How sausages were made

According to the old saying, there are two things in life whose manufacture you never want to see: laws and sausages. U.S. Food Policy always keeps its eye on the manufacture of laws, but I never witnessed sausages being made until yesterday.

At Anne and Josh's sausage making party, in between all the bustle and conversation, we added spices and flavorings to about 50 pounds of local organic pork and lamb, ground it, packed it into pork intestines, cooked some of it in a smoker, vacuum sealed it, and distributed it to all the party-goers. My son stuffed meat into the grinder, while my wife and daughter took photographs. Perhaps mistaking me for one of the many good cooks in the room, Anne put me in charge as recipe manager for a batch of 10 pounds of brandy and sage sausage, with real brandy and fresh sage from her backyard garden. The potluck lunch at the party included home-made bread with either home-made pate or home-made raspberry jam, deviled eggs from one friend's backyard chickens and her own pickled okra.

Now, I've finally seen how sausages were made once upon a time. And I no longer understand the old saying.