Sai Ua

Freeze all the meat grinder parts for at least several hours or overnight.

Trim and discard any glands or discolored bits on the pork, then cut the pork into ¾-inch (2-cm) dice.

Place the pork cubes in the freezer to get very cold, but not frozen solid, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, you can use this time to chop and measure the remaining ingredients.

When you’re ready to start the sausage, first, set up the grinder with the largest die size, according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Pass all the seasonings and aromatics through the grinder, using a few pieces of meat if needed to push them through.

These will go through the grinder another time, so they don’t need to be perfect.

Mix these seasonings with the cold pork cubes.

Next, begin grinding the meat and seasonings.

Because everything is nice and cold, you will get a nice grind with the fat cut rather than smeared.

The mix should look like pink meat pieces and white fat pieces with flecks of chili and seasonings, and should not be a uniform pink color.

After the last meat cubes have been fed into the grinder, you can put in a few small ice cubes to help push the last cubes of meat through the worm and the blade.

Stop the grinder when the ice starts to come out of the die.

Mix the loose sausage by hand just to distribute the seasonings.

Be careful not to knead it like bread, because too much handling can make the sausage tough.

The sausage at this point should have a golden color from the turmeric, be evenly homogenous and have a sticky texture.

Press plastic film directly onto the surface of the sausage to protect it from getting dry and place it in the refrigerator to get cold again.

This can be for 1 to 2 hours or even overnight.

Prepare the stuffer to form the sausage.

Rinse the casing by running water over both the outside and inside.

Rub a little oil on the funnel of the stuffer and load the casing on it.

This recipe will make about 40 inches (1 m) of sausage at the 32–35 mm size, so you don’t need a long continuous casing.

Lightly prick holes in the casing on the stuffer tube.

Tie the end of the casing.

Load the sausage into the stuffer and begin pushing it to form the sausage.

The sausage should be plump but not in danger of bursting.

If you happen to have a blowout, just tie off both sides and continue until all the sausage has been formed into the casing.

Lightly prick holes in the casing again to allow any air to escape.

If you wish, you can make sausage links of your preferred size.

At this point, the sausages can be cooked, but it’s preferable to refrigerate again overnight to let the flavors marry.

Traditionally, this sausage is grilled over coals, but grilling from a raw state often means the fat leaks out and the result is a drier sausage.

I prefer to precook the sausage in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 15 minutes, or until it reaches an internal temperature of 150°F (65°C).

From there, it can be grilled over a slow fire to get a little color, make the casing a little snappy and cook to a final internal temperature of 165°F (75°C).