Homemade Italian Sausage without Casings

This homemade Italian sausage without casings recipe is easy to make and tastes delicious. Making your own sausage gives you control over what goes in it. These sausages are spicy and bold and great to grill this summer. They are also low carb with only 0.4g net carbs.

You might also like this ground turkey breakfast patties recipe.

We lived in England for a year and it was one of the best experiences of my life. One thing that I remember eating there was homemade sausage. Our first trip to a butcher resulted in a handful of free homemade sausages and we were hooked. Some places had all kinds of sausages and that is something that I had been wanting to try for years.

So this is my first batch and it was a success. I started with these homemade Italian sausages and it was so easy! I didn’t use casings because I’m not ready for that and may never be ready for that.

However If your family likes this type of sausage you should try making your own so you can have total control over the ingredients and you can make all kinds of flavors! 

Making sausage with a meat grinder attachment for the mixer.

I don’t have a stand alone meat or food grinder but I did find this Kitchen Aid food grinder attachment. All you have to do is just hook onto the mixer and it does all the hard work. 

Kitchen Aid also makes a sausage stuffer attachment but I’m not ready to use casing hence this post. But if you are, go check it out.

Recipe ingredients I used.

Below you can see the simple ingredients I used for this recipe. I used a pork butt roast because I wanted a fattier pork to add more flavor. You do not want to use a lean pork roast because it will be very dry.

The spices I used to make it an Italian sausage was fresh garlic cloves, fennel seeds, salt, black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, Italian spices seasoning and crushed red pepper flakes. Note if you want a sweet sausage just eliminate the chili pepper flakes and cayenne.

How to make homemade sausages without casings.

1. First cover the baking try with plastic wrap. Then cut up the pork roast into large pieces and place on a baking tray and place in the freezer for 1 hour. It will help you grind the meat if it’s a little frozen.
2. Next place pieces of cold meat through the grinder and place the ground pork onto the plastic wrap covered baking tray. Spread it out all over the baking sheet.
3. In a small bowl add all the spices and mix well. Then take the bowl and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the ground pork. Also add the crushed garlic. Using your hands try to mix the spices into the meat but try not to overwork the meat.
4. Form the sausage mixture into large sausage links and place on a plate. Continue until you’ve used all of the meat mixture.

Store sausages in an airtight container. Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.

Now you can use the sausage any way you want. You can grill them, cook them in the slow cooker, add them to recipes or whatever you want.

I wanted to grill these sausages but I needed them to stay together on the grill. To help keep them together start by cooking them on the stove and essential parboiling them first. Here’s how.

How to grill or cook sausage without casings.

1. Heat up a large saute pan to medium heat. Fill with water and when it’s simmering, add the finished sausage and cook for about 1 minute on each side. Try to keep them separated when you do this. (see photo above)
2. Now you can grill, pan fry or cook them any way you want. I grilled them and then added a good sauce. If you decide to grill them, just do it for about 4 minutes per side. Cooking time may vary.

Some sausage making secrets I learned.

• You need to parboil these if you want to eat them in link form. If you are cutting them up to use them in soup for instance you do not have to parboil them first.
• Use a fatty meat like a pork shoulder or pork butt. If you use a lean meat you have also add some fattier meat.
• Cut your meat into chunks and lay on a cookie sheet with plastic wrap. Freeze for 1 hour to help you grind it.
• Use the same cookie sheet to let the ground meat fall onto and spread it out a bit to mix in the spices. It’s easier than a big bowl to get it all mixed  well.
• Take a bit of the sausage and pan fry it to test if the spices are right. I ended up using more garlic and much more fennel. 

Recipe ideas of how to eat this fresh sausage.

These homemade sausages are low carb so they would work in many kinds of keto recipes. Here are few examples of keto recipes to try.

• pumpkin and kale or peppers with sausage soup
• cheese and sausage stuffed mushrooms
• wide zucchini noodles, butternut squash noodles or egg noodles with sausage
• cauliflower crust pizza with spinach and sausage

Here are few more recipes that are not low carb.

• stuffed banana pepper pasta
• lentil and sausage soup
• Primanti’s sliders
• Italian nachos or asiago flatbread
• slow cooker hot sausage, peppers and onions

Well if you have any interest in making your own hot sausage give this a try. It’s super easy with the grinder and it lets you have total control over what goes in your sausage. The nutritional information for 1 homemade Italian sausage is:

99 cals / 4.2g fat / 0.7g carb / 0.3g fiber / 13.7g protein = 0.4g net carbs

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Homemade Italian Sausage without Casings

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

This homemade Italian sausage recipe without casings is easy to make and tastes delicious. Making your own sausage gives you control over what goes in it. These sausages are spicy and bold and great to grill this summer.

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Ingredients

• 2 pounds pork shoulder cut into chunks
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• t teaspoon Italian seasonings
• t teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon pepper flakes
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds

Instructions

1. To make the raw sausages: Cut the pork into chunks and lay on a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap. Set into the freezer for 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile add all the seasonings to a bowl and mix well.
3. Take the chunks and feed the cold meat through the grinder and let the meat fall onto the plastic wrapped baking sheet. Loosely spread the ground meat evenly and sprinkle the spices and crushed garlic evenly over the meat.
4. Use your hands to mix the spices into the meat well. Form the spiced meat into a sausage shape.

You need to parboil these if you want to use them in link form. If you are cutting them up to use them in soup for instance you do not have to parboil them first.

5. To cook or grill the sausages: Get a large saute pan half filled with simmering water and place the sausages into the water. Let cook for only 1 minute on each side. This parboils them so they will stay together when you grill them.
6. Take out of the water and grill until done to your liking. This should only take about 4 minutes per side. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

Notes

The nutritional information for 1 sausage is: 99 cals / 4.2g fat / 0.7g carb / 0.3g fiber / 13.7g protein = 0.4g net carbs

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 piece
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 99 caloriesUnsaturated Fat: 0g