Fresh Sausage 101

Resourceful hunters, butchers, and cooks have been piecing together and preserving scraps of meat and fat as sausage for thousands of years. The process, which has roots in almost every cuisine around the world, came about as a simple and effective way to stretch valuable protein, and the transformation of those ingredients into a juicy, deeply seasoned product is pure culinary alchemy.

These days, most sausage production is done by professionals who have the expertise and equipment to stuff, dry, smoke, and/or ferment the meat. But fresh bulk sausage is much simpler: It’s nothing more than salted, seasoned meat that you grind and vigorously mix, and anyone with a meat grinder or food processor, a solid grasp of the fundamentals, and a reliable formula can churn out a great batch. Once you’ve mastered the core technique, you can flavor sausage any way you like, and since it’s easy to portion into small batches and freezes well, you can keep it on hand for countless applications: breakfast patties; frittatas; ragus; and pastas such as my all-time favorite, orecchiette