Low Salt Hot Italian Sausages
Hot Italian sausages can be made much more heart-healthy by eliminating the salt from the recipe.
Compensate for the reduced sodium by using slightly more hot pepper and fennel than you normally would.
One of the biggest advantages to home sausage making is that you have a chance to tweak ingredients to suit your tastes and health considerations.
That's really all I did to come up with this great hot Italian sausage recipe. My family likes it just as well as it's saltier cousins.
I promise, you won't miss the salt and you'll have a health conscious sausage you can be proud of.
- 5 pounds boned pork shoulder, 85% lean
- 3 tablespoons cracked fennel
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1 tablespoon fresh fine ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
- 3 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 cup ice water
- Trim the pork, cut it into 1 inch cubes and grind it through the coarse (1/4") plate of your meat grinder.
- Combine the spices in a small container and mix with the 1 cup of ice water.
- Pour the spice and water combination into the ground pork and mix thoroughly for at least 2 minutes. Use your hands for mixing to assure even distribution.
- Once the sausage is fully mixed, either stuff it into casings or make it into patties or bulk packages.
This sausage should be cooled as soon as it is done. It can be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Because it will not be cured and put into the smoker, I prefer to use
32-34mm collagen casings if I decide to stuff this recipe.
Collagen casings are the way to go for this reduced sodium recipe because natural casings are preserved in salt.
No matter how much you soak and rinse natural casings before stuffing, there will still be salt in natural casings.
That's not at all what you want to use for low sodium sausage.
