Homemade fresh Italian Sausage is very versatile and is one of the simplest sausages for home sausage making. There is a wide assortment of sausage seasoning formulas you can use to make your own and our Hot Italian Sausage seasoning is the first of several that we’ll be introducing.

The Beginning of Sausage

Sausage making originated as a means to transport and preserve meat. Early societies discovered that spices and dried berries could be added to dried meat to enhance their flavor. Some of the earliest mentions of sausages date to 600 BC and sausage mentions occurred in writings from this time in China, Greece and Rome. Sausages come in two main types - cured and fresh. Cured sausages are cooked or dried and while not necessary many are smoked. The curing process changes the meat and infuses its own flavors into the meat (especially if spices are used). If you're a bit confused think of it like the difference between ham and ribs.

Smoked sausages are always cured as uncurred meat is very susceptible to botulism. The bacterium responsible, Clostridium botulinum, thrives in the anaerobic conditions created in the interior of the sausage especially flourishes in the temperature range of 39 °F to 140 °F, which is the most common in the smoke house and the following subsequent storage environment. So for optimum safety, sausages are cured before smoking.

Hot vs Sweet Italian Sausage

There are certainly more types of sausage available besides just Hot or Sweet Italian Sausage (sometimes referred to as Mild Italian Sausage), but these two types of Italian sausages are varieties that most of us are most familiar with. Italian Sausage is a perfect choice for cooking peppers and onions, slow simmering in a marinara sauce, using as a topping on homemade pizza or grilling outdoors, the aromas and flavors from Italian sausage is awfully tough to beat.

In this country, Italian sausage typically refers to a style of pork sausage seasoned with fennel seed and/or anise seed as the dominant seasoning. There is an extensive variety of sausages available In Italy, most of which look absolutely nothing like what we know as “Italian sausage” in the U.S.

The primary difference between hot and sweet Italian sausage is that the hot version includes the addition of crushed red peppers.

Italian sausage is typically made as a fresh sausage (not cured). Pork shoulder (also known as Boston butt) is the most common type of meat used in making Italian sausage, and it’s best if it is 75 to 80% lean. The pork is ground and the appropriate spice seasonings are added. The sausage is then either stuffed into casings or portioned into bulk packages and is then either frozen or used immediately.

If you decide to stuff your sausage in casings we recommend first testing the filling's flavor and consistency by frying a small patty in a pan. Less than perfect batches can be used for chili or in pasta sauce.

I’ve also used Hot Italian Sausage as a substitute for andouille in a pinch when making jambalaya and gumbo.

What's In It

Flavor Profile

Our Hot Italian Sausage has the perfect kick without being too hot and will certainly have you coming back for more.

Helpful Hints

Use 1 cup of Hot Italian Sausage Seasoning and either 1 cup of ice cold water or 1 cup of chilled red wine per 5 lbs of ground pork shoulder. 1 Cup of Hot Italian Seasoning is approximately 5.2 ounces.