I've recently acquired a sausage maker so I can make my own sausages with as little carby filler as possible. Can anyone give me pointers to finding cheap pork cuts (or lamb or beef) to use in sausage making? Names of cuts, supermarkets/butchers to check, what to ask for etc? I'm hoping the local paleo-type men might have a bit of advice here.

I realise making my own will cost more than buying them from Woolies since theirs are probably full of their cheapest left-over stuff. But I'd still like to make mine as economically as possible. I'm all set for natural hog casings from my local butcher. I have no idea if he's over charging me but I don't really care since it's hard enough to find a place to buy them at all!

It's going to take some experimenting to find out what I do/don't need as filler. I've been considering using a little whey protein concentrate but I have no idea how it will turn out. It will be fun trying, though!

All sausage-making advice appreciated!

Em

Hi Emma, I can't help you with locations of cheap pork cuts, but I found this site about sausage making recently that might help: SausageMania.

You might ask Karen (in Karen's corner) about low carb sausage fillers.

Cheers,

Roz

'....the local paleo type men.....'
Grunt, snarl....
What a hilarious image this invokes. Seriously Em, I'm fascinated by your sausage making adventure. Coles and Woolworths both now have an extensive range of gourmet sausages, some of which are very low carb, but they are all WAY too salty. It's a great L.C idea to make your own. The WPI should work well. Wheat protein isolate would probably also have a binding effect. But wouldn't eggs do the same? A while ago I asked at the local grass fed butcher about getting fat cheap for my Atkins dog and cat. He gives me a bucket of grass fed beef fat offcuts every month for a $2 scratchit . I use heaps of it myself for cooking. Much cheaper than ghee and even more heat stable. Maybe you could use it in the sausage making. BTW, have you tried the Rosella diabetic ketchup. It's sweetened with saccharin, so you'll have to trust the latest info that it is at least as safe as sucralose.

I'm so pleased I visit these forums. I am going to put this on my shopping list. Thanks for mentioning that.

Merry Christmas.

Ausgirl

There's a glut of pork at the moment, and it's worthwhile looking in at BI LO regularly. They often have shoulder pork roasting pieces for less than $4 a kilo. Woolies meat can be a bit of a mystery, but BI LO are very professional butchers - at our local branch you can look over the meat counter and see the happy butchers at work in their traditional garb , with whole (or at least halved) pigs, cows, sheep etc hanging off hooks and being swiftly turned into chops and stuff. The offcuts are tossed into a big bin (these guys would make great darts players as their aim is perfect!) and that bin has a distinct "im the sausage bin" look about it.

Shoulder pork has a fair amount of bone and skin, but if you arm yourself with a really sharp, small knife of the Wiltshire Stay Sharp variety you should get plenty of meat off. For a bit more (currently $4.95 a kilo), leg roast is great for obtaining lots of good meat if you get the large flat piece from the top of the leg. There's hardly any bone, just remove the skin and cube what is left to feed into your sausage-o-matic.

Cheers
Michael.

I'll stop in at our local bi lo today. I must admit I've never looked at their meats since I found their fruit/veg section not quite as fresh as I would have liked.

Thanks very much for the info, Michael!

No, I haven't! In fact I didn't even known it existed and I've been sad about not having tomato sauce quite a bit recently, with out nice new BBQ cooking at least half of our meals. I'll have a good look for it in Woolies and Bi Lo today.

The sausage-making was put on hold while I went to Sydney to look after my Mum (and I may be back there again soon) so I had to freeze the pork casings I got. The butcher suggested I freeze them if I couldn't get through them all in one go. But a website I was looking at (I think it was sausagemania) said never to freeze them. So, we'll see how they go. Hopefully the butcher knows best.

I also need to read up on salt again. Someone said to only used iodised salt, not sea salt as it imparts a strange taste. Well, we only have sea salt in this house at the moment so I'll have to check up on that.

Thanks for the encouragement on the WPI thing, part of me is confident that it will be a good binder, another part of me wonders why no-one else uses it. I'll be sure to let you know how it all goes! If it goes especially well, I'll start taking orders from the Brisbanites

Em

if you want low carb tomato sauce with sucralose, check out http://www.empowerfoods.com.au/products/lc_tomato.php
click on outlets to find where it is sold. you can also ask your health food shop to ship it in for you. or there are a couple of online sellers too, let me know if you need their details.