SPANISH SAUSAGE
is made by using one-third each leaf lard, lean and fat pork, first thoroughly boiling and chopping fine the meat. Add to this the leaf lard previously chopped moderately fine, mix well and add a little blood to improve the color and moisten the whole. This sausage is to be placed in large casings and tied in links eight to twelve inches long. In an old recipe for Spanish sausage seasoning it is made of seven pounds ground white pepper, six ounces ground nutmeg, eight ounces ground pimento or allspice and a sprinkling of bruised garlic.
ANOTHER SAUSAGE SEASONING.
To five pounds salt add two pounds best ground white pepper, three ounces ground mace, or an equal quantity of nutmeg, four ounces ground coriander seed, two ounces powdered cayenne pepper and mix thoroughly.
ADMIXTURE OF BREAD.
Very often concerns which manufacture sausage on a large scale add considerable quantities of bread. This increases the weight at low cost, thus cheapening the finished product, and is also said to aid in keeping qualities. While this is no doubt thoroughly wholesome, it is not in vogue by our most successful farmers who have long made a business of preparing home-cured sausage. Bread used for sausages should have the crust removed, should be well soaked in cold water for some time before required, then pressed to remove the surplus moisture, and added gradually to the pork while being chopped. Some sausage manufacturers add 10 to 15 per cent in weight of crushed crackers instead of bread to sausage made during hot weather. This is to render the product firm and incidentally to increase the weight through thoroughly mixing the cracker crumbs or powder with an equal weight or more of water before adding to the meat.
SAUSAGE IN CASES.
Many prefer to pack in sausage casings, either home prepared or purchased of a dealer in packers’ supplies. Latest improved machines for rapidly filling the cases are admirably adapted to the work, and this can also be accomplished by a homemade device. Figure [15] shows a simple bench and lever arrangement to be used with the common sausage filler, which lightens the work so much that even a small boy can use it with ease, and any person can get up the whole apparatus at home with little or no expense. An inch thick pine board one foot wide and four and one-fourth feet long is fitted with four legs, two and one-half feet long, notched into its edges, with the feet spread outward to give firmness. Two oak standards eighteen inches high are set thirty-four inches apart, with a slot down the middle of each, for the admission of an oak lever eight feet long. The left upright has three or four holes, one above another, for the lever pin, as shown in the engraving. The tin filler is set into the bench nearer the left upright and projects below for receiving the skins. Above the filler is a follower fitting closely into it, and its top working very loosely in the lever to allow full play as it moves up and down. The engraving shows the parts and mode of working.
