How to make sausages in five simple steps

1) Learn the basic ingredients
Whilst there are lots of different ingredients you can put in a sausage, it is possible to make skinless sausages with nothing more than some meat, breadcrumbs and salt. The word ‘sausage’ actually means salted and it this salt which is the main preservative for the food.

2) Make a simple sausage skin
It is possible to make a sausage skin, just by rolling out the ingredients into a sausage shape. However, to make sure these do not fall apart, add more liquid so the mixture is bound together, or add some dry ingredients such as fennel or shredded chives to hold the meat together like straw in mud. Alternatively, some mixtures use an egg as a binding agent.

3) Add flavours
By mixing all kinds of your favourite flavours from herbs and spices into your sausage will not only make it taste delicious, but also stand out from the rest. Thyme, sage, onion, chives and garlic are the main flavours used, but paprika is another popular choice.

4) Making a sausage with a skin
Once you have made your sausage mix, and then seasoned and combined all your ingredients, load your sausage delivery tube onto your grinder (according to the manufacturer guidelines) and load the delivery tube with your skins (these can be shop bought).

5) Cooking sausages
Skinned sausages should never be pricked when cooking. If frying, use a couple of tablespoons of light oil. When finding out if the sausage is cooked, use a thermometer to check the middle (which should be 75c or 167F) or cut into one sausage and inspect the contents. The ingredients should be cooked and not raw.
i)  Baking should be for 30 minutes and not on a high heat
ii)  Grilling should be on a low heat for 20 minutes
iii)  Barbeque on the coolest part of a BBQ for 15 minutes, turning often and moving to the hottest part of the BBQ in the last 5 minutes.