Alsation Christmas Sausage

2.0kg pork belly
30g salt
5g ground black pepper
5g sugar
12 cloves
1g (1/4 teaspoon) ground ginger
1g (1/4 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
0.5g (3/8 teaspoon) ground nutmeg:
sheep casings

Because I am just starting out making sausages, I'm still very keen to try new techniques and new recipes. The possibilities seem endless. The chance to explore and experiment is an exciting aspect of food and cooking that I enjoy. I saw this Christmas sausage recipe at Sausage Mania and it caught my imagination. I like the notion of a Christmas sausage, especially as it is only the end of April. When winter comes, I love to drink mulled wine and this recipe uses much the same spices.

I fine minced the pork belly for this sausage. This is the first time I have used the fine mesh on my mincer. I figure it is in keeping with the smaller diameter of the sheep casing.

I got some more lovely pork belly from Gog Magog Hills butchers and this time I asked them not to score the skin. It makes taking it off the belly much easier. One sausage-making friend made his first batch of sausages without first removing the skin from the pork belly. He wasn't impressed with the result.

Once the skin is off, it's ready for scoring and making into some bonus crackling. I prepared this piece and put it in the freezer for another day when I will take it to share with my girlfriend. It has been noted that I had selfishly eaten the previous one all by myself.

There's no garlic in this sausage and, along with the Christmas spices, the result is a very un-meaty sausage. The spice and fine mincing gives this sausage a light taste and texture. It's quite un-sausage-like, which is a bit weird but very good. I imagine that children or recovering vegetarians would like this sausage. I'd like to do something like this again, but with fewer and heavier spices. Maybe full-on fresh ginger and clove? 12 cloves for this amount of meat is about right, though maybe it could be taken back a little. I think I will soon be experimenting with chilli as a sausage spice. And why no go the whole hog and make a Vindaloo sausage? It's easy to get carried away dreaming up exotic spices, but I think I need to remember that the primary intention should be to enhance the meat rather than distract from it.