Thanks for the reply & link.
How would I go about making my own mix?
How to make your own mix? Well, experiment, The most important ingredient is salt and you have to work out how much to add as a percentage of the total mix. Many commercial/supermarket sausages contain as much as 3% salt, I use just 1%.
For pork sausages, using fatty pork, I use 7% rusk and 7% water. For less fatty sausages using a proportion of game meat I reduce that to around 3-4% of rusk and 3-4% of water.
The water is added to make the mixing and stuffing easier and to help distribute the salt and flavourings (herbs, spices) but that same water will evaporate during the maturing stage, when you hang your sausages for 1 or 2 days to dry out. (Too wet and you have real 'bangers')
I like to use freshly ground pepper, juniper-berry, smoked hot paprika, chilies, garlic, maze, ground cumin, fresh sage, fresh thyme...the possibilities are endless.
Another factor that effects the end quality and mouth-feel is how fine/course you mince the meat, and for how long you will mix the meat once you have added your 'mix'. A longer time of mixing will result in a smooth pate texture, shorter mixing will result in a looser, meatier and courser texture.
