The Sweet and Hot I buy from Butcher Packer already mixed and done better than I could myself anyways, plus it saves us having to purchase additional bulk amounts of seasonings to have on hand and measure out to accomplish the same thing:
http://www.butcher-packer.com/index....ort=20a&page=2
I also buy sage for my breakfast sausage from them; you can get a 16 oz. bag for only $4.00, compared to a 1 oz. shaker at Walmart for $3.89!
http://www.butcher-packer.com/index....ath=32_135_170
Hot Sausage Blend
Sweet Sausage Blend
The purpose of sausage making is to make sausage, not make seasonings, so that's why I buy them premixed - to save time and to have consistently great results.
As far as casings go, I buy all my casings from Syracuse Casing:
http://www.makincasing.com/mm5/merch...ategory_Code=2
However, my wife gave me some as a Christmas present last year (we weren't supposed to have bought each other anything because of my stroke and her cancer and the $ situation, but she is sweet!) along with a bottle of Bailey's (makes coping with the above MUCH better, lol!):
Christmas '08
and I used them for the first time on the hot and sweet. These weren't domestic casings like Syracuse Casings are, they were Chinese and were short lengths and hairy but did the job, 4 lengths approx. 2ft each stuffed 8 lb. of product. She got them at Central Market on North Hulen St. in Fort Worth.
Yes, I mixed by hand. The mixer I reserve for baking, however it was the KitchenAid grinder attachment I used at first to make my initial sausages!
In The Beginning
(Can you tell by the belly I love to eat what I make?! lol!)