Ever since I can remember my dad’s side of the family would get together one weekend and we would make homemade sausage. It was a time for the whole family to come together.
This past weekend we gathered at my parents house in the Texas Hill Country to carry on the Schaffner tradition. We love going to visit them in the country because they live out of town on a couple of acres. They are surrounded by big tall oak trees and a lot of silence. Not to mention the house has a huge wrap around porch that you can sit and watch the deer in the early mornings or late evenings.

Cutting the many bags for sausage

Labeling the bags to keep track of month and year

Spices

Husband and brother in law hard at work

My dad

Weighing the meat before grinding

Shaun and I arrived late Friday night just in time to say our hellos and then off to bed to get a decent night of sleep. We awoke the next morning to a hot breakfast and a hot cup of coffee just to give us the fuel we needed for a full day of work. The guys had to trim and cut up the venison and pork meat, season the meat, grind it up, put it in casings (for link sausage) and smoke it. The girls cut and label each food saver package, split the meat into portions, saran wrap it, seal it in packages. The whole process for 216 pounds took a good day and a half to complete. You have to finish the link sausages the next day so that it has plenty of time to smoke.

Lots of meat

Meat going through two grinders

My favorite part – tasting the first batch

Wrapping in saran wrap before it goes into a food saver bag

We did smoked link sausage too

I hope you enjoyed the Schaffner homemade sausage tradition. We now have a very full refrigerator stocked to the brim.

ENJOY ~ Meagan