Last Wednesday I braved snowy dirt roads to visit my friend Adam
in Westford. There, we transformed meat from his very own cow into sausages, which are currently curing in his closet. Hopefully, by Christmas, they will qualify as salami. We used a recipe that Adam learned during his travels in Germany. Here's what we did...

1) Mixed beef chunks and pork fat in a large container.

2) Added salt, sugar and grated nutmeg.

3) Emptied a peppermill and dumped in a blend of white
peppercorns, black peppercorns, coriander, fennel seed and
caraway seed.

4) Ground the spices into the meat. Mixed the beef by hand to distribute the spices evenly.

5) Put the meat and three cloves of garlic through a grinder.

6) Mixed in a live culture to help inhibit scary bacteria and
allow the sausage to safely turn into salami.

7) Put the meat mixture through the grinder again.

8) Kneaded the meat to ensure an even texture throughout.

9) Slid a length of casing onto the spout of an extruder.

10) Squeezed the meat into the casing.

11) Twisted the casing between the links to form sausages.

12) Pricked air bubbles in the sausage with a pin.

13) Hung the sausages to dry.

I cooked some of the seasoned meat that didn't make it into the casing, and it was amazingly good. I have high hopes for the salami...In a few weeks, I'll let you know how it turned out.