Lithuanian Kielbasa

 This has been a great idea, cooking thru this cookbook...in great part because I have tried things I've never tried before, and have fallen in love with new-to-me foods. 

Sure, I've had sausage before. But fats don't agree with me much, so I try to limit sausage in my diet. Truth is, I read this recipe and was somewhat intrigued and somewhat intimidated. I wasn't sure I'd be able to make sausage "from scratch." And what if it was too fatty for me?

My first stumbling block was that we did not own a meat grinder. So I tried borrowing one. Not much luck. Was loaned one, but it was too rusty. By this time, the Resident Archaeologist was intrigued, and headed out to find one. They are just not that easy to find (the hand crank kind). But he managed to find one, and called it an early Christmas present for us. He even found sausage casings, which it turns out are shelf stable so they just hang on the rack at the store.

The grinder attaches easily to the counter, so we were quickly in business, cranking out sausages. We did an initial grind, then I mixed in the onions and garlic (I used the amount of onions called for in the recipe, but Way More garlic, because we love garlic). Also added plenty of salt and pepper. Then we did the second grind, with the sausage attachment. It was like magic, to watch the sausage take shape and coil on the platter (see picture). We made a few links to give to a neighbor, and boiled the rest for supper (we only made about 2 pounds of sausage, not the full recipe in the cookbook). I think the key to having a less-fatty sausage involves boiling, as some of the fat melts out as it boils, and you skim it off. 

We planned a simple pasta with marinara sauce and sausage for supper. Oh. my. heavens. For the first sausage we've ever made, it turned out terrific! Great garlic flavor. Not too strong. I will say that buying sausage ready-made has its benefits. This was time-consuming. But we feel that now that we've tried it, we probably could be more efficient, time-wise, as we become more experienced. The pork butt was less than a dollar a pound, so the cost was pretty much our time invested. You'll notice I say "we." To operate the grinder and tend to the sausage link coming out, and stuff the meat into the grinder, it really takes two people.

We are imagining all kinds of different sausages to make, now. Including vegan. We might even make a road trip out to our son-in-law's parents' home next summer, if all is safe by then, for their annual Sausage Fest. And bring some of our homemade sausage! So glad to have this new skill, sausage-making! Wish I could thank Cynthia Snow (contributor of recipe) personally, whose grandmother made this sausage at the holidays. With this new skill, we look forward to hours of fun in the kitchen, and many, many meals with great sausage!