved and get their hands dirty if they want!
 
Here’s how:
 
1. Soak the sausage casings (pig intestines!) overnight in water in the fridge to soften them.

2. Thirty minutes before processing, rinse the casings under the tap and soak them in lukewarm water.

3. Fill the sausage meat into the sausage stuffer. At The Little Farm Fridge, you can buy ready-made products, but you can also make the meat yourself by using ethically raised pork, breadcrumbs (rusks), and spices of your choice, such as sage or leek.

4. Once filled, you can insert your casings or skins into the funnel, leaving a few inches of overhang at the end of the nozzle.

5. Slowly turn the handle so that the meat fills the casings, pulling the skin off the nozzle.

6. When you're out of meat, you can cut off the skin and "knot" your sausages!

7. Choose the desired length of the sausage, squeeze it, and twist it. Do the same with two more sausages so you have three.

8. Place two side by side, twist them together, and thread the third one through the hole to secure them.

9. Continue until you have a string of sausages, all connected. I know it's incredibly complicated to explain. That's why you can watch a video about it on my Instagram @thechiefshepherdess in the IGTV section. There are also great videos on YouTube for this.

10. Have fun!