A Guide to Megalomania

Straya Day = Sausage Fest

There are people who are going to object to my referring to Australia Day as the more colloquial 'Straya Day' and for 364 days of the year, I'm right there with you. But what is our national holiday without colloquial abbreviations, laziness of speech and sausages on the barbie?

With that in mind, this intrepid Snark Hunter ventured beyond the $4.99 1/2 kilo pack of sausages available at Woolies and I decided to try my hand at making my own.

At our recent wedding, Nicole and I received a Mincer and Sausage Maker courtesy of fellow Snark Hunter, Brett. If you know me, have come over for dinner or asked Nicole what she has for lunch, then you know I'm a bit of a MasterChef wannabe. I make (as often as possible) all my own ingredients, avoid jars and tins and try to make things from scratch. Why should snags be any different? So, with great excitement I assembled all the pieces of our latest kitchen appliance and scoured the web for sausage recipes.

Despite being Straya Day, I opted to make something a little more exotic for my first sausage. Nicole's father being Swiss has instilled in me a love of good sausage and an avoidance of the $4.99 budget pack, so my first thought was to make Bratwurst. However, in my search for sausage I discovered a recipe for Boerewors which is a South African sausage of beef and pork that Nicole and I tried and enjoyed while recently in Cape Town.

I combined beef and pork, both minced using the mincing part of the device and added thyme, garlic, bacon, salt, pepper, coriander, nutmeg, cloves, all spice, red wine vinegar and worcestershire sauce. Despite the array of ingredients, making your own sausages is not an expensive exercise. If you keep in mind, the half kilo pack at Woolies is $4.99 - or $10 per kilo, I made approximately 3 kilos of sausages and the total price came to about $20 - plus an hour of my time.

And what a fun hour it was. I played with our new toy like a child at Christmas and minced, mixed and reminced before folding all the ingredients together in a bowl. The next step is to attach your sausage skins to the machine and start feeding in your mixed ingredients.

In my opinion, the most important purchase was the authentic sausage skin. Real sausage skins are made from the intestines of pigs and while that doesn't sound attractive will provide better flavour and flexibility than the synthetic sausage skins you can also buy. Also, the synthetic skins only make really thin sausages, so if you're a fan of gourmet sausages - or a thick bit of meat, the real stuff is going to be much more desirable to you.

As my sausages came off the machine, thick, full and ready to eat (after cooking) I sat in awe at my latest creation. I'm not ashamed to admit, I really enjoy cooking but making something completely from scratch is a pretty cool feeling. Not to mention, by mincing and making my filling from scratch I avoided both the mystery of what could be in my sausages, saved money by purchasing better quality ingredients, but more importantly - our sausages looked so much cooler on the barbie than anyone elses on Straya Day.

That would be a lovely end of story, wouldn't it? I can also be a little obsessive sometimes. This week, I am planning on experimenting with my own sausage recipes. This is what I've got planned for Tuesday. Mexican Hot-Dogs!

Tell me if you think this sounds cool. Mincing both beef and chicken so there are two options, I will add tomatoes, herbs and spices to create that mexican flavour. Then, when my Mexican Sausages are made, I will make some flour tortillas - though alot smaller than if you were having a burrito - and fold them over the sausages with added salsa, guacamole, sour cream and cheese. Instant mexican hot dog.

I'll let you know how it goes - but assuming everything works - my life is turning into a sausage fest!

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