Composition

• When making sausage at home, especially if you're new to making sausage using only ground beef, it's best to stick more closely to the 5:4:3 formula and avoid the additives, using 50 to 60 percent lean ground beef, 30 to 40 percent pork fatback and enough binder and ice to hold it together. If you only have ground beef and don't want to use pork fatback, you'll have to mix the ground beef and binder with enough egg yolk and crushed ice to hold it together, as you would with meatloaf, which is basically beef sausage without a casing.

Herbs and Spices

• You could find as many mixtures of herbs and spices in sausage as you do types of sausage, which means there are enough seasoning blends to suit any taste. Get creative and combine spices and keep tasting the mix until you get it right, or, if you need some guidance, take some suggestions from the classic of classics -- George Auguste Escoffier's all-purpose dried seasoning formula for sausage from his book "Le Guide Culinaire" -- which comprises bay leaves, black pepper, white pepper, cloves, cinnamon, thyme, coriander, ginger, mace and cayenne pepper.

Sausage Safety

• When making sausage, you need to keep the ground beef out of the "danger zone" between 40 and 140 F; make the sausage as soon as possible after you bring the meat home; cook the sausage to an internal temperature of 160 F; sanitize utensils after using them; and store the sausage in the refrigerator no longer than three to four days after cooking it. Adding crushed ice to the ground meat as you mix the sausage keeps it out of the temperature danger zone, and an instant-read digital meat thermometer helps ensure it reaches a safe internal temperature.

Technique

• Soak the sausage casings in water for about an hour to get rid of the saltiness. Chill the pork fatback in the freezer for about 30 minutes, if you're using it, then grind it finely using the meat grinder attachment of a stand mixer. If you're using soy flour as a binder, weigh out 1 to 1 1/2 ounces for every 1 pound of ground beef. If you're using breadcrumbs as a binder, weigh out 1 1/2 to 2 ounces for every 1 pound of ground beef. Mix the binder with the seasoning mix. Finish by mixing the ground beef with the seasoned binder and an egg yolk and 1/2 cup of finely crushed ice per 1 pound of meat. Tie one end of the casing in a double knot and slide the other end over the sausage funnel. Bunch the casing to the funnel and let about 2 or 3 inches hang from it. Pinch off pieces of sausage and drop them in the funnel, tamping it down as needed with your finger, until you fill the casing. Pack the casing tight but give it some leeway to expand a little when you twist it into links. Tie the other end of the casing with a double knot and make links by twisting the casing counterclockwise every 5 to 6 inches, or at the length you want each sausage link to be.