Make sweet Italian sausage yourself – a delicious sausage stick change

Today I’m going to show you how to make a sweet Italian sausage yourself. It’s easy and super quick to make. 

The sweet italian sausage is very popular in the American region. It is a great change from the typical bratwurst and is perfect for a barbecue. It is suitable for beginners.

I have other bratwurst variations for you on my website. For example, how about a spinach feta bratwurst. 

 If you’re interested in more great bratwurst recipes, my recipe book “24 Bratwurst Recipes For A Perfect Barbecue Experience” is for you!

I also answered some general questions about making bratwurst in my post Making Bratwurst Yourself. Have a look there.

But now enough talking… 

Here you will find the complete sweet Italian sausage recipe as a video or to read through.

Have fun and good luck making it!

Sweet Italian sausage – What do you need to make it?

Ingredients for 1 Kg 

• 75 % pork shoulder (750g) 
• 25 % pork back fat (250g)

Spices per Kg of meat

• 18 g salt
• 6 g sugar
• 4 g fennel seeds
• 3 g black pepper 
• 3 g coriander
• 2,5 g paprika
• 1,5 g oregano
• 0,5 g nutmeg
• 25 g dry white wine

The equipment to make sweet italian sausage

Meat Grinder

You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.

Spice grinder / mortar

To grind your spices, it is best to use a spice mill. Alternatively, a mortar is also suitable. Or you can use already ground spices. I recommend grinding them yourself.

Natural casings / jars

The sweet Italian sausage is stuffed into natural casings. I recommend pork casing caliber 28/30.  

If you want to make sweet Italian sausage  without casings, you can use jars and boil down the mixture. 

Make sweet Italian sausage  – Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Cut the meat into pieces suitable for the grinder. You can vary the size depending on how big your meat grinder is.

2. Put the pieces of meat in the freezer for 1-2 hours to freeze. This will help you later with the grinding and ensure that the mixture does not get too warm.

3. Grind the spices to a fine powder. Optional: You can decide for yourself whether the fennel seeds should be ground or whole in the sausage. 

4. Now you can grind the meat. Depending on how coarse or fine you want your sausage, you can use different perforated discs. Honestly, this is a complete matter of taste. I use the finest perforated disc (3mm). 

5. Add the spices and the wine to the mixture and mix well for 3 – 5 minutes. The sausage meat should have a good binding. 

6. Fill the sausage meat into the casing. Important: Do not fill the casing too much, otherwise it will burst later during frying. I use the pork casing caliber 28/30.

7. Now it is turned off. You can decide for yourself how big your sausage should be. To do this, press the sausage to the desired length with two fingers on each hand and rotate it forward a few times. Then leave out one sausage length and repeat the process.

8. Your sweet Italian sausage is ready😄. Enjoy it. 

How long is the shelf life of the sweet Italian sausage?

The sweet Italian sausage can be kept raw in the refrigerator for about 1-2 days.

If you scald it directly after production at 75 degrees Celsius (167°F) for 25 minutes, it can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about a week.

Alternatively, you can freeze it raw or scalded, then it will keep for up to 6 months and will not lose any flavor.