I haven't made sausage in a while. I have a good breakfast recipe and I've made some Hot Italian but what I want is something like a Brat or Summer/Polish that is easy on the ingredients. I am not set up for smoking and if you smoke you need to add curing salts, etc. I usually cook the sausage right away and then freeze it. This would be a "dinner" type. All pork. Limited number of spices. Any recipes appreciated.
Anyone ever use liquid smoke? How much per pound?

Thanks. good site.

It is a good site, the only thing I don’t care for about it is you have to struggle to find sausage recipes that don’t call for way too many spices, things I’ve never heard of, and expensive spices that you realy don’t need. Stick to simple and you will be happier is my experience. Tons of good sausage has little more than salt pepper garlic.

I use one off there called papa pollies polish sausage, most recently stuffed in sheep casings for a store bough hot dog substitute, it didn’t disappoint!

@redchevy, that looks awesome. Do you use a pedal while stuffing? Those look very uniform throughout.

Thanks, but no I use one of the Cabelas hand crank stuffers. I have the 30 pound version, the gearing makes it very easy to turn and consistent compared to our old antique cast iron one.

Question: anyone know the difference between Southern smoked sausage and Polish Kielbasa sausage- seems about the same thing, salt, pepper, garlic. My uncle was German but thought Kielbasa was the king of sausage. I'm wondering if a lot of central Europeans came in and just re-named it "Southern" sausage.
Anyone make it without smoking? I'm told smoking is essential.

Throw a little cayenne in there then freeze it uncooked and throw it on the grill when wanted. You could smoke it hot then too for cooking.
Never heard it called Southern sausage, it's always been German sausage to me.

Well I guess at some point I just have to wade in and make some. I've done the "pattie" breakfast sausage for years. I sort of "brown and serve" that is, cook it and then freeze, works okay. I did some Italian sausage a few months ago but you use a lot of spieces and I wanted something more like Kielbasa.

I've made bratwurst a couple of times using recipes from the internet. They were marginally acceptable, in my opinion. Recently I made a batch using a spice mix from AC Legg, their #104 seasoning mix. It was noticeably better and I intend to stick with it in the future.

If anyone happens to go to BROWNWOOD, the meat processor there processed my deer there. I got some smoked link sausage made, and i will have to say,that it was the very best that i have eaten, since Raymond Trulllio retired, in MERIDIAN... if you go thru brownwood, its on the main road in...377 on the Left..heres the Name of it...B & R sgot my meat in 10 ddays or lessDEER PROCESSING.325 646 0905. OTHER.. SUMMER SAUSAGE,WITH CHEESE AND JALEPENO, OR NONE AT ALL.they are fast....just saying.... shadowman.........

Reaching into my inner Pollock here:

If you just want a clean easy eating sausage that's "Polish" style you have some basic ingredients: Salt, Pepper, Fresh Garlic (do NOT use the garlic that is pre minced in a jar), red pepper and marjoram. This combo is the standard for Polish ring sausage. If you do not want to smoke it, that's 100% ok! We've always called that market sausage. After you stuff it, bloom it in the fridge over night, then package and freeze right away. If you want to set aside a portion of this to make breakfast style patty or small link sausage, all you'll need to add is rubbed sage to the blend.

Some things to keep in mind: 1. A pork butt does not have enough fat unless you're very picky about your selection and can find a pork butt with a real thick fat cap. I've noticed a decline in the fat cap over the years. My butcher sells me 10# bags of straight pork fat so I can add to the meat. I shoot for a minimum of 50/50. When I make my test patty in a cast iron skillet, the patty should not stick and the pan should be glossy with cooked out fat. 2.Also, I see so many sausage making attempts use incorrect math to figure their fat ratio. Here's the mistake: Someone has 10 pounds of pork/venison/elk protein and they want to add 50% fat ratio. So they think 50% of 10 pounds is 5 lbs (which isnt wrong), so they add 5lbs of fat. They yield 15 lbs of product. It turns out dry. Why? They figured 50% of their protein weight, not 50% of their total yield goal. What they did was added a 1/3 ratio of fat to protein. The correct amount to add would be another 10 pounds of fat, thus the sausage would be 10 pounds of protein and 10 pounds of fat.

Hope I've helped!