Make sure your ingredients are laid out, and the meat and fat are very cold (fat can be completely frozen), before you begin (put meat and fat in freezer for 2 hours). Put bowls and grinder in freezer or refrigerator for an hour before using them.

Prepare a large bowl of ice and put a medium metal bowl on top of it. Slice your meat and fat into chunks between an inch and two inches across. Cut your fat a little smaller than your meat. To keep your ingredients cold, put your cut meat and fat into the bowl set into a larger bowl filled with ice.

When the meat and fat are cut, mix them quickly. Pour in most of your spices; I leave out a tablespoon or two of fennel seeds and a tablespoon of black pepper for later. Mix quickly. Add the salt and the sugar and mix one more time. Put into a covered container or top the bowl with plastic wrap and put the sausage mixture into the freezer for at least 30 minutes and no more than an hour.

If you plan on stuffing your sausage, take out some of the casings (you need about 15 to 18 feet for a 5-pound batch of links) and immerse them in warm water. (If you are not planning on stuffing your sausage, you can skip this step.)

After your sausage mixture has chilled, remove your grinder from the freezer and set it up. I use the coarse die for Italian sausage, but you could use either. Do not use a very fine die, because to do this properly you typically need to grind the meat coarse first, then re-chill it, then grind again with the fine die.

Push the sausage mixture though the grinder, working quickly. If you use the KitchenAid attachment, use it on level 4. Make sure the ground meat falls into a cold bowl. When all the meat is ground, put it back in the freezer and clean up the grinder and work area.

When you’ve cleaned up, take the mixture back out and add the remaining spices and the sherry-sherry vinegar mixture. Using the paddle attachment to a stand mixer (or a stout wooden spoon, or your VERY clean hands), mix the sausage well. With a stand mixer set on level 1, let this go for 90 seconds.

When this is done, you have sausage. You are done if you are not making links. To cook, take a scoop and form into a ball with your hands. Flatten out a bit. Cook on medium low heat in a skillet for 5 to 10 minutes each side until browned and cooked through.

Put the mixture back in the freezer so it's chilled for stuffing in the casings.

Bring out your sausage stuffer, which should have been in the freezer or refrigerator. Run warm water through your sausage casings.

Take the meat from the freezer one last time and stuff it into the stuffer. Start cranking the stuffer down. Air should be the first thing that emerges.

When the meat starts to come out, use one hand to regulate how fast the casing slips off the tube. Let the sausage come out in one long coil; you will make links later.

When the sausage is all in the casings, tie off the one end in a double knot. Pinch off what will become two links. Work the links so they are pretty tight.

Hang them on the rack so they don’t touch (too much), and find yourself a needle. Sterilize it and look for air bubbles in the links. Prick them with the needle.

Let these dry for an hour or two, then put them in a large container in the fridge overnight.