Makes about 5 pounds, or about 20 sausages
- 4 lbs. wild boar meat or standard pork picnic
- 1 lb. pork shoulder (make sure it’s fatty)
- 2 tbs. sugar
- 3 ½ tbs. kosher salt
- 1 tbs. garlic powder
- 1 tbs. dried thyme
- 1 tbs. minced fresh rosemary
- 1 tbs. minced fresh sage
- 1/2 cu. ice water
- 1/2 cu. white wine
- Hog casings
Chill the meat until it is almost frozen by putting it in the freezer for an hour or so. Take out some hog casings and set in a bowl of very warm water. Chop meat and fat into 1 inch chunks. Combine the sugar, salt, garlic and herbs with the meat, mix well with your hands and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour.
Grind through your meat grinder (you can use a food processor in a pinch, but you will not get a fine texture) using the coarse die. If your room is warmer than 69 degrees, set the bowl for the ground meat into another bowl of ice to keep it cold.
Add the wine and water, then mix thoroughly either using a Large Electric Mixer on low for 60-90 seconds or with your (very clean) hands. This is important to get the sausage to bind properly. Once it is mixed well, put it back in the fridge.
Stuff the sausage into the casings all at once. Twist off links by pinching the sausage down and twisting it, first in one direction, and then with the next link, the other direction. Or you could tie them off with butcher’s string.
Hang the sausages in a cool place for up to 4 hours (the colder it is, the longer you can hang them). If it is warm out, hang for one hour. Once they have dried a bit, put in the fridge until needed. They will keep for at least a week in the fridge.
If you are freezing the sausages, wait a day before doing so. This will tighten up the sausages and help them keep their shape in the deep-freeze.