RECIPE - Homemade Linguiça (Linguiça Caseira)

Making sausage at home, any type of sausage, appears at first to be a daunting task. Particularly the whole business of getting that mixture of ground meat, fat and spices into those tubes of (horrors!) cleaned-out intestines. The machines needed to do this work look positively infernal, and the sight of a rapidly filling sausage casing isn't for the weak of stomach.

However, the results can be very good indeed, and well worth all the fuss and bother, much better (and much healthier) than commercially made sausage. And if the idea of filling all those lengths of sausage casing seems to be too much work, the product can be formed into patties, like hamburgers are, which gives you all the taste without much work at all.

Brazilian linguiça is a style of sausage that's quite straightforward, and the recipe below will give you the authentic taste of Brazil's most popular family of links. If you want to form the sausages with using either natural or artificial sausage casings, there are many sources on the internet to help you with that process. Some good ones can be found here and here . The recipe is for the filling only - remember, you can always take the lazy way out and fry or grill patties. They'll still be delicious.
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RECIPE - Homemade Linguiça (Linguiça Caseira)
10 portions

5 lbs (2.5 kgs) ground meat - not too lean; beef, pork, lamb, or a mixture of beef and pork
3 Tbsp salt 
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 - 2 tsp cayenne pepper, to taste (optional)
1/4 cup
2 Tbsp finely chopped Italian parsley
2 Tbsp finely chopped green onion, green part only

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. Using your hands, knead and mix the ingredients together until you have a firm and totally homogenous mass. Form the mixture into the shape of a ball, then turn out into a clean bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic film and refrigerate the sausage mixture for at least 24 hours for the flavors to blend.

The next day, remove from the refrigerator at least one hour prior to beginning the process of stuffing sausage casings. If forming patties, the mixture can be used straight from the refrigerator.

Recipe translated and adapted from Cozinha Regional Brasileira by Abril Editora.