The year was 2012. We had just moved into a new house. It was time to make a video. We chose to revisit a video made about a year before that could not be used for assorted reasons. The recipe was good, the concept was unique, so we took a do-over and set up the kitchen to make the video – again. It turned into two videos, because of the unique process which gave it the name. We literally went back in time. Before electricity or power grinders and sausage stuffers. I used my mom’s old hand grinder, mounted with a clamp on the counter. We used a turkey baster and modeled a hand stuffer, and pastry bag taped to the end. It was labor intensive. But the results were better than either of us could have been expected.
We devolved the process of making sausage. This was partially intentional and partially out of frugality. I love my old grinder. It’s beat up and the handle falls off. It’s fine for the rare use that it gets. Stuffing the sausages was about being frugal with money and space. After we moved, the kitchen was significantly smaller and storage was at a premium. So I dug out the unused baster, T.D. made the cuts, then we attached a pastry bag with surgical tape.
When we made the original video we used ground pork. For the do-over we used pork butt, specifically pork for carnitas, which is boneless pork butt cut into chunks. In other parts of the country, it may be labeled for pulled pork. But this is Texas. Carnitas it is!
There are several steps to making the sausage, and the video spells it better than I could write it. Plus watching the video is more fun!
The recipe is really easy. Pork, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, fresh garlic, dark rum and bourbon. My reason for rum and bourbon was simple. If a recipe needs water, replace it with a complimentary flavorful liquid. Alcohol acts with the spices to release unique flavors.
The Recipe
4 pounds boneless pork butt, cut into 1-inch pieces and trimmed
1 Package pork sausage casing
3 tablespoons Kosher salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
6 cloves minced garlic
½ cup dark rum
½ cup bourbon
Mix all of the ingredients together and either form into patties or stuff into casing of your choice. The sausage can be smoked, grilled or cooked in any other way. Make sure the internal temperature is at 165 degrees. Any uncooked leftovers should be wrapped tightly or vacuum sealed and frozen for up to six months.
The video is bittersweet for me now. It was the last video T.D. worked on with me. He was my biggest supporter, the one person who believed that what we were going to do would be highly successful. He set up the camera, made sure everything was correctly framed. He created the turkey baster stuffer, clamped a sheet of plywood to the kitchen island to mount the grinder. Shortly after the videos were posted on YouTube, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He passed a few months later. It took me seven years to return to making videos. And seven years to post the recipe. I apologize to the ten thousand plus people who watched the videos.