Making Sausages & Small Goods: The Complete Walkthrough

This guide covers making sausages & small goods, rated a moderate task, typically taking 2–4 hrs/batch.

Our printable card on making sausages & small goods covers the essentials at a glance — here's the fuller walkthrough, with the reasoning behind each step.

It's worth understanding why this skill matters before working through the method itself. At a glance, it's rated moderate, with a difficulty of moderate; time of 2–4 hrs/batch; cost of moderate (equipment) — details that matter more once you're actually planning around them than they do on a first read. The rest of this article works through exactly what each of those means day to day, in more depth than a single printable card has room for, and with the reasoning behind each recommendation rather than just the recommendation itself.

How This Applies Across Property Types

This skill applies whether you're working with a suburban block or a larger rural property, though the scale and specific materials will differ. Where climate or regional conditions change the approach, that's called out in the method above rather than assumed — but as a general rule, Australian conditions (heat, water restrictions in many areas, and UV exposure on materials left outdoors) are worth factoring in even where a source guide doesn't explicitly mention them.

Grind, season, stuff, rest

Fresh sausages are relatively quick — grind, season, stuff, and cook or freeze — while fermented products like salami involve a much longer, more carefully controlled curing and drying process.

Getting Set Up

Keep these points in mind:

• A meat grinder and sausage stuffer (combined units are common)
• Casings (natural or synthetic) appropriate to the product
• A tested recipe with correct seasoning and, for fermented products, correct starter culture and curing salt
• Controlled temperature/humidity space for fermented or dried products

Each of these compounds over a season — small misses early tend to show up later — a meat grinder and sausage stuffer (combined units are common) Controlled temperature/humidity space for fermented or dried products Treat this list as a routine to build rather than a one-off checklist, and it becomes second nature within a season or two.

The Method

Worth paying attention to:

• 1. Select and prepare meat and fat in the correct ratio for the sausage or small goods type.
• 2. Grind to the appropriate coarseness for the product.
• 3. Season according to a tested recipe, mixing thoroughly for even distribution.
• 4. Stuff into casings (natural or synthetic) at a consistent, moderate fill to avoid bursting.
• 5. Cook, freeze, or begin the appropriate curing/fermenting/drying process depending on the product.

Getting these details right matters more than it might seem — 1. Select and prepare meat and fat in the correct ratio for the sausage or small goods type. 5. Cook, freeze, or begin the appropriate curing/fermenting/drying process depending on the product. Treat this list as a routine to build rather than a one-off checklist, and it becomes second nature within a season or two.

Troubleshooting

Keep these points in mind:

• Casings bursting while stuffing — overfilled or air pockets; fill at a moderate, even pace and prick out visible air pockets.
• Sausage texture too dense or rubbery — often overworked meat during mixing; mix just enough for even seasoning distribution, no more.
• Fermented products not developing correctly — fermented salami-style products require careful temperature and humidity control and a proper starter culture; this is a more advanced, less forgiving process than fresh sausages.
• Uneven seasoning — mix thoroughly and consider a small test patty, cooked and tasted, before stuffing the full batch.

Each of these compounds over a season — small misses early tend to show up later — casings bursting while stuffing — overfilled or air pockets; fill at a moderate, even pace and prick out visible air pockets. Uneven seasoning — mix thoroughly and consider a small test patty, cooked and tasted, before stuffing the full batch. Treat this list as a routine to build rather than a one-off checklist, and it becomes second nature within a season or two.

Ongoing Timing

Best time. Fresh sausages any time; fermented, air-dried products in cooler months with more stable conditions.

Duration. Fresh sausages: a few hours. Fermented salami-style products: weeks to months.

Maintenance. Fresh: none beyond correct storage. Fermented: regular monitoring of temperature, humidity, and mould development during the process.

Signs of success. Fresh: good texture and flavour on a test cook. Fermented: correct weight loss, firmness, and characteristic aroma over the drying period.

It's worth reading these as a set rather than in isolation; they reinforce each other.

Tips & variations

A few notes worth having alongside the method above: Butchering Pork, Curing & Smoking Meat, Overworking the meat mixture, resulting in a dense, rubbery texture, Attempting fermented salami-style products without proper temperature/humidity control and starter culture. These come from the same printable card and are easy to miss on a first read.

Related Guides

A few related guides worth reading alongside this one:

• Butchering Lamb & Goat
• Butchering Pork
• Curing & Smoking Meat
• Home Slaughter — Process & Regulations

Frequently Asked Questions

For the condensed printable version, head to the main guide page linked below. If something's already gone wrong, our Troubleshooting Directory indexes common problems by symptom across all 219 guides. As with every guide on this site, this is general information based on our own research and experience, not professional advice — your specific soil, climate, and circumstances will always vary from ours to some degree.

→ View the printable A4 guide for making sausages small goods