ALL PORK SPICY CAJUN LINKS & ROPES

chef willie · May 2, 2013

Truthfully, not as 'hot' as I thought they would be so must work on that. Started with 5 pounds of butt through the coarse plate then ground a good sized onion through. Mixed in all the seasonings & cure with about 6 ounces of water and re-ground through the fine plate. Stuffed 2 lengths of hog casing and finished off the batch by using collagen casings making oversized Slimmies, mainly because I had not used collagen casing before. Overnight rest in the fridge, brought back to room temp and air dried for an hour. Into the pre-heated 150 degree smoker for one hour with no smoke. Then heavy smoke with hickory and cherry chunks for about 4 hours at 150. Bumped the smoker up to 170 degrees and they took about another 4 hours to hit 150 IT. Let them bloom & cool for about 2 hours. I wanted to experiment with a smoke to completion. Yes, they are a bit more wrinkled & dryer appearing. Will have a couple for dinner and see if a huge difference in taste vs half smoke & half poaching which is a lot quicker. Also, I added no powdered milk assuming the double grind would make a very smooth interior. It's not bad but seemed a little grainy last night. Thinking the NFDM and a little more water would fix that? I'm thinking some spicy brown mustard and a cold beer on the side will do wonders for these but always seeking sausage nirvana just because I'm my own worst critic. And thinking I should have loaded into a cold smoker, I got some condensation early on. Thanks for looking....Willie

first grind with the onion

SAUSAGE1.jpg

chef willie
May 2, 2013

second grind, seasoning added

SAUSAGE2.jpg

chef willie
May 2, 2013

OK...looks real 'hillbilly' BUT was 48 degrees with a stiff breeze--dried them fast

SAUSAGE3.jpg

chef willie
May 2, 2013

collagen ropes....worked better than I expected & pretty thick

SAUSAGE5.jpg

chef willie
May 2, 2013

cardboard separator tip from SMF. S-hooks from Home Depot worked good

SAUSAGE4.jpg

chef willie
May 2, 2013

tangled bloom....I did hang them after the shot

sausage7.jpg

chef willie
May 2, 2013

2 blow-outs--pan fried close up for you-know-who

sausage6.jpg

chef willie
May 2, 2013

seenred · May 2, 2013

Looks great, Willie! Nicely done, and thanks for sharing...

Red

kathrynn · May 2, 2013

This Summer.....I am going to do some sausage.....looks Great to ME!

Kat

fpnmf · May 2, 2013

Looking good!!

Craig

themule69 · May 2, 2013

looks great. what did you use for seasoning?

happy smoke.

david

snorkelinggirl · May 2, 2013

Hey Bill,

Your links look fantastic. Nice job!

Question: When you check your IT, do you check with the probe in a bunch of locations to make sure it is uniformly cooked? Or just a couple of places and hope for the best? My smoked sausage is ending up with a bunch of holes in it, just curious what others are doing.

Enjoy our beautiful weather!

Clarissa

chef willie · May 2, 2013

SnorkelingGirl said:
Hey Bill,

Your links look fantastic. Nice job!

Question: When you check your IT, do you check with the probe in a bunch of locations to make sure it is uniformly cooked? Or just a couple of places and hope for the best? My smoked sausage is ending up with a bunch of holes in it, just curious what others are doing.

Enjoy our beautiful weather!

Clarissa

Hey....thx. I use the thermo-pen with a very thin probe...reads within seconds, hardly any hole to speak of. About 15 bucks on Amazon. And, yes, I check around in diff links but not obsessed with it. Use the Maverick probe in one link as a base line. Pork is done around 145 per the 'new' guidelines so figure 150 in a few & I'm good to go. Most will get re-heated somehow anyway. Yep, weather's great...heading out to the raised bed to plant the 'matoes, Thai birds eyes peppers, cayenne's and poblanos. Me thinks I'm a fan of a few hours of smoke and then finish with the poaching rather than a full smoke to completion.

chef willie · May 2, 2013

themule69 said:
looks great. what did you use for seasoning?

happy smoke.

david

Thx.....here's what went in 5 #'s of ground butt

1 large onion

4 tsp crushed red pepper

4 tsp coarse ground black pepper

4 tsp fennel seed

1 Tbl sweet paprika

2 Tbl smoked paprika

3 tsp pickling salt

2 Tbl garlic powder

1 Tbl onion powder

1 Tbl cayenne

1 Tbl coriander

2 Tbl Franks Red Hot Sauce

1 tsp pink salt

snorkelinggirl · May 2, 2013

Chef Willie said:
Hey....thx. I use the thermo-pen with a very thin probe...reads within seconds, hardly any hole to speak of. About 15 bucks on Amazon. And, yes, I check around in diff links but not obsessed with it. Use the Maverick probe in one link as a base line. Pork is done around 145 per the 'new' guidelines so figure 150 in a few & I'm good to go. Most will get re-heated somehow anyway. Yep, weather's great...heading out to the raised bed to plant the 'matoes, Thai birds eyes peppers, cayenne's and poblanos. Me thinks I'm a fan of a few hours of smoke and then finish with the poaching rather than a full smoke to completion.

Excellent, thanks for the info. I haven't tried a poached finish yet, but I'm working up to that. Spending 10+ hours hot-smoking summer sausage while watching the smoker temp swing UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN is no fun.

BTW, what do you use for checking temp when poaching sausage? None of the many temp probes I own are water safe.

Have fun with the gardening!

chef willie · May 2, 2013

SnorkelingGirl said:
Excellent, thanks for the info. I haven't tried a poached finish yet, but I'm working up to that. Spending 10+ hours hot-smoking summer sausage while watching the smoker temp swing UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN is no fun.

BTW, what do you use for checking temp when poaching sausage? None of the many temp probes I own are water safe.

Have fun with the gardening!

Right now I cheat & just use my instant read for checking the water temp.....gets close enuf. Water gets hot enuf with the sausage in it and I turn down heat to maintain temp. If sausage is half done already it really doesn't take long. I plan on getting a Nesco Roaster to eliminate that issue. Another gadget needed, hoping to find a decent one in a thrift shop. You're in Corvallis.....hit the homebrew shop on 4th(?). They should have a floating therm. I used one when brewing beer...ez to read, has big numbers. While there score some dextrose and juniper berries.....I see many recipes calling for dextrose, you'll probably use it sooner than later.

themule69 · May 2, 2013

SnorkelingGirl said:
Excellent, thanks for the info. I haven't tried a poached finish yet, but I'm working up to that. Spending 10+ hours hot-smoking summer sausage while watching the smoker temp swing UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN is no fun.

BTW, what do you use for checking temp when poaching sausage? None of the many temp probes I own are water safe.

Have fun with the gardening!

when i poach sausage. i pick it up with tongs and check.if it needs more i drop it back in. next time i get a differant piece. i have found that the 1" to 1"1/4" takes about 15 min in boiling water.

happy smoken.

david

Bearcarver · May 2, 2013

Chef Willie said:
Hey....thx. I use the thermo-pen with a very thin probe...reads within seconds, hardly any hole to speak of. About 15 bucks on Amazon. And, yes, I check around in diff links but not obsessed with it. Use the Maverick probe in one link as a base line. Pork is done around 145 per the 'new' guidelines so figure 150 in a few & I'm good to go. Most will get re-heated somehow anyway. Yep, weather's great...heading out to the raised bed to plant the 'matoes, Thai birds eyes peppers, cayenne's and poblanos. Me thinks I'm a fan of a few hours of smoke and then finish with the poaching rather than a full smoke to completion.

Looks Awesome, Willie!!!

You got the same Mahogany color I got on the Mini Bear Loaves!!!

BTW: I should mention that the 145 degrees for pork is whole meat pork. Ground pork is safe at 160.

Bear

snorkelinggirl · May 2, 2013

themule69 said:
when i poach sausage. i pick it up with tongs and check.if it needs more i drop it back in. next time i get a differant piece. i have found that the 1" to 1"1/4" takes about 15 min in boiling water.

happy smoken.

david

Thanks for the info, David. I appreciate you sharing tips and tricks with me!

Have a great day!
Clarissa

snorkelinggirl · May 2, 2013

Chef Willie said:
Right now I cheat & just use my instant read for checking the water temp.....gets close enuf. Water gets hot enuf with the sausage in it and I turn down heat to maintain temp. If sausage is half done already it really doesn't take long. I plan on getting a Nesco Roaster to eliminate that issue. Another gadget needed, hoping to find a decent one in a thrift shop. You're in Corvallis.....hit the homebrew shop on 4th(?). They should have a floating therm. I used one when brewing beer...ez to read, has big numbers. While there score some dextrose and juniper berries.....I see many recipes calling for dextrose, you'll probably use it sooner than later.

I'll have to go down and check them out. Yeah, the summer sausage that I've been making calls for dextrose, which I guess is more "fermentable". I've been cheating and subbing in equal weight of brown sugar. I'll see what they have for water temp gauges....it would come in useful for hot water canning too!

woodcutter · May 2, 2013

Your sausage looks delicious and you got it all in there! Did you say BEER?

themule69 · May 2, 2013

SnorkelingGirl said:
I'll have to go down and check them out. Yeah, the summer sausage that I've been making calls for dextrose, which I guess is more "fermentable". I've been cheating and subbing in equal weight of brown sugar. I'll see what they have for water temp gauges....it would come in useful for hot water canning too!

I'm not sure if you use water temp to decide if IT is a good idea. just my

.02 cents.jpg

themule69
Apr 24, 2013

happy smoken.

david

themule69 · May 2, 2013

themule69 said:
I'm not sure if you use water temp to decide if IT is a good idea. just my

.02 cents.jpg

themule69

Apr 24, 2013

happy smoken.

david

if you are going to use water temp to decide I.T. the a roast is done before the water boils? the same would be true with shrimp, mud bugs,potatos, and on and on.

i'm not likeing the math.

happy smoken.

david

snorkelinggirl · May 2, 2013

themule69 said:
if you are going to use water temp to decide I.T. the a roast is done before the water boils? the same would be true with shrimp, mud bugs,potatos, and on and on.

i'm not likeing the math.

happy smoken.

david

Hi David,

No, I'd like to monitor both water temp (to make sure it stays around 180 deg) and also the IT. I don't have a good water-proof way to monitor either right now, although your suggestion of pulling the sausage out of the water to check the temp, then dropping it back in if not up to temp, sounds like it would work with any temp probe (i.e. not water proof).

Thanks for chiming in and keeping me out of trouble! Hope you have a great night!

Clarissa

themule69 · May 2, 2013

SnorkelingGirl said:
Hi David,

No, I'd like to monitor both water temp (to make sure it stays around 180 deg) and also the IT. I don't have a good water-proof way to monitor either right now, although your suggestion of pulling the sausage out of the water to check the temp, then dropping it back in if not up to temp, sounds like it would work with any temp probe (i.e. not water proof).

Thanks for chiming in and keeping me out of trouble! Hope you have a great night!

Clarissa

MS. Clarissa i'm not sure what differance water temps make in poaching. i also make beer and that makes a differance. but with poaching meat. I.T. is the only number that i know of that matters.

happy smoken.

david

ALL PORK SPICY CAJUN LINKS & ROPES

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Epic Pitmaster

Master of the Pit

Master of the Pit

Master of the Pit

Master of the Pit

Master of the Pit

Epic Pitmaster

Gone but not forgotten RIP

Master of the Pit

Master of the Pit

Master of the Pit

Epic Pitmaster

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