On The Sausage Trail…November, 2024

Home Made Sausage Party: Americana Still Lives

According to Statista, the worldwide sausage market is approximately $110 billion. In the US, they site the sausage revenue to be $6.4 billion for 2024. Americans eat a lot of sausage. From a macro point of view, we see many choices in a variety of sausages across all the 50 states. This is a diversity fact we can take pride in.

At a more human level – a you and me level – it’s an interesting thing to ask about how many home sausage makers are there and who are they?

I asked some AI tools (CoPilot and Perplexity) but their artificial intelligence answers did not yield any concrete demographic insights. Do home sausage makers skew older and grayer? Do first generation citizens make more homemade sausage than second generation? And do men make more homemade sausage than women? You can suspect so but actual data would be more useful.

If you own the Sausagefest.com website, you have these types of questions.

It appears as of 2024, that there seems to be a marketing data hole about this slice of the American public. In 2024 this seems hard to believe when we can track eyeballs and viewers of pornography and women who travel across state lines for pregnancy health. But there is a paucity of data about home made sausage makers in the U.S.

When you can’t find the data you’re forced to go collect the data yourself or find those sausage artists who are practicing the craft at home. Fortunately, the network of friends who like sausages is a welcoming group and invitations to sausage-related events come our way.

On October 27 I had the good fortune to attend a sausage making party that has been going on for forty years. I heard about the event for several years and am grateful to the brothers who run it, Steven and Jordan Tepper, for the invite.

Steven Tepper
Steven: The Inside Prep Chef

As you might deduce from the pictures, they were not running the show back forty years ago. The founding-inspired sausage artist was their father, Michael. He was one of the founding Executive Chefs, alongside his close friends Donnie & Wilma Baggio, and was that kind of guy who could make a lot of things happen – whether in the business world or at a grill.

Jordan Tepper
Jordan: The Outside Grilling & Tasting Chef

Size and Cleanliness Does Matter

Jordan and Steven follow their father’s advice to make no small plans. Their sausage making day starts in the morning with 240 pounds of pork shoulder. They have a dozen friends and family that make up a dedicated team. The event takes place in one of the cleanest garages I’ve seen. And their attention to clean and healthy conditions are a foundation for this forty-year event.

Team Tepper
Team Tepper: Homemade Sausage Makers

If you are doing home made sausage making, the Tepper’s attention to clean appliances, knives, tables, bowls and mixing vat should be followed. The old adage is to not witness the sausage being made. But when you see the healthy steps taken to ensure quality you can see that modern home sausage making is far better than current political sausage making.

As the first-time attendee I also saw the first-time-ever type of tragedy that could stop sausage making in their casing. Their dependable old Torrey meat grinder broke its blade, and the sausage ship was in dead stop mode. Within fifteen minutes the team of friends and family turned into a sausage SWAT team. One team started dialing local butchers to help. Another team was sent to go purchase two new grinders. A third team started to open wine bottles since early drinking seemed to be called for at this point.

Tepper Wine
Party Wines

This multi-team approach should be a lesson to any other homemade sausage making event. Especially the aspect of having far above average wine to have on hand when emergencies happen.

When you have a team of focused and smart people problems get solved quickly. The “Find a Friendly Butcher Team” had the winning approach. The local pro ground 240 pounds of pork shoulder for them. As you can see in the photo below, that’s a lot of sausage.

Local Pro Butcher
Local Pro Butcher To The Resuce

Once back in the garage the mixing of meat with seasonings began. The sausage deliverables this day was Italian sausage made into three types: mild, hot, and extra hot. Steven kept the mixing and sausage assembly moving, while Jordan was grilling in real-time. His quick taste tests would cycle back to the process team so more key ingredients could be added. Was it too salty, not salty enough, too much fennel, not enough…etc.

The folks involved in this sizable sausage production all knew each other. Almost all were University of Illinois graduates, and I lost track of who the cousins were, and which guy was married to which guys sister. There was a great deal of camaraderie along with just giving a crap about making really good sausage.

A couple final notes for other homemade teams, adding a big screen to the party to watch sporting events while making sausage is a great idea. It’s also important at the same time to find the appropriate rock & roll music to mix your meat with.

As the first-time attendee it was obvious that this was a celebration of friendship and family that has many more years on it. The only thing that might add to this festival is the right name. Given the U of I alumni that were involved, I have this for their suggestion box. Why not brand the event – The University of Illinois Alumni Sausage Making Team of Chicago?

Once you get that news out, how many other U of I Alumni sausage making teams from around the country appear? And when does the first official University sanctioned cook-off happen? Probably during a football or basketball weekend. U of I grads are everywhere. This could go global.

Somewhere, Michael Tepper is smiling at this big idea.

Postscript Note:

Steven and Jordan sent me home with some sausages. On a coldish Sunday afternoon in November, we broke out the hot sausage and added it to our spaghetti dinner. Without any prompting, Kathy said, “This is some of the best Italian sausage we’ve had.” I couldn’t disagree. The heat was there but not too much. The fat-to-meat ratio was excellent. Just as importantly the fine grind of the sausage gave you as easy to consume texture. This quality grind also avoided the awful discovery of that “chunk of something” you find in many store made sausages.

Our Rating: Three sausages out of three sausages.