*Meat rabbits are what I raise, and this video comes as part of a series showing how to make rabbit sausage. However, the process is the same for all types of fresh sausage. These stuffing videos will work for any other type of homemade sausage, too.
Links are by far the most popular way to prep sausages. Loose sausage and grind is fine, as are patties, but some people (and I kind of count myself among them), don't really think of sausages as sausages if they’re not stuffed into casings and linked.
While I will usually leave a small portion of my rabbit sausages loose or formed into patties, we really do prefer traditional sausage links. Most of what I make goes into linked sausages or ropes.
Making links of rabbit sausages isn’t hard. It’s just one of those things you have to learn to do.
Jump to:
- What You’ll Need to Make Rabbit Sausage Links
- *Plate assembly for sausage stuffing with a meat grinder
- **Casing recommendations for rabbit sausage
- Before You Stuff: Rinse and Prep the Casings
- How to Stuff Rabbit Sausages, Step by Step
- How to make Ropes into Rabbit Sausage Links, Step by Step
- Store Sausage Up to One Year
What You’ll Need to Make Rabbit Sausage Links
For these instructions, we are starting from the point of prepared loose sausage, all mixed and ground and ready to eat or stuff.
If you need to learn how to make the rabbit sausage mix, start with our other article with step-by-step instructions for making rabbit sausage.
There are many flavors of sausage you can make with rabbit (any fresh sausage, really, and surely plenty of cured or smoked sausages, too). You can find several tried and true rabbit sausage recipes on this site.
For linking you will need:
- Prepared rabbit sausage (completely cooled out and cold enough to work with)
- **Casings for stuffing the sausage into
Optional but recommended:
- Olive oil or coconut oil and a paper towel or cloth to apply it to the stuffing tube (this is to grease the tube to make it easier for the casings to slide off)
- A bowl of water and some paper towels to help keep the casings moist on the tube
Equipment:
You will need some equipment, including:
- Kitchen scissors
- A grinder with a sausage stuffing horn or tube attachment*or
- A sausage stuffer (a stuffer is recommended and works better for stuffing than a grinder with attachments does, but either will work and can be used); for home use, a 5-pound capacity or larger stuffer will suit.
*Plate assembly for sausage stuffing with a meat grinder
Note that if you are using a meat grinder with a sausage stuffing attachment, you need to follow the instructions for assembly and use.
You will need to replace the grinding plate with a stuffing plate.
Stuffing plates have no holes and have large openings with sort of “Y” shaped supports through the middle. They take up the space in the grinder head where the grinding plate goes but allow the mix to move through quicker and in larger quantity, which is what is needed for stuffing.
When you use a stuffing plate in a meat grinder, remove the knife. Use only the stuffing plate and the tube when you put the head together for stuffing your sausage.
If you need to buy attachments for your grinder, make sure you get the right size and diameter to fit your machine.
**Casing recommendations for rabbit sausage
The type and size of the casings you use determine the size (diameter) of your sausages.
For typical sausage sizes, including Italian sausage, grill links, etc.:
For larger links similar to the typical Italian sausages or bratwursts, you want hog casings.
When you shop, look for “hog middles”.
Hog middles are a good size for most sausages, so if in doubt, use them.
Hog middles are also faster and easier to work with because they are larger and don’t break or blow out as much as smaller casings.
For breakfast links and similar sizes:
If you want smaller sausages, like a breakfast link, you want sheep casings. Sheep casings are slow to stuff and harder to work with. They take longer and tend to have more breakage than hog middles (mostly due to their small size and how easy it is to overstuff them).
Pre-tubed casings save time
Casings can be purchased either loose or pre-tubed.
- Loose casings are usually bundled and tied
- Loose casings have to be fed onto the stuffing tube by hand, inch by inch
- Pre-tubed casings are more expensive, but they save a lot of time, work, and headache
- Pre-tubed casings come already mounted on a flexible plastic tube that slides over the stuffing tube; then, you pull the tube out while holding the casing on the stuffing tube so it doesn’t slide off – they're quick and easy to use once you get the hang of it, which you’ll do in a time or two!
My preferred casings for stuffing rabbit sausages:
Natural hog casings, pre-tubed
Buying tips for rabbit sausage casings:
- Most casings come in packaged with enough to stuff either 25 or 50 pounds of meat
- Pay attention to the package size to estimate how much you need
- Buy a little more than you think you need
- How tightly you pack the casings determines how many pounds they will stuff
- Casings come packed in salt, and you can remove just what you need, then store the rest according to package instructions
Before You Stuff: Rinse and Prep the Casings
Before you can start stuffing your sausage, you will need to rinse and prep your sausage casings (regardless of what type of casings you buy).
Casings come unrefrigerated and packed in salt. They can be stored at room temperature until they are opened. Follow package instructions for more.
The salt needs to be rinsed from the casings before they can be used.
Then, the casings need to be soaked in water for at least 30 minutes.
Basic casing preparation instructions:
- Remove as many casings from the package as you plant to use
- Place a medium bowl in your sink and fill it most of the way with cold water
- With the water running, rinse the outside of the casings
- Find the end, then rinse through the inside of the casing for several minutes
- Make sure the water is running all the way through and coming out the other end
- After each casing is completely rinsed inside and out, put it in the bowl and let it soak
- Continue until all casings are rinsed
- Replace the water in the bowl with fresh, cool water, and keep all the casings in the bowl until ready to use
- Refrigerate the bowl of casings and water while you wait to stuff the casings
- The casings need to be left to soak for 30 minutes before you begin
- Longer is fine; you can soak the casings early or the night before if you like, but they should be refrigerated in water when not in use
- When the casings are soaked, you can move on to stuffing the sausages
How to Stuff Rabbit Sausages, Step by Step
- First, set up your grinder or stuffer with a medium stuffing tube (or the right tube for the size of the casings you are using – for hog middles, this is usually the middle-sized tube, about 20mm tube).
- Fill the hopper or canister with prepared cold sausage mix
- Casings feed easier if you grease the tube before you put the casings on. A light coating of olive oil, coconut oil, lard, shortening, or another food-safe oil works well (I usually use coconut or olive oil)
- Feed the casings onto the outside of the stuffing tube
- The casings will be scrunched up on the tube and will feed off as you go
- For easiest work, wet a paper towel and lay it over the casing to keep it wet and moist while you are working
- Any casings you are not using need to be kept in water
- Slide a couple of inches of casing off the tube
- Tie a knot in the end of the tube
- Slide the two inches of casing back onto the tube and snug it up against the opening
- Prick the end of the casing near the knot to let air out
- Now, begin stuffing the sausage. Use the hand crank to push the sausage into the tube of casings (or motor if it’s a motorized unit or if you’re using an electric meat grinder).
- Use your free hand to gently glide the casings off the tube as they are stuffed. You can gently pull, but this is mostly a feeding and guiding motion. The sausage will push the casing off the tube as it fills.
- It will take some trial and error, but find the speed that works with your equipment. Don’t go too fast, or the casings will not be filled. Don’t go too slow or they will overstuff and burst.
- The casings should be a little soft and a little less than tight and full; that way they will have some room left in them for coiling and twisting without breaking.
- As you go, and as the sausages coil into ropes, prick air bubbles if you see them.
- When you get to the end of the casing or the end of your batch of sausage, cut the casing (if necessary to remove it) or pull it off the tube if it’s at the end.
- You want about two inches of unfilled casing on the end so you can tie a knot in the end of the sausage rope.
- Tie a knot in the end like you did when you started.
- Prick the end near the knot to remove any trapped air.
- When stuffing, you will be making one big, continuous rope of sausage – a large coil. You will link it and/or cut it to size later. (Move on to the next step).
That’s it! You've now stuffed your sausage into casings. Now to measure, link, and cut the sausages!
How to make Ropes into Rabbit Sausage Links, Step by Step
You’ll do the final cut-to-size later after you’ve measured and twisted your coil into small ropes or links.
You can make the ropes and links whatever size you prefer.
I prefer links to be six inches long and ropes to be about 18 inches.
You’ll be happiest if your links or ropes are consistent in size.
The process for making ropes versus links is the same – it's just a matter of where you measure and twist the coil.
- It’s helpful to have a guide to measure your links or ropes as you go so you will have uniform sizes.
- Starting from one knotted end of the coil, measure to your desired length.
- Lightly pinch the casing at that measure, which will push the filling to both sides.
- Now, move down and measure the next link to the same length.
- Pinch the casing again.
- Now, twist the second sausage three or four times around. This will pinch and “tie” the section into a link.
- You will twist and tie every other sausage. Only twist every other one so you don’t “untie” the previous links. When you twist the next link, it will form the link in the middle that you skipped.
- So, measure off the next link, then pinch the casing like you did before. Move and measure again, pinching, then move one more time and pinch and twist the link there.
- Continue in this pattern until the entire rope is twisted and tied.
- When you get to the end, you may have to make a larger or smaller link if the measure doesn’t come out quite evenly.
- Now, let the links sit for a while so the twisted “tied” spots can dry out. That will seal the links.
- It’s best if you can stretch the coil out to get some air to the tied spots.
- You can leave the coil in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight to let those tied spots in the casings dry.
- After drying the ties, you can then carefully cut the twists in the middle to separate the links. (For the sake of time and to give the ties more time to seal, I’ll often cut them into connected sections of four sausages and package them that way, but if you prefer you can cut them into individual sausages now. It’s easy to cut the ties when you cook the links.)
- Separate and package as desired.
With that, your rabbit sausage links are made!
Store Sausage Up to One Year
Sausages will store well in the freezer for up to a year, though I’ve never had them last anywhere near that long.
You can also start cooking and eating your freshly made sausages right away.
Don’t forget to take pride in this accomplishment, in your hard work, and this job so well done!
As for the sausages, I’ll tell you to enjoy them, but I’m positive you will without my saying so!
Leave a Reply