In the 1800s, electric refrigeration was not yet available. People who raised pork often made their own sausage, which could be preserved for several months in a smokehouse or cellar.

I like sausage, especially if highly seasoned, and I can often find homemade sausage at Farmers’ Markets. 

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS:

TO MAKE SAUSAGES
A common fault is that the meat is not chopped enough. It should be chopped very fine. When ready for the seasoning, put in water just cold enough to enable you to mix the ingredients equally, but be careful not to use more than is necessary for this purpose.

SAUSAGE-MEAT
To fifteen pounds of the lean of fresh pork, allow five pounds of the fat. Having removed the skin, sinews, and gristle, chop both the fat and lean as fine as possible, and mix them well together. Rub to a powder sufficient sage-leaves to make four ounces when done. Mix the sage with two ounces of fine salt, two ounces of brown sugar, an ounce of powdered black pepper, and one-fourth ounce of cayenne. Add this seasoning to the chopped pork, and mix it thoroughly. The fat that exudes from the sausage-cakes, while frying, will be sufficient to cook them in.

COUNTRY PORK SAUSAGE
To six pounds lean fresh pork and three pounds of chine fat,* add three tablespoons of salt, two of black pepper, four tablespoons of pounded and sifted sage, and two of summer savory. A little saltpeter* tends to preserve them. Chop the lean and fat pork finely, mix the seasoning in with your hands, and taste to see that it has the right flavor. Many like spices added to the seasoning—cloves, mace, and nutmeg. This is a matter of taste.

*chine – a cut of meat along the backbone.
*saltpeter – potassium nitrate, an early food preservative, but now rarely used.

BOLOGNA SAUSAGE
Take ten pounds of beef, and four pounds of pork. Two-thirds of the meat should be lean, and only one third fat. Chop it very fine, and mix it well together. Then season it with six ounces of fine salt, one ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of cayenne, one tablespoon of powdered cloves, and one clove of garlic minced very fine.

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WAYS TO STORE SAUSAGE

Sausage in Jars ~ Some prefer to pack the meat down hard in jars, pouring enough melted lard over it to cover the top. Set the jar in a cool dry place.

When wanted for use, make some of it into small flat cakes and dredge them with flour. Fry them well in butter or dripping over rather a slow fire till they are well browned on both sides and thoroughly done. Sausages are seldom eaten except at breakfast.

The fat that exudes from the sausage fat may be used for gingerbread, cookies, poultry stuffing, and also for frying potatoes and other vegetables.

Sausage in Cloth ~ This is done by making a long bag of strong cotton cloth of such a size that when filled, it will be as large round as a common half pint mug. It should be crowded full and each end tied up. If you have not a sausage-filler, it can be filled with the hand. Sew up only a quarter of a yard, then fill it tight, then sew another quarter, and fill it, and so on until you reach the end. When the meat is to be used, open one end, rip up the seam a little way, and cut off slices rather more than an inch thick, and fry them. It may be kept good from December to March, in a cold, dry place.

Sausage in Skins (Intestines) ~ Have ready some large skins nicely cleaned and prepared, (they should be beef-skins, but pork will do) and wash them in salt and vinegar. Fill them with the above mixture and secure the ends by tying them with packthread or fine twine. Make a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear up an egg. Put the sausages into it, and let them lie for three weeks, turning them daily. Then take them out, wipe them dry, hang them up and smoke them. Before you put them away, rub them all over with sweet oil*. Keep them in ashes. That of vine-twigs is best for them. You may fry them or not before you eat them.

*sweet oil – olive oil.

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WAYS TO COOK SAUSAGE

To Fry Case Sausages ~ Put a small piece of lard or butter into the frying pan. Prick the sausages with a fork and lay them in the melted grease. Keep moving them about, turning them frequently to prevent bursting. In ten or twelve minutes, they will be sufficiently browned and cooked.

Another sure way to prevent the cases from bursting is to cover them with cold water and let it come to the boiling point. Pour off the water and fry them.

Or you can put them in a baking pan in the oven, turning them once or twice. In this way you avoid all smoke and disagreeable odor. A pound will cook brown in ten minutes in a hot oven.

Stewed Sausages ~ First, prick your sausages well all over with a fork and soak them in very hot water for two or three minutes to swell them out. Next, roll them in flour and fry them brown without overdoing them, as that renders them dry and spoils them.

When the sausages are done and put on a plate, fry some slices of bread and put these on a dish. Then put the sausages on the fried bread, and shake a spoonful of flour in the pan. Add a tablespoon of chopped mixed pickles, a gill* of water, and a little pepper and salt. Give this gravy a boil up, and pour it over the sausages.

*gill –  four ounces in the U.S. and five ounces in the U.K.

Smothered Sausages ~ Prick sausages done up in skins in fifteen or twenty places with a large needle. Put them in a clean frying pan and add half a teacup of hot water. Roll the sausages over in this several times and cover close.

Set the pan where the water will bubble slowly and cook for ten minutes. Then lift the cover and roll the sausages over again two or three times, to wet them thoroughly, leaving them with the sides up that used to be down.

Cover again and cook ten minutes longer. Turn them twice more at intervals of five minutes, cover, and let them steam four minutes before taking them up. They will be plump, whole, tender, and well-done, with the bottom of the pan almost dry.

Sausage Rolls ~ Prepare a good pie crust, not too rich. Roll out half an inch thick, cut into strips, and roll a small sausage in each strip. Put the rolls into a baking pan and bake for one-half or three-fourths of an hour.

Frankfurters ~ Drop the sausages into boiling water and boil slowly until they float. Drain, and rub with a mixture of butter, lemon juice, and made-mustard*, heated very hot.

*made-mustard or prepared mustard – made from mustard seeds and/or powder.

Sausage Dumpling ~ Make a good paste in the proportion of three mashed potatoes, and one-fourth pound of finely minced suet* to a quart of flour. Roll it out into a thick sheet. Fill it with the best home-made sausage meat. Lay the sausage meat in an even heap on the sheet of dough, and close it up so as to form a large round dumpling.

Dip a square cloth in boiling water, shake it out, dredge it with flour, and tie the dumpling in it, leaving room for it to swell. Put it into a pot of boiling water, and keep it boiling hard till thoroughly done. Do not turn it out till immediately before it goes to table. It requires no sauce but a little cold butter. It may also be made into several small dumplings.

*suet – the hard white fat on the kidneys and loins of cattle, sheep, and other animals, used to make foods including puddings, pastry, and mincemeat.

photo credit 

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Have You Ever Had Homemade Sausage? Please Leave a Comment Below.

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VINTAGE COOKING from the 1800s ~ PORK
by Angela A Johnson

Journey back into the 1800s and discover how people prepared, cooked, and preserved pork, making use of the whole animal. With no electrical refrigeration or modern conveniences, it was a time of thriftiness, resourcefulness, and “making do.”

Recipes Include Pig Feet Relish, German Roast Pork, Boiled Bacon and Cabbages, Bologna Sausage, Pork Apple Pot-Pie, Pork and Peas Pudding, Pork Stew, Baked Pork and Beans, Italian Pork and more.

Available from these online Retailers:

Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Scribd, 24 Symbols,  Playster, Angues & Robertson, Mondadori Store, and more.

Also available as  Regular Print and Large Print on Amazon.

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