Sausages – there is a huge assortment to buy in Portugal of various sausages from virtually every country in Europe; except for the English ‘banger’.  The Portuguese sausages are not too our taste – either being made of strange parts of the animal or with a much too smokey flavour or full of ‘gristle’.  Spanish sausages are best cold as chorizo, German wursts are dull and pre-packaged.  We have brought sausages over from the UK but the last lot, as high quality as you can get, tasted too salty and synthetic….  Time to try a new cooking skill – sausage making.

I ordered the hog skins from the UK (natural sausage skins) online and delivered direct to Portugal.  I have recently bought a Kenwood mincer which has a sausage filling attachment.  Then it was to the butcher for an entremeada de porco (belly of pork) – can’t beat Portuguese pork for quality and cost – Euros 7 for 2.5 kg.

This is how my first attempt turned out – not bad….

Firstly, coarsely mince the pork, then add the flavourings – I used salt, fresh sage, ground nutmeg, ground coriander, ground mace, freshly ground black pepper and oatmeal – and mix together well.  A good tip I found was to check the flavourings at this stage by frying a small patty – they can then be adjusted before it is too late.  Secondly, mince the pork and flavourings with a finer plate.  Set up the sausage skins on the sausage filler machine, put in the pork, turn on and fill the skin with one long sausage – it really was much easier than I expected!  Finally, pinch and twist to make sausages the size you like – mine were big…

And look, the sausage skins come with trays to wrap and freeze.  Or to start your own cottage industry and sell at the local farmers’ market?

The proof is in the tasting – they were delicious, the correct flavour but none of the saltiness or preservatives found in shop bought sausages – and I know where the meat came from.

Next stop, Amazon, to find a sausage recipe book and experiment!