Sausage Making Gift Ideas Guide – Christmas 2024
Not sure what to get your meat aficionado for Christmas this year? Here is my 2024 gift giving guide for the aspiring sausage maker. This includes everything – and more – that any wannabe sausage making enthusiast needs to start cranking out sausage of all kinds!
Meat Processing
LEM Electric Meat Grinder
It all starts with grinding your fresh meat, and nothing beats an electric meat grinder for the job. LEM is the most well-known brand in the business, and their 575 Watt electric grinder is perfect for the casual meat enthusiast.
Stainless Steel Hotel Pans
These durable and extremely-washable metal bins are the perfect vessel to receive your ground meat, and mix up your meat/seasoning blend. Depending on the batch, I’ll use either a full-size or half-size hotel pan.
20lb Manual Meat Mixer
While combining your meat mixture by hand works perfectly well, a mechanical meat mixer will kick your sausage production up a serious notch. If you’re making frequent or large batches, this thing is an absolute hand-saver.
Sausage Making
7lb Vertical Sausage Stuffing Machine
This is where the magic happens, where you turn your ground meat into beautiful sausage links. This highly-rated and durable stuffer will make exceptionally quick work out of your sausage meat. It works with any casing type or size.
Sausage Pricker
This handy little tool pokes tiny holes into your sausage casing to make sure there is no trapped air. This contributes to a better bind, and reduces the chance of a split or blowout while cooking.
Sausage Casings
There are many options when it comes to casings, depending on what kind of sausage you are making. Here are the 4 types of casings that I most commonly use:
| Natural Hog Casings The perfect casing for thick sausages like bratwurst and Italian sausage.  | Natural Sheep Casings These narrower casings are what you use for breakfast links or natural casing hot dogs.  |
| Collagen Casings For those who prefer not to use natural sheep casings, these collagen casings are great for thin sausages like breakfast links and snack sticks.  | Cellulose Casings This is what you use to make a “skinless” hot dog. The inedible cellulose casing gets peeled off after stuffing and cooking.  |
Sausage-Making Recipe Book
100 easy, simple, and delicious homemade sausage recipes. Great for beginners, experts, and anyone in-between.
Seasoning & Ingredients
Precision Kitchen Scale
If you will be creating your own seasoning blends – particularly if you will be using curing powder – a precision kitchen scale is a must-have. This is the exact multi-function scale that I use, and it measures down to 1/10 of a gram.
Milk Powder
Many sausage recipes call for some kind of a binder, and I am a big fan of using this milk powder. A binder is a dry ingredient that helps bind the fat, water, and seasonings together to improve sausage texture and moisture retention.
Pink Curing Salt (Prague Powder #1)
Some sausages are “fresh”, meaning they don’t require curing salts. Other sausages are “cured”, which do require a curing agent. The most common cure is called Prague Powder #1, or pink curing salt (which is definitely not the same thing as that Himalayan pink salt some people use).
Seasoning Mixes
Pre-made seasoning mixes are terrific for beginners or anyone who doesn’t feel like screwing around with buying and combining a million different spices. Here are some seasoning mixes for a few of the most common sausage recipes.
Breakfast Sausage Seasoning | Bratwurst Seasoning |
Sweet Italian Sausage Seasoning | Polish Sausage Seasoning |
Freezing & Preserving
Stainless Steel Sheet Pans
You’ve got a ton of sausage and now you need to store a bunch of it in the freezer. Lay them out on some sheet pans and flash-freeze to get them firmed up.
FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer
After your sausages are good and firm from flash-freezing, vacuum sealing them with a FoodSaver is the absolute superior method for freezer storage. Keep your hard-earned sausages fresh, and free from freezer-burn for months to come.
