Near Freezing
Chill meat, fat and grinder parts before you start for a clean grind.
Sausage Calculator →Sausage & Salami
Fresh and smoked sausage, and dry-fermented salami — fat ratios, salt, cure, casings and the fermentation check that keeps salami safe.
Pork for the Freezer
How many pigs it takes to fill your family’s freezer and sausage pot.
Meat Calculator →Sausage calculators
Fresh & smoked sausage
Keep meat, fat and grinder parts near freezing. Mix until the meat turns sticky (“bind”), fry a small patty to check seasoning, then stuff. Cook sausage to 160°F.
Dry-fermented salami
Ferment warm and humid until the pH drops to 5.3 or lower, then dry at 50–60°F and 70–80% humidity until it has lost about a third of its weight. A pH meter and an accurate scale are essential.
Making good sausage
- Chill everything — meat, fat, grinder plates and the mixing bowl — until nearly frozen. Warm fat smears and makes sausage crumbly and greasy.
- Grind through a coarse plate, then a finer one if you like. Mix in the salt, spices and ice water until the meat is tacky and holds together.
- Soak salted natural casings in warm water and flush them before stuffing. Stuff firmly without air pockets, then twist into links and prick any air bubbles.
- Cook fresh sausage to 160°F (165°F if it contains poultry). Refrigerate and use within 2 days, or freeze.
Smoked & summer sausage
- Any sausage that will be smoked at low temperatures needs Cure #1 at 0.25% to prevent botulism.
- Smoke at gradually rising temperatures until the inside reaches 155–160°F, then cool quickly in ice water.
Dry-fermented salami
- Use Cure #2, dextrose and a starter culture. The culture turns sugar into acid — the drop in pH, along with salt and drying, is what makes salami safe.
- The meat must reach pH 5.3 or lower within 1,200 “degree-hours” above 60°F (when fermenting below 90°F). Example: 75°F for 48 hours = 15 × 48 = 720 degree-hours.
- Dry at 50–60°F and 70–80% humidity. A thin white mold is normal; fuzzy green, black or orange mold is not — wipe it with vinegar or discard the piece.
- Salami is ready when it has lost 30–40% of its weight and is firm all the way through. Case hardening (a dry ring with a soft center) means the humidity was too low.
- For pork you’ll eat uncooked, use commercially raised pork or freeze it first: 20 days at 5°F for pieces up to 6 inches thick.
Nothing Wasted
Sausage making turns trim and fat into some of the best food on the homestead. Start with a simple fresh breakfast or Italian sausage, then move on to smoked links — and to salami once you have a pH meter, an accurate scale and a curing chamber.