Lessons learned from sausage making

I decided to make my own homemade sausage. How hard could it be?  I opened my laptop, punched in You Tube. Hit the search bar key looking for directions on homemade breakfast sausage.   I was welcomed with 12  enticing videos to watch.  I clicked the first one that caught my eye. It only showed him stuffing the sausage into the casing. That's O.K. I had 11 more to chose from. The next one started out better. He had bowls of seasoning out on the table. He was so kind in telling me the spices . To bad he forgot  that with a recipe you need amounts. Back to the video library I went.  I noticed one that was a demonstration of how a local Italian market made theirs. Perfect! If anyone knows the correct way to make sausage it would be them ,right! Wrong! It turned out to be an advertizement for the store.  Then came buffing issues. It took me longer to find a recipe then it did to make the sausage.   Finally I found a great video made by a chef. Not only did he show how to make it, with the spices and amounts included. He also gave you his website with other sausage recipes. I had finally found my lighted way thru the darkness. At least tell it turned gray. So here are the things I learned  from my time in the world of sausage making. 

1)  Just because they say they are a Chef may not make it so.

2)  If you don't like fennel, you won't like fennel seeds. (duh)

3)  Orange zest at no time belongs in a sausage recipe, even if a chef tells you to do it. 

4)  The most important thing I learned was to test the recipe with just a pound of meat. Before you have to throw away 4 pounds worth.

 5)  If you fail try again.

 Yes I am trying this again. But with out You Tube. I really don't feel like wasting another hour out of my life. I found a recipe on all recipes.com.  It  sounds more up my alley. Don't worry. I will be making a test batch first. Let's hope I don't have any more lessons to learn.