Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. - Otto von Bismarck

I can’t testify to the accuracy of the above quote, at least when it comes to laws. But Mario Fiorucci, co-owner of the Healthy Butcher (565 Queen Street West), may be able to as a former Bay Street lawyer. And despite his years in the muck that is lawyering he still decided to open a butcher shop and actually make sausages.

And of course there is always the old saying about sausages and hotdogs – It’s all tits, lips, and assholes. That may be true at the big meat production companies, I can’t say, however the sausages at the healthy butcher are in no way representative of the factory-produced versions. In fact, to find out the truth about sausage making, simply sign up for one of the Healthy Butcher’s sausage-making classes.

This is the second time I’ve taken the class. Mario leads the group of twelve enrollees – for $50 a head – through a brief history of tube steak and about the benefits of using only fresh ingredients. He said it’s almost impossible to make a bad sausage if you use good meat. Students (Broken into four teams of three) have a choice regarding the ratio of beef to pork they want to use. The meat used comes mostly from the shoulder to supply the fat needed to make a nice juicy sausage, one that won’t dry out on the grill. More pork tends to mean more fat. Our team used 75% pork 25% beef.

The teams are also given ‘sausage dollars’ to bid on a number of ingredients to add some flare to their creations including maple syrup, curried cauliflower, cranberries, red wine, caramelized onions.

Once the meat is ground up we threw in our extras and mixed it all up by hand. The actual process of stuffing the meat into casings really lends itself to jokes a la Benny Hill – mostly to do with how long an inch really is - and Mario has a comedy routine which hasn’t changed much from the first time I took the class in March of last year. But all is forgiven once we grill up samples of each team’s efforts and put them to the taste test.

Mario was right when he said you can’t make a bad sausage using good meat and keeping the proportions right. Each of sausages made were as good as the ones the first time I tried this class.

Our team ended up with a very mixed bag of ingredients. Red wine, fermented hot pepper paste, fresh parsley, soy sauce and sesame oil to which we added just a little salt and pepper. The links smell predominantly of red wine but grilling cooks most of that off and the end result is a sausage with a hint of vino and a powerful pepper kick. It a Sichuan sausage, or something like it. The other teams had good luck as well with some winning combinations including one with pumpkin paste and the curried cauliflower and another team used the caramelized onions, potatoes and maple syrup.

I’ve always loved sausage (it’s the English in me) and I can’t understand the aversion some folks have. Unless all they’ve ever had are the street-meat-fat-balloons available on every street corner, then they’ve only themselves to blame. A fresh sausage made with good quality meat, a little imagination and without additives like nitrates and preservatives, is a beautiful thing, regardless of its reputation.

Rod Weatherbie is a Toronto-based journalist. He is also partly responsible for Gadzooks! an online arts zine.