Toulouse sausages are the classic ingredient in cassoulet, that hearty bean, confit and pork extravaganza that is a hallmark of any self-respecting French cook’s repertoire. Traditional Toulouse sausages are all pork, and are minced by hand rather than ground — a fine option I do myself from time to time.
But the sausage is also wonderful made with duck mixed with fatty pork, then run through your coarsest die on your food grinder. (Incidentally, this is a great recipe for snows or Canada geese.)
What makes a Toulouse sausage unique? First the coarseness of it, but also its simplicity: It requires black pepper and garlic, that’s all. Many versions, such as the one Paula Wolfert describes in her masterful The Cooking of Southwest France, include nutmeg.
Mine does, too, and if you can manage to grind your own nutmeg on the spot, you will notice a difference. Don’t be tempted to add other flavors here. These need to be simple. 
Toulouse sausage is excellent grilled slowly over hardwoods, roasted gently in a 350°F oven, and, of course, as an element in cassoulet or other winter stews.
NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with making sausages at home, I wrote a good step-by-step on the technique over at my friend Elise’s site Simply Recipes. You can read it here.
Toulouse Sausage
Ingredients
- 3 pounds lean pork, duck or goose meat
- 2 pounds fatty pork shoulder or pork belly
- 1/2 cup white wine, chilled
- 33 grams Sea or kosher salt (about 2 tablespoons plus a teaspoon)
- 4 grams Instacure No. 1, about 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
- 25 grams chopped fresh garlic (about 2 tablespoons)
- 10 grams ground black pepper (about 2 tablespoons)
- 1/2 nutmeg, freshly grated (about 1 teaspoon)
- hog casings
Instructions
- Chop the meat and fat into chunks that will fit in your grinder, mince any skin you are using, then mix the salt, garlic and all the spices together and toss with the meat and fat. I like to do this a day before, storing the mix in the fridge. This helps the sausage bind better.
- When you are ready to grind, chill the meat and fat until it is almost frozen by putting it in the freezer for an hour or so. Take out some hog casings and set in a bowl of very warm water.
- Grind through your meat grinder (you can use a food processor in a pinch, but you will not get a fine texture) using the coarse die, somewhere from 6.5 mm to 8 mm. If your room is warmer than 69°F, set the bowl for the ground meat into another bowl of ice to keep it cold.
- Add the wine and mix thoroughly either using a Kitchenaid on low for 60 to 90 seconds or with your (very clean) hands. This is important to get the sausage to bind properly. Once it is mixed well, put it back in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings all at once. Twist off links by pinching the sausage down and twisting and spinning it, first in one direction, and then with the next link, the other direction. Or you could tie them off with butcher's string.
- Hang the sausages in a cool place for 4 to 12 hours (the colder it is, the longer you can hang them). If it is warm out, hang for one hour. Once they have dried a bit, put in the fridge until needed. They will keep for at least a week in the fridge.
- If you are freezing the sausages, wait a day before doing so. This will tighten up the sausages and help them keep their shape in the deep-freeze.
Made this today pretty much by the directions. I did have to use a little more pork shoulder to get the desired 5 lb batch. Looks great and smells good too. Going to let it dry and have a dinner with it after drying out. First time making sausage and all parts went well using a kitchen aid mixer with grinder attachment until filling the casings…..hard to fit the hog casings over the tube and a made a few cuts in the casing. It did get easier though as we went learned a few tricks. I would not try to do the stuffing part alone with the kitchen aid. Lot of work for 5lb of sausage but I’m sure we will enjoy it. And make it again….
Thanks, Hank for the recipe.
Unless you plan to use the sausage right away, I always add the curing salt. It extends the freshness of your sausage and gives you the option of smoke or no smoke
I made a version of this recently that turned out great! I called it the ‘Duck, Duck, Goose, Toulouse’ and used a Chardonnay from Devona Winery. I parted out two ducks, one goose and pork from Pure Country Farms in Euphrata, WA.. Excellent recipe…thanks for sharing!
I’ll be making these with venison next week! I’ve got quite a bit of veni (very lean) and quite a bit of fatback (I assume fattier than pork shoulder or belly). Any recommendations on how to adjust the ratio? I was thinking maybe 4lb venison & 1 lb fatback….
Laura: Do a short 4 pounds venison, and a long 1 pound fatback. Maybe 3 3/4 to 1 1/4?
I’ve noticed that a few of your sausage recipes call for the instacure, others dont and some have it as optional. Is this used as a safeguard? I’m not opposed to it by any means. I’d just like a better understanding is all.
Joel: In some cases, it is for the flavor you’d traditionally get from that recipe. In some cases, I use it for smoked sausages, as it’s a safety thing.
I made this yesterday after finding my custom made cassole in storage. Since I had the grinder and stuffer out for a large batch of Italian, it seemed that the timing was serendipitous. I made it with 3 lbs. of domestic duck breast, fat and skin all included, that I had bought on sale and 5 lbs. of pork shoulder, scaling up the other ingredients.
Wow. Just wow. Can’t wait until this fall to make a cassoulet. That is, if there is any sausage left over. The unctuousness of the fats with the purity of the flavors from the few seasonings is mind blowing. Totally unexpected. I’d even pay full price for duck breast for the next batch. Might replace some of the pork with axis meat, but not until I follow this recipe exactly at least once more.
Thank you!!
This batch was with a limit of mallard, gadwall and a teal. It was exactly 3 lbs of breast meat. I’ve made a handful of your sausage recipes and I think this is at the top of the list. It was simple and the flavor was great. I might add a bit more black pepper and certainly the fresh nutmeg next time. I just needed to get it done and didn’t have it easily accessible locally so I used shelf purchased ground nutmeg. Thanks again, Hank for extending the menu at our home. Everyone that tried it didn’t believe it was duck. I received several positive comments from about 6 different people! woohoo!!
Not having a stuffer (yet 🙂 ), would it be good for a patty sausage?
Kim: Yep.
I would like to try this, but alas I cannot eat pork anything. I was wondering if there is another fat that would just as well for making sausage of any kind that needs fat added?
Shawn: Use beef fat.
My hubby isn’t supposed to have salt but he absolutely loves goose and any kind of sausage. Can I omit salt entirely or at least cut down the amount?
Thanks!
Cathy: You can’t eliminate it, but you can cut it down. Maybe try cutting out 50%? I wouldn’t like it very much, but if he can’t eat salt, it’s better than no salt at all. You can serve the links with something acidic to boost the flavor a bit.
The duck version is fantastic! Although it dried out too much in chacroutte, it was excellent in cassoulet. I think my favorite is as a breakfast sausage.