Frankfurters: Photos Added

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

couger78

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
May 3, 2011
679
243
Northern California
Well, I took an hour drive yesterday to the Bass Pro shop—only one of two stores in California—to pick up my 'father's day gift': a new masterbuilt XL smoker. This will take the place of my ol' trusty weber (WSM) for sausage-smoking.

Got it hooked up and seasoned it for about 3-4 hours yesterday.

062e8edf_New_GOSM.jpg


Today, on its initial voyage, I loaded up some apple chunks and hot-smoked a variety of stuff: pork baby back ribs, a whole turkey breast, and a bunch of my garlic sausages. Shown here about 90 minutes in...

a1cdc6ac_First_smoke.jpg


The thing is HUGE  & can easily hold 2X the load I placed inside.

The unit needs some mods, but tomorrow I'll be cranking out some homemade franks and using the AMazen smoker in this unit.

Gotta be easier than the o'l charcoal weber! 
biggrin.gif


QVIEW Pics to come!

—Kevin
 
Last edited:
The other BPS is an hour from me. Looks like you are on your way to mastering that smoker. Looking forward to seeing the frankfurters 
 
Nice Father's Day Gift. Its the gift that will keep giving.
 
Looking good!!

  Craig

I bought my own fathers day gifts too....
 
Looks great Kevin, one of these day's I'll be getting a gasser. Great looking load of meat too. Happy Fathers Day to ya.
 
Looking super. Cant wait for the Q-views of all this

Rich
Well, there was a slight change in the frankfurter process (due to an unexpected neighborhood emergency & trip to the doc) which created an abrupt interruption in the middle of my sausage-making endeavors yesterday. The end results were, unfortunately, not so tasty. A lesson learned: some things you just can't rush!

I'll post some images later when I get a chance.

—Kevin
 
Last edited:
Okay so monday morning I get up bright & early as it was expected to be a toasty warm day (100+°). Got all the things lined up for frank production: grinder, mixer, stuffer, spices and about 10 lbs of pork & beef:

f1170522_Porkbeef_10lbs.jpg


I'm using 80/20 mix in this: 80% beef, 20% pork and doing only a 5-pound load. the leftover meat I'll save for another adventure.

I used the frankfurter recipe from the Kutas book. Option is to use coriander instead of mace, and nonfat dry milk for SPC. I opted to use the mace & the nonfat dry milk.

Spices ready:

2da1c7c2_franks_spices.jpg


Ground the meat through the finest plate I have (4.5mm). I'd like to get a 3mm someday but I've no luck in finding one that fits the Cabela grinders.

51b2f8a0_porknBeef_ground.jpg


Added the spices & did a quick mix in the kirby mixer...

82a5f7b7_porknBeef_mixed.jpg


Now here's where things started getting squirrelly. Loving wife tells me that my son & I both have an eye appointment in about an hour (8:00am!).

I decide to quickly emulsify the meat load in the food processor—3 separate 1.75lb loads, adding ice water as I go. Finish it all on full-speed in about 6-8 minutes. uh oh.....I may have over-done the emulsifying a bit in my haste AND probably added TOO MUCH water to the mix as well. The meat paste looks a bit too thin. When I emulsified meat before (when I made bockwursts), the meat paste looked 'good', whereas this latest batch looks a bit too loose....
th_crybaby2.gif


Undaunted, I plow ahead with the stuffing using 24mm sheep casings, rapidly firing the kirby cannon as quickly as I can, trying to minimize blow-outs.

Wound up with about 30 fairly-uniform, if not a bit 'soft' beef franks

95d1100d_fransk_stuffed.jpg


Off to the eye appointment. Franks have to wait. In the fridge they go. I get back about 2 hours later and ready to do some smoking.

I've got the franks hanging from 4 dowels in the NEW smoker and load up a line of hickory dust into the Amazin smoker. I figure 90 minutes of good smoke, but first thing I want to do is dry out the franks in the smoker (no smoke yet) @ 135° for about an hour. So I've got the franks drying & I get a call from a neighbor. His car died & he asked if I could I pick him up at his work in about 2 hours. Sure, I said. Now I'm in a pinch for time. I failed to take any pictures of this process. NO QVIEW. My apologies!  After about 30 minutes, I light the AMZN & start the smoking process—and yes, in hindsight, too soon for the smoke. After almost 90 minutes, I gotta leave soon to pick up the neighbor, I check the frank....not much color at all. Crud.

I pull 'em & lightly poach them until the IT reaches approximately 152°, pluck em & let 'em 'bloom.'

When I return from being a good neighbor, I find my franks havent really 'bloomed' at all—they look pretty sick actually.

I try one and am greatly disappointed. The flavor isnt bad BUT the texture is mushy (awful!) and the skins tough.

The grim results:

bdd3562d_franks_final.jpg


Disappointed? Sure—but some key 'learning' moments.

• Watch how long you emulsify

• Watch water content

• Stuff the casings 'tighter'

• Make sure links are dry before applying smoke

• Choose a day when there are no distractions nor calls for help....
biggrin.gif


—Kevin
 
The ribs looks great. If i may say two thinks 1. if it is to soft due to water leave it over night the meat will absorb the water  and  then you can  stuff it .

2. let it dry in the smoker at 85 F for an hour then  at 150 till IT 135 F  and due to the amount of moist i will cook it till IT  160 to 165 F and then to ice water  and to Bloom.

it worked with me before
 
The ribs looks great. If i may say two thinks 1. if it is to soft due to water leave it over night the meat will absorb the water  and  then you can  stuff it .

2. let it dry in the smoker at 85 F for an hour then  at 150 till IT 135 F  and due to the amount of moist i will cook it till IT  160 to 165 F and then to ice water  and to Bloom.

it worked with me before
Thanks, the ribs did turn out rather tasty! And although the turkey was a little dry (should have pulled it sooner), the garlic sausage smoked & dried nicely. They remind me now of jumbo snack sticks!

Believe me, next time I go to the cost & trouble of making sausages or franks, I'll take my time & try not to rush anything. 
biggrin.gif
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky