Pork and Cheddar Sausages

Prep time: 20 minutes, plus 3 to 4 hours to chill meat, soak casings, and rest sausage

Cook time: 10 minutes

Yield: 12 sausages (1 per serving)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2½ pounds pork butt
• ½ pound pork fat
• ½ cup coconut vinegar
• 6 feet medium hog casings
• ⅓ cup ice-cold beef or chicken bone broth, homemade (here) or store-bought
• 2 cups finely diced sharp cheddar cheese
• ¼ cup chopped green onions or 2 tablespoons dried chives
• Cloves squeezed from 1 head roasted garlic, or 2
• cloves raw garlic, smashed to paste
• 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon lard or coconut oil, for the pan
• Keto dipping sauce(s) of choice, such as stoneground mustard, for serving (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the pork butt and fat into 1-inch cubes and spread them out on the lined baking sheet. Freeze for 1 hour.
2. After the meat and fat have been in the freezer for 30 minutes, fill a large bowl with the coconut vinegar and 2 quarts of water. Place the casings in the liquid to soak for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the pork meat and fat from the freezer and grind it using the coarse disk of a meat grinder (I use my KitchenAid food grinder attachment). In a large bowl, place the ground pork butt and fat, broth, cheese, green onions, garlic, and salt; combine well using your hands. Cook up a small dab of the sausage mixture in a skillet over medium heat; taste the cooked sausage and add more salt to the raw sausage mixture, if desired. Place the bowl of sausage in the freezer for 30 minutes to chill and firm up before stuffing the casings.
4. Load a sausage stuffer (I use my KitchenAid sausage stuffer attachment) with the presoaked casings and stuff the casings by pushing the sausage mixture through the attachment. Twist the sausages into links about 5 inches in length. Refrigerate the sausages for a few hours to allow the flavors to meld. Cook them within 3 days.
5. To cook the sausages, melt 1 tablespoon of lard or coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Poke a few small holes in each sausage link. Sauté the sausages for 10 minutes or until their internal temperature reaches 160°F. Serve with keto dipping sauce, if desired. Once cooked, the sausages will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. They can also be frozen for up to a month.

TIPS:

• Make a double batch of these sausages and freeze them for easy meals.
• Liquid is needed to bind protein to fat; the more liquid you add, the more fat you can add—to a point.
  For great flavor and nutrients, I suggest using homemade bone broth as the liquid. However, goodquality store-bought broth will work, too.
• Use cold meat and fat when making sausage. Cold meat won’t turn mushy. Commercial sausage makers often add dry ice to the meat to keep it cold, but there’s no need to go to that extreme. After cubing the meat, either place the cubes in the freezer for an hour, as directed, or place them in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight before grinding. After grinding and mixing the meat with the other ingredients, I place the bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes so that the meat mixture stays cold while stuffing.
• If the sausage pops out of the casing when you bite into it, you cooked it too fast and at too high a temperature.