Step 1

Dice the pork into cubes, about 1-inch, something that will easily fit in the feed tube of your meat grinder. I didn’t trim the roast I used. All the fat went in. Place the pork on a baking sheet pan. Spread it out, rather than piling it on top. Cut the bacon into 1-inch pieces and add a bacon layer on top of the cubed pork roast. Put the sheet pan in the freezer for 1 – 2 hours. You don’t want the meat to be completely frozen, but you do want it to be quite firm. This makes it easier to grind the fat and connective tissue; it’s less likely to get gunked up around the cutting blade. You could ask your butcher to grind the pork roast and bacon and skip this step.

Step 2

Soak the casings in warm water for 30 minutes to remove the salt. Drain the water and add fresh water to rinse again. Run water through the inside of each casing to be sure all the salt has been removed.

Step 3

Finely mince the garlic, or use a garlic press. Add it to a small bowl and add the sugar, salt, marjoram, and black pepper. Combine.

Step 4

Grind the meat using a 1/4 or 5/16-inch grinding plate (or the closest you have). Sprinkle in the garlic seasoning mixture on the ground meat. I put half in when I had ground half of the meat, and put the rest on top when I had finished.

Step 5

Stir the ground meat until the spices are well distributed and stir in the cold water until the meat comes together in a uniform texture. Almost like a pate. I use the paddle on my stand mixer for this step, but a wooden spoon and a lot of effort will do the same thing.

Step 6

Refrigerate the meat while you load the casing on the tube of your sausage stuffer. Fill the sausage stuffer with the meat mixture.

Step 7

Pull a couple of inches of casing off the tube and begin to process just until the mixture begins to enter the tube. Tie a knot at the end of the casing or tie it off with twine. Continue to carefully process, sliding the casing off as the meat mixture is extruded. This is a two-person job. When you’re within two inches of the end of the casing, stop the stuffer, slide the casing off, and knot the end. You now have a long tube of sausage. Shape it into links by gently pinching the tube every 6-7 inches and twisting. Each time you twist, go in the opposite direction, so you’re not untwisting the link you just made. Continue until the mixture has all been turned into links. There will be a little left in the sausage stuffer, which the cooks can fry up as a reward for their hard work.

Step 8

Let your sausage sit uncovered in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to dry out the casings. This step is less critical than with smoked sausage, but it does give the casing a nice texture.

Step 9

For sausage will keep in the fridge for only a day or two, so I recommend you vacuum seal and freeze for up to a year.