How to make sausages Part 3

So you've bought a kilo of (minced) pork, it saves time if you can get the butcher to mince it once for you. Now you make up the secret recipe. There are loads of recipies available in THE BOOK or on d'Internet. A handy thing to have is a small weighing scales, the type favoured by anorexics and drug dealers. I got a digital one that measures in tenths of grammes. It's useful for weighing out spice, herb, salt and rusk. It's a good idea to make a note of what and how much you put in to a batch, this way you can repeat the success or learn from the mistake. By the way, you eat your mistakes. Useful guidelines are up to 15% of rusk, I use 10%, and less than 3% salt, so for example for a 1K. batch I'd use 100g. of rusk and 20g. of salt. Mix it all up and put it in the fridge to chill, you could also put the mincing part of the machine in the fridge too as the whole process works much better when everything is chilled. Crack a beer and chill for an hour or so. The skin should be soaking in water. Make sausages. Interesting tip; though I've never tried it, you don't need loads of machinery, you can actually stuff a sausage by using a piping bag, the thing your mother used to put dainty floral arrangements on birthday cakes. There's only one way to do it and that's jumping off the top board in Blackrock baths without looking down. Fresh sausages will keep for up to 5 days but it's always a good idea to freeze a few for a rainy day or if you want to impress members of the opposite sex with your handy work, assuming that your patois, chocolates and dubious choice of lighting and/or music are going nowhere.