Where to Start with James Peisker & Chris Carter
James Peisker and Chris Carter are the founders of Porter Road Butcher in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the city’s first whole-animal butcher shops. They built their reputation on sourcing pasture-raised meat from local farms and processing it with care, transparency, and respect for the animal. Their approach to sausage making grows directly out of that philosophy: start with the best meat you can find, understand what each cut brings to the mix, and let the quality of the ingredients do most of the work. Their writing is practical, approachable, and rooted in years of daily hands-on butchery.
Start here
Homemade Sausage
James Peisker & Chris Carter · 160 pages · 2016 · Easy
Themes: sausage making, grinding, stuffing, curing, smoking
The most accessible introduction to making sausage at home. James Peisker and Chris Carter, the butchers behind Nashville’s Porter Road Butcher, wrote this book for people who have never ground a single ounce of meat but want to learn. It covers everything from sourcing quality cuts to stuffing your first casing, and it does so without assuming you already know your way around a grinder.
Why Start Here
Most sausage-making books fall into one of two camps: either they are dense reference volumes aimed at experienced charcutiers, or they are thin pamphlets with a handful of recipes and little guidance. “Homemade Sausage” sits right in the middle. Peisker and Carter explain the fundamentals clearly, walk you through equipment choices without pushing expensive gear, and give you enough technique to understand what you are doing rather than just blindly following steps.
The book covers the full range of fresh sausages: bratwurst, chorizo, andouille, Italian links, breakfast patties, and more. Each recipe includes tips on meat selection, fat ratios, and seasoning adjustments. The authors come from a whole-animal butchery background, so they also teach you how to think about which cuts work best for different styles of sausage.
At 160 pages, it is concise enough to read in a weekend and start making sausages the following week. The instructions are practical and tested, and the tone is encouraging without being oversimplified. If you have never made sausage before, this is the book that will get you from curious to confident.
What to Expect
A hands-on guide organized around technique first, recipes second. The opening chapters cover grinding, seasoning, stuffing, linking, and cooking methods. The recipe sections follow, grouped by sausage style. Expect clear photographs, honest advice about what can go wrong, and a strong emphasis on using quality ingredients. The book keeps its focus on fresh sausages rather than dry-cured or fermented varieties, which makes it ideal for someone just getting started.