Making Homemade Sweet Spanish Sausage

My father-in-law taught me how to make homemade sausage. Although the entire process took longer than I expected, it was quite fun and it was great working with new ingredients such as the natural pork casings. Also, you don't have to soak the raisins in brandy, but we did. You will need some Irish whiskey and red wine to assist you in the process.

Below is the recipe for one pound of pork. We made 8 pounds, so just multiply the recipe accordingly. And if you don't want to make links and/or use pork casings, you can just make sausage patties instead. Cheers!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound pork shoulder, cut into pieces that will fit your grinder, and place in freezer for 15 to 20 minutes
• 1/2 Tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/8 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• 3 Tablespoons golden raisins, soaked in brandy
• 1/8 teaspoon sugar
• 1 package of natural pork casings

DIRECTIONS

1. Take a swig of some fine Irish whiskey. In a meat grinder, grind the pork.
2. Meanwhile, have someone (like your daughter-in-law) soak the casings in warm water, then run some water through the intestines to clean them out from the inside. You can use synthetic casings, but what's the fun in that. Take another swig.
3. In a mortar and pestle add all the spice ingredients, except the garlic, and grind, grind, grind.
4. Open a bottle of red wine.
5. To the ground pork add all the raisins, garlic and the spice seasonings and mix well to combine.
6. Pour two glasses of wine, one for you and one for your assistant; now you're ready to get dirty.
7. Place one of the casings on the mean grinder tube attachment or on the attachment on your piston stuffer and scrunch it, or follow your manufacturer's directions.
8. Fill the grinder or hand-cranked piston with some of the sausage mix and start stuffing. Drink a little more wine, and continue stuffing. You don't have to twist the ends of the casings, btw.
9. As you stuff, make sure you, or your assistant, curl the sausage or even twist it every 6 inches or so.
10. Continue stuffing the casings until you finish up all the mixture. Chill the sausage (or place in freezer). Drink the rest of the wine.
11. You've done it! You’ve just made homemade sausage. It's time to open a bottle of champagne to celebrate!