I’m slowly refining the Spicy Italian Sausage recipe from Charcuterie.

I love the spiciness of the toasted coriander seeds, balanced with the sweetness of the toasted fennel seeds (and just a hint of chilli, of course).

This batch is a special request for mum; unfortunately, the meat I’ve been given for this batch has been frozen, so it didn’t grind so well. I had to stop and clear the grinder a couple of times, but the overall consistency’s acceptable (just).

The flavour is great – noticeably spicy, but not overwhelming.

Changes this time include:

• Dried basil / oregano (just completely forgot to pick up fresh, and the herb garden’s not ready to harvest)
• Spices mixed by weight, pro rata for amount of pork used
• Marinating pork / fat strips in spices overnight
• Around 5% more fat than the usual recipe (mum adores fatty sausages)
• Aiming for a relatively moist sausage, to take the edge off the heat a bit

When the meat or connective tissue is too stringy, and gets wrapped around the blade, meat reaching the cutting surface / grill is torn, instead of cut. This results in mushy mince that, when cooked, resembles paper mache. When you first notice smear, stop the grinder, remove the grill, and remove any tissue wrapped around the blade.