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You can't have a real English breakfast without good sausages - and you can't get gooder bangers than the ones you make yourself! Porky, herby, juicy, yummy.
Chill!
Whenever you make sausages, you want everything to be as cold as possible, so put the mincer attachment, scroll, plates and blade in the freezer. You also want to chill the meat and fat until it is very firm but not frozen.
Prep the Sausage Casing
For this amount of filling - around 1 kilo (2.2 pounds), you'll need about 1.5 metres (5 feet) of natural hog casing. Follow the manufacturers instructions for how to prepare it, but the brand I use only needs to be rinsed in cold water and feed it onto a tap and run cold water through the inside. Keep it in a bowl of cold water until you need it.
Make up the Seasoning Mix
In a small screw-top jar, combine all the ingredienta and shake well. This amount of seasoning is enough for 2¼ kilos of filling, so you'll only need to use just under half of it.
Mince the Meat
Cut the pork into chunks that will go through the mincer. Make sure there are no bones in it. Keep the fat - in fact it's good if you can get extra fat, up to 20% of the weight of the meat. Put the meat and fat through the mincer on the coarse plate. Mix it well with the breadcrumbs, the seasoning and the water. Feed it all through the mincer again using the coarse plate or the medium one if you want a smoother texture. Place the mixture in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
Make the Sausages
Set your mincer/stuffer up with a sausage stuffing tube and thread the casing onto it. Tie a knot in the end and puncture the casing with a pin or toothpick. Turn the machine on and pump filling through. Hold the filling on the nozzle and cup your hand around the extruded meat to try to get a long sausage of uniform thickness. Coil the meat as it lands on the table.
When all the meat has gone through tie a knot in the other end. Try to leave extra casing for expansion. Smooth out the filling then pinch the casing where you want to form one sausage. Twist the separated sausage one way. Make another pinch point to isolate another sausage then twist that off in the opposite direction to the first twist. Keep doing that, alternating the direction of the twists as you go. Put the sausages in the fridge to dry for a couple of hours before cooking.
How to Cook the Sausages
Low and slow is always the best way to cook sausages. Heat a little oil or other fat in a frying pan on medium low heat. Add the sausages and turn them occasionally to get them browned all over. They'll be ready after 15-20 minutes.