Lamb Sausages

Nothing makes me happier these days than getting out Wojtek (sausage maker) and playing around with some meat and seasoning combinations. This time around, I'm going with:

Garlic and Rosemary Lamb Sausages with olive oil and Cranberries

Ingredients
Low Bush Cranberries (picked in the Tombstone region Fall 2010 - Thanks Karen!)

Lamb shoulder

Garlic (of course)

Rosemary

Olive oil

I cut the meat into small pieces and mixed all the ingredients together minus the cranberries to sit over night in the fridge.

After a quick sit in the freezer to deter any busting of the fat cells during the grinding process (grinding the meat heats it up and can really alter the final taste and texture of the sausage), I passed the meat through the coarse plate.

Again, after a quick sit in the freezer, I passed the meat through the medium plate, and mixed in the cranberries.

NOTE: I didn't grind the cranberries because I wanted their tartness to be isolated to local parts of the sausage. The goal was to break up the richness of the lamb, but without transferring their flavour everywhere in the sausage - which I think would get confusing. To sweeten them up a little, I soaked them in a fruity malbec with some brown sugar.

One more pass through Wojtek (without the blade, or plate) to fill the casings, and a little bit of twisting and Voila!

You have probably noticed the photos look better in this post. Thanks to Rhi for the shots (and garnish).