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Homemade sausage is a great way to use less expensive cuts of meat to make something delicious, and homemade is best because you know exactly what went into it! We grew up eating homemade sausages and my Mother taught me how to make this classic Russian kolbasa (kielbasa).
This generations old sausage method combines ground and diced meats for a more rustic and hearty sausage. Watch the video tutorial on how to make homemade sausage and you will be a pro in no time!
Watch How to Make Homemade Sausage Video:
When making sausage, the more fat you can get in your meat, the better. If you are using a leaner beef or pork, add bacon so you don’t end up with a tough/dry sausage. It is absolutely key to have your meat very cold and grinder parts chilled. The process will be way easier if you take this advise, otherwise it can back up in the meat grinder and leave you frustrated and discouraged (been there, done that!).
Ingredients for Homemade Sausage (Kielbasa)
2 lbs pork with fat (1/4 diced, 3/4 ground)*
2 lbs well marbled beef (1/4 diced, 3/4 ground)*
6-12 oz bacon, optional – use if meats are leaner (can be frozen)
3 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp whole yellow mustard seed
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash or favorite salt free seasoning
1 cup ice cold water
2 natural hog casings (about 10-12 feet total)**
What you’ll need:
Sausage poker, optional but nice
Meat grinder with sausage attachment
Recipe Notes:
*I used boneless country style ribs. Any pork cut wth a lot of fat would work well.
*Use a well marbled beef with higher fat content. This beef bottom round was on the leaner side so I added the bacon.
**Casings can be purchased online or at your local butcher. Leftover salted casings can be resealed in their bag and stored in the refrigerator for many years.
How to Bake Homemade Sausage:
Line a large rimmed baking dish or roasting pan with parchment paper, trimming paper so it doesn’t hang over the edges. Arrange sausage over paper and bake in preheated oven at 350˚F for 1 hour. Drain off excess liquid. Flip the sausage over and broil 5 min. Flip sausage over again and broil additional 5 min or until browned.
How to Grill Sausages:
For Easter, my husband grilled the sausage and we put them in a deep roasting pan in a single layer, poured in 1/4″ deep of beer and sprinkled 1 tsp mustard seeds into the liquid. My husband placed the pans on the grill covered for 20 minutes over medium/high heat, flipping over halfway. Then he removed the pans and transferred the sausage directly over the grill to brown the outsides (5 min per side). The sausages were supremely juicy and delicious!
Print-Friendly Homemade Sausage Recipe:
How to Make Homemade Sausage (VIDEO Recipe)
Ingredients
Ingredients for Homemade Sausage (Kielbasa)
- 2 lbs pork with fat, 1/4 diced, 3/4 ground*
- 2 lbs well marbled beef, 1/4 diced, 3/4 ground*
- 6-12 oz bacon, optional - use if meats are leaner (can be frozen)
- 3 tsp sea salt
- 1 Tbsp whole yellow mustard seed
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash or favorite salt free seasoning
- 1 cup ice cold water
- 2 natural hog casings, about 10-12 feet total**
What You Will Need:
- Sausage poker, optional but nice
- Meat grinder with sausage attachment
Instructions
- Place meats on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and freeze 1 1/2 hours. Should be very firm, not frozen solid. Place all meat grinder parts in freezer and refrigerate mixing bowl at least 30 min prior to using.
- Rinse casing well to remove salt and run warm water all the way through the casing. Let casing soak in warm water (90˚F water) for at least 1 hour or until soft and slick. Keep casings in water until ready to use.
- Remove 1/3 of meat from the freezer, dice into 1/4 thick pieces with a sharp knife and transfer to your chilled mixing bowl. Chop remaining meat into 2" pieces so that it can easily go through the meat grinder. Set up your meat grinder (if using KitchenAid mixer, set to speed 4 using the large holes grinding plate) and grind meat into chilled bowl then grind bacon.
- Sprinkle seasonings over meat and toss by hand 30 seconds to distribute then add 1 cup water and mix meat by hand for 1 minute (or with paddle attachment on speed 1 for 1 minute), just until a light film forms on the outside of the bowl and the mixture binds to itself and can hold a patty shape. Cover and refrigerate your sausage mixture while you clean your grinder and set up your sausage maker attachment. Seasoning Tip: To test your meat for seasoning, form a small patty and saute it on a skillet to sample.
- Lightly oil the outside of your sausage tube attachment and thread 1 sausage casing over the tube leaving a 6" tail hanging off the end. Do not tie the end - you want the initial air that comes through to escape.
- Remove ground meat from refrigerator, set mixer to speed 4 and add meat into hopper, pushing down with the plunger and adding more as you go. Use one hand to stuff the meat through and one hand to guide the filled casings. Fill firmly but do not overstuff, especially if making sausage links. Take care not to let big gaps of air into the tube. If you get air bubbles - no problem - you can poke the sausage casing with sausage pricker as you go. Let the sausage come out in one long coil until about 6" of casing remains at the end then start with the new sausage casing.***
- Pinch, twist and spin to make small sausage links or coil the sausage for the classic kielbasa look. Tie off the ends or tie with kitchen string if desired. Prick with sausage poker about every 2 inches, especially where you see air pockets, to prevent the sausage from bursting. Sausage can be baked, grilled or sautéed right away or can be refrigerated or frozen for later. Keeps well in refrigerator for 3-5 days or frozen up to 3 months.
Notes
***If meat starts looking pink/pasty as it enters the casing tube, it's likely clogged and you should quickly clean your grinder before proceeding Grind the bacon last (if using) - this is less likely to occur if using well chilled meat.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Are you into sausage making? I’m kind of on a roll! It’s exciting once you start feeling like a sausage ninja. We have kielbasa in the fridge and freezer and I’m dreaming about what variety to make next. Please share your favorite flavors in a comment below – I would love to hear YOUR ideas!
Your ‘How to make sausage’ video & instructions was extremely well done. I’m a meathead from the 1960’s & 70’s, & I was ready to laugh- but I was impressed!
The only point I want to make is that natural casings are neither consistently tough nor tender. By putting them in a pre-heated oven or pan, you’re making them tough. To have the most tender possible natural casings, you must put them in the pan or oven, and only then turn on the heat. Again—Great job!
Hi Lee, thanks for sharing your tip! I’m glad you were impressed with the tutorial.
Hi Natasha, we are getting ready for our Orthodox Easter and trying to make your homemade sausage. Question, if you bake, for how many degrees you setting up the oven?
Thanks in advance for your recepies and help!
Hi Khrystyna, please see the “How to Bake Homemade Sausage” section in the recipe post “Line a large rimmed baking dish or roasting pan with parchment paper, trimming paper so it doesn’t hang over the edges. Arrange sausage over paper and bake in preheated oven at 350˚F for 1 hour. Drain off excess liquid. Flip the sausage over and broil 5 min. Flip sausage over again and broil additional 5 min or until browned.” I hope that helps.
If using casings, you might point out that if you put the sausage in a hot pan the casing will be tough. Start them in a cold pan. Also, pricking holes in the air pockets in the casing prevents melted fat from collecting in the air pocket.
Also, casings aren’t a must. Just make patties-or make long rolls & cut to order-skinless sausages. Freeze on a cookie sheet, then double wrap, with plastic food wrap, as many as you want in each package.
Thank you for sharing those tips with us, Lee!
Natasha, thank you for this creation, this was my first time trying to make homemade sausage. My nephew and I gave it a shot. I’m very impressed with the results. I did use ribeye for the beef portion that was the only difference. I could not wait to try. So the meat I cleaned out of the grinder & pipe I made a quick patty and pan fried it. OH MY! This recipe is absolutely heavenly. Now my options are endless and much healthier choices without all those preservative , nitrates etc. KUDOS…
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Hi Natasha,
I made the sasauge today and they turned out dry and yours has a pink color to it inside while mine turned all brown. I pricked the sausage casing everywhere (a lot) before putting in the oven because I didn’t want the casing to pop while baking. Could it be that all the juices came out through the holes or that one hour was to long to bake the sasauge for? The sausage tasted really good but dry
Hi Diana, I haven’t had that happen but that could more than likely be the culprit.
hi there ,try to simmer sausage in fry pan liquid just about ta cover 10 min is good slow simmer lid ajar ,not totally on ,den do what ever suits ya bake fry grill ,and I never poke holes but if ya have to just two one on side and across from that app. side but other end
Thank you Joseph
Hi there Diana did you make sausage again ??? did you see my comment on making in hot dog size casing ,,it makes a world of difference … and we serve with cabbage sauce with onion yellow and when cabbage is aldente add a can of drained kraut no salt should be added ,if the kraut is salty ,like to much for your taste and rinse then add to pot mix well simmer covered till all is tender ,,den plate wit boiled potatoes kielbasa mustard yellow and spoon of horse radish not da cream one
how about a potato filled one ?? would like that recipe
Thank you for that suggestion.
Hi Natasha, If ya can get the smaller casings hot dog size ,,make a rope sausage it changes dynamically with a more robust flavor oh a hot fire ,and I always par simmer in fry pan with h2o no beer dats ops but I want dat fresh sausage flavor ,,,lid ajar on pan and almost cover with h2o
Trying your recipe right now with a little bit of paprika and garlic added, oh and a splash of wine. I doubled the recipe because I had some meat to use. I see in the comments that nobody has tried smoking these, so that is what I’m doing as we speak. I can let you know how they turn out.
I look forward to your feedback Dave!!
Hello. My name is Gary and I was wondering about the Sausage recipe. I want to make some because it looks so good. Can the Sausage we cook in a smoker. Any tips on this would be great. Ty
Hi Gary! I don’t have any experience with smoking sausages so can’t make any recommendations. Let me know what you end up doing. I think, smoked sausage might even taste better than baked one
I have tried to make the sausage 3 times now cutting down the cooking time to 30 min at 350 deg. each time they have come out dry and over cook the 1st time we couldn’t even eat them, 2nd time cut to 45 min and they were eatable but were not that good I just did it a 3rd time and they are still dry and over cooked, very disappointed but still willing to try again. What am I doing wrong?
Fred
Hi Fred, it could be the fat content of the sausages – using a lean meat will cause sausage to be dry and overcook easier than a fattier meat, which is also why I add the bacon. Hope that helps!
fat content of the mince should be atleast 75 meat : 25 fat otherwise sausages will cook dry.
Depending on the thickness of the sausage, try 330F for 20 minutes 18/20 thickness and 2 minutes more for each additional thickness.
Hello, could I use ground meat bought from the store since I do not have a meat grinder?
Hi Ann, typically the ground meat sold in stores is processed more finely than the large holes of a meat grinder when done at home and for sausage, the less processed the better so it doesn’t clog up and turn pasty while using the sausage stuffer attachment. I think you could make it work but maybe do slightly more diced meat and slightly less of the ground meat and make sure that store-bought ground meat is really well chilled before using it in the recipe.
Thank you for the reply!
You’re welcome!
Hello Natasha,
Did you try to smoke those? I usually smoke beef in my smoker at 250F. Will this temperature work for the sausages? Let’s say, for 2 hrs?
Hi Inna, I don’t have any experience with smoking sausages so can’t make any recommendations. Let me know what you end up doing. I think, smoked sausage might even taste better than baked one 😀
Hi Natasha I made the sausages few days ago, turned out fantastic, but for some reason casings popped while baking do you know why that happened?
P.S I poked sausages prior baking.
Thank you.
Hi Tatyana, sometimes that can happen if the sausage is overstuffed or if there is an air pocket in the sausage that is missed with poking.
Hi Natasha,
I’ve been looking for a high quality meat grinder for my dad. Where did you get yours/what brand is it? Love your videos 😁
Hi Melissa, I use the Kitchenaid attachment meat grinder. I have purchased, tested (didn’t like it) and returned the best and most expensive one on Amazon and went back to the KitchenAid one. Thank you for the compliment! I’m so glad you enjoy our videos 🙂
Hey Natasha! 🙂 where do you buy your sausage casings? I can’t seem to find them in any store..
Hi Katya, Casings can be purchased online (I have a link in the post above) or at your local butcher or meat shop. Leftover salted casings can be resealed in their bag and stored in the refrigerator for many years.
Rather than put into casings, could I just freeze the meat for patties, or meat load and etc.
Jane, yes that would work 😬
Natasha,
I love your recipes! But why are you referring to many of your dishes as Russian when they could be both Russian and Ukrainian?
Hi Anya, it is only for simplicity since many Recipes are similar in different regions and one could also call this Moldavian, Belarusian, Georgian, etc. I guess it’s most accurate to say “Slavic” 🙂
Dear Natasha: can I use some olive oil instead of direct fat as in your recipe? I’m from Latino – Asian roots and have some reticence using fat as such. Thanks.
For the best taste I would not recommend using olive oil but if you test with olive oil, let me know how it works out.
Rendered duck fat?
yo Ramon since when does a latino not use pork fat. chicharron lard common ????
looks delicious. by the way near the christmas season you should make a video of how to make a gingerbread house
They are so good! I will keep your suggestion in mind!
Hi Natasha will you post other sausage recipes for us to make or is that all
Hi Andrei, It will probably be some time before I get to another variation (My list of recipes to make is quite long at the moment!). I will definitely keep it in mind and thank you for the request 🙂
Dear Natasha,
We are on a dairy farm in northern Sweden just a few hours from the Arctic Circle. After watching your video, we want to make the sausage (we have all the meat on the farm) but we have a Bosch mixer with the meat grinder attachment and sausage making accessories. How do we know what size die to use to get the same look on the inside of the sausage that we are seeing in the video? We have tried to do this in the past but it comes out too coarse.
Thanks a million for your site!
Hi Lorayne, for sausage, the courser, the better. I am not familiar with that meat grinder but I would suggest using the disk with the larger holes for a courser grind. We us the disk with the larger holes from the Kitchenaid grinder.