Hog Wild Whole Hog: The Biggest. Sausage Party. Ever.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little. But it was really, really, crazy big! Here's the story.....

Soon after I had yet again upped my pig-buying quantities from 1/2 to 3/4 of a pig (my friend Ondine took the other quarter,) I received an offer from my rancher friend Mary (wingedspan@earthlink.net) that I somehow just couldn't refuse. I had recently made the run up to Bud's Cut and Wrap facility in Penngrove, CA to pick up a Prius load of meat: a whole young pig and three whole lambs - (one for me, one for my friend Rebecca, one for my friend Heidi) and had crammed my share into my freezer. The freezer already contained some grass-fed organic beef from Mike and Sally Gales of Chileno beef in Petaluma..... well, that freezer really was very full. Then my friend Ondine and I held a pork sausage-making party with some of our pig in December, and I blogged about it here. (I also held a lamb sausage-making party with my friend Heidi, but I haven't written that one up yet!)

So, after I sent the link to Mary about the pig sausage party, she wrote back to me: her three sows were "going out of business;" she was going to raise three new piglets to be the next Mamas. The sows were too big and old to sell to her usual subscribers for chops and hams, but perfect for an enormous sausage-making venture. She could sell them to a meat-broker, but she hated to have the girls traumatized, and it was just too much meat for her and her husband, Chris. (Their boar was also ready to be replaced, but she thought he was too stinky to offer to anybody else; they were going to eat him themselves.) Was I interested?

Wow. For days I vacillated; I mean, it was nuts to even think about it, wasn't it? After all, I had just bought most of a good-sized pig! On the other hand - what an opportunity! Finally, I thought; I'm going to check in with Ondine. If she thinks it's nuts, I'll know it really is. However, if she thinks we should go for it - then, game on!

A word about Ondine; honey, as hard as it is for me to admit - she's foodier than me. And chances are, she's foodier than you, too. And I just love the way she inspires me on to new heights of food fanaticism. Suddenly, food fantasies of mine go from being crazy to being brilliant in one conversation. There's no way on earth I would have done what I wound up doing if Ondine hadn't agreed to be my porcine co-conspirator, my soul-food sister.

So, obviously, what she said was "Yes! Let's do it!!!!"

Then ensued weeks of planning, discussion, and the like. How would we do it, where we would do it? Who should we invite? How many recipes, which ones to choose? What would our costs be, how much pork would we wind up with? (We received estimates that were all over the map - 150 pounds, 200 pounds, 300 pounds, 400 pounds, and in the end we didn't actually know how much there was until they were loading it into my friend Nina's station wagon; the final tally was on a slip of paper in one of multiple banana boxes full of ground pork in a walk-in freezer in Penngrove, and no, they wouldn't go into the freezer to check that piece of paper for me!)

There were some interesting twists and turns and drama along the way; we were under the impression that the pig wouldn't be ready for some weeks longer. Then came the word that it would be THAT week - we scrambled to finish our arrangements! Then came further complications; two pigs were despatched on that day, but one, (the pig formerly known as "Hanako") was found to have a serious internal injury; a ruptured bladder, probably suffered during birth. Unlike in the commercial meat industry, where that pig would most likely have been packaged up anyway, Mary couldn't in good conscience let anyone eat her; she was given a burial in a field. Ultimately, the other buyer kindly let us take all of "Rita" so that we could still hold our party. Instead, he will take the third remaining sow in the Fall. Thank you, kind stranger! Thank you, Mary!

So, what did we wind up with, and what did we do? It turns out that those big cardboard boxes held 300 pounds of ground pork, plus another fifty pounds or so of back fat. We had Bud's smoke 70 combined pounds of linguisa and Polish sausage, and friends bought shares of it. Several friends took shares of ground pork home to make sausage with later. And then 9 more friends - Nina and her twin sister Ann, Kim, Alison, Lisa, Brooks, Natalie, Ondine and Ruth, converged on my (not very big, old fashioned kitchen, which has literally 4 square feet of counter space!) on a Sunday to make 150 pounds of fresh sausage, using five different recipes, which I adapted to make in five pound increments. Phew. But in the end, everybody left with lots of absolutely delicious, top of the line, hand-made sausage. And maybe, just maybe, a little inspiration!


Here are our recipes, including the adjustments we made in seasonings at the party:

Italian-Style Sausage with Rosemary and Grappa

Adapted from Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork

5 pounds of medium to coarse ground pork, of which 20-25% is fat
4.5 tsp kosher salt
3.5 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 3/4 tsp fennel pollen or ground fennel seed
2 TB finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 TB + 2 tsp minced garlic
1 third cup dry white wine
1 TB plus 1 tsp grappa



New York Style Spicy Hot Italian Sausage

Adapted from Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book

5 pounds of medium to coarse ground pork, of which 20-20% is fat
3 TB + 1 tsp anise liqueur
3 TB + 1 tsp anise or fennel seeds
1 TB + 2 tsp minced garlic
1 TB + 2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 TB kosher salt
3.5 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2.5 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/3 cup water, as needed


Rancho Chorizo

Adapted from California Rancho Cooking
by Jacqueline Higuera McMahan


5 pounds of medium to coarse ground pork, of which 20-25% is fat
1/4 cup minced garlic
2.5 TB dried oregano
2.5 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds, crushed very fine
2.5 TB sea salt
3/4 cups New Mexico or California chile powder
1/2 cup plus 2 TB paprika
1 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
5 TB port wine


French-style Fresh Garlic Sausage
Adapted from various on-line recipes

5 pounds of medium to coarse ground pork, of which 20-25% is fat
1 cup dry white wine
5 tsp salt
2 TB minced garlic
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cayenne
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 TB ground sage
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg



Yankee Sage Breakfast Sausage
Adapted from Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book


5 pounds of medium to coarse ground pork, of which 20-25% is fat
3 TB ground dried sage
2 TB plus 1/2 tsp kosher salt
4.5 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 + 1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/4 + 1/8 tsp dried summer savory
1/4 + 1/8 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 + 1/8 tsp dried thyme
1/8 generously rounded tsp ground ginger
1 generous pinch ground cloves
1/3 cup water

A repeated note from me about fat content: commercial sausage contains from 30-50% fat. Don't submit to your internal Puritan's directive to use less than the 20-25% listed in these recipes! Most of the fat will cook out of the meat, where you can drain it away. If there is no fat, the other liquids will drain away and leave you with dry, tough, (well-seasoned) meat. Plus, if you have done the right thing, and purchased a good pig directly from a rancher instead of a cheap Con-Agra commodity pig, that fat is gooood eating, and much healthier for you than you might think. Follow this link to read more about why pig fat is a much maligned foodstuff, and about how my friend Mary raises her Duroc pigs: http://foodierthanthou.blogspot.com/2010/01/whole-hog-around-pig-in-80-ways.html

In all cases, combine all of the dry seasonings together in one small bowl, and mix well. Combine all of the wet seasonings (including garlic) in another small bowl or cup. Put the meat in a very big, very clean bowl, and sprinkle with all of the dry and wet ingredients. Using your hands, (we used disposable food service gloves on our very clean hands) mix until all is well incorporated. You want everything to be well-combined, but, as with pie-crust, not worked to the point where the fat is melting. When you have reached that point, fry up a little patty and make sure you like the way the seasoning is balanced; all ten of us tasted, discussed, and reached somewhat of a consensus on the seasonings. This is a living document! You can make changes! Bear in mind that the flavors will meld and improve in a couple of days.

When everything is as you wish, package it up in the increment size most useful to you; I like patties of about 1/4 pound each. Much as I hate to use plastic, I like to use "Press 'n Seal" to make my little portions; it is a self-sticking plastic wrap which can be easily sub-divided. Then I put it in a well-labeled, heavy zip-style bag to protect against freezer burn. Freeze what you aren't going to eat that night right away. Now you have big bucks in your food bank, perfect for the nights when you can't think what to make!