Diann
you wrote
The casings weren't straight out of a body!! Holy mackeral! Would not have coped with that! No, it came out of a big bucket thing and he kept yanking till he came to the end and there was all knots and stuff. Yuk! He said I had to soak them in water for a bit.
These are natural salted casings. For soaking etc. refer to link
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=318You wrote
I asked him what he made his sausages out of and he said he only used shoulder.
He�s in the business of selling sausages/snags and is obviously not going to tell you his recipe, shoulder will account for some of the �meat content� typically the rest will be hard pork back fat. Just make sure that your meat has enough fat content. You�re looking at approx. 25 % so that the sausages don�t turn out too dry (Pork Shoulder/Boston Butt is typically used for sausage making, and should be approximately the right fat content. Trim if excessive fat is present and add Pork Hard Back Fat if more is required).
you wrote
And no, smart mouth, I haven't lost the oven manual and I did follow your recipe.
I can guarantee that you can call me whatever you like, and I don�t care and won�t bite, born and raised in pubs in Whitechapel. However, there are moderators on this forum and some people are easily offended.
You wrote
Furthermore, I'll have you know that I probably have every manual from every appliance that I have ever owned (and I am the gadget queen, if not the sausage queen) but I took this place apart today and cannot for the life of me find the mincer manual. But it wasn't really a manual either. It was more a leaflet type number that I don't recall having any deep explanations. Have decided just to give it my best shot. How hard can it be?
Follow the instructions and it�s not too hard.
You lastly wrote
I've nearly blown myself to kingdom come with a pressure cooker and a few other assorted debacles and survived.
I take it that that was by following the manual?
good luck with the first batch. Look forward to hearing how they turn out
kind regards
Parson Snows