Sausage recipe

I tried out a new interpretation of Platina/ Martino's sausage last night. Platina copied Martino, which is why I mention both names. Both were writing about food in Italy in the mid to late 15th c.

The Art of Cooking, Maestro Martino of Como
Platina: On Right Pleasure and Good Health

"How to prepare king of meats with pork or young veal" : Martino
Take some lean meat trimmed of all its sinew, in other words, from the haunch, and some good pork fat or veal fat. Then take some good aged cheese and a bit of fatty cheese and some good spices and two or three eggs and take the necessary amount of salt; and carefully mix all these things together and make them yellow with saffron; and take some large pork intestines and clean well, making sure they are thin and that no fat has remained; and fill with the mixture and press into the intestines, making the sausages as long or short as you like, and they should be boiled within two days because after that they will no longer be as good. Nonetheless they can be conserved for fifteen or twenty days, or longer, if properly handled.

Sausages: Platina (Book VI #22)
Into well ground veal or pork fat mix grated cheese which is not only aged but rich, well ground spices, two or three eggs, beaten with a paddle, and as much salt as the batch requires, and saffron so as to make everything saffron colored. When they are mixed, put them in well washed intestine which has been drawn out exceedingly thin. Mot good unless they have hardened for two days, they require cookings in a pot. they can be kept, however, a fortnight or more, if you add more salt and spices or if you keep them in smoke.

My redaction.

Instead of the haunch (loin) I chose to use a shoulder cut. Most of this choice was based on the difference in cost/ pound (almost $2 less/ pound for the shoulder) but the other reason was that the last time I used loin I felt that the sausages were too dry and I wanted to use a more fatty cut. The shoulder had good marbeling and I carefully trimmed the sinew and bone chunks. I ended up with approx 10 pounds of ground pork and fat. I used a large screen on my grinder for first grind.

To this I added:
10 oz grated parmesan/ romano cheese
3 whole eggs
3 T salt
2 t fresh ground black pepper
3 T fennel seeds
3 T dried marjoram

I omitted the saffron, even though it was called for in each recipe, because I don't care for the taste. I fried up a small sample of the sausage to check to taste. This is a good way to check your batch so that you can add more spices/ salt until you are satisfied.

Once the ingredients were mixed in I ground everything a second time using a finer screen. The meat was stuffed into sheep's intestines. I use an electric grinder and stuffer for my sausage making. I shaped the sausages into lengths measuring the width of my palm and placed them in the refrigerator over night. I boiled them for 10 minutes the next day and will grill them prior to serving.

This was the first time I stuffed sausages on my own. I usually work with another person and was uncertain how it would go by myself, but it was ok once I got the hang of it. I had a small portion of sausage left over that I fried into patties for breakfast. It was heavenly!