(about 6 pounds of 2 inch sausage, 3 to 3 1/2 inches thick)
Soak the casing about an hour in cold water to soften it and to
loosen the salt in which it is packed. Cut into 3 yard lengths, then
place the narrow end of the sausage stuffer in one end of the casing.
Place the wide end of the stuffer up against the sink faucet and run
cold water through the inside of the casing to remove any salt.
(Roll up the casing you do not intend to use; put about 2 inches of coarse salt in a large jar, place the rolled up casing on it, then fill the rest of the jar with salt. Close tightly and refrigerate for later
use.)
Cut the meat and fat into chunks about 1/2 inch across and pass once through the coarse blade of the meat grinder. Combine the pork with the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with a wooden
spoon.
Cut the casings into 26 inch lengths and stuff as follows:
Tie a knot in each piece of casing about 2 inches from one end.
Fit the open end over the tip of the sausage stuffer and slide it to
about 1 inch from the wide end. Push the rest of the casing onto the stuffer until the top touches the knot. (The casing will look like
accordian folds on the stuffer.)
Fit the stuffer onto the meat
grinder as directed on the instructions that come with the machine,
or hold the wide end of the stuffer against or over the opeoning by
hand. Fill the hopper with stuffing. Turn the machine on if it is
electric and feed the stuffing gradually into the hopper; for a
manual machine, push the stuffing through with a wooden pestle.
The
sausage casing will fill and inflate gradually. Stop filling about 1
1/4 inches from the funnel end and slip the casing off the funnel,
smoothing out any bumps carefully with your fingers and being careful not to push the stuffing out of the casing. Tie off the open end of
the sausage tightly with a piece of string or make a knot in the
casing itself. Repeat until all the stuffing is used up.
To cook, slice the andouille 1/2 inch thick and grill in a hot
skillet with no water for about 12 minutes on each side, until brown
and crisp at the edges.
From: Ellen Cleary
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