Any advice on my first sausage attempt?

Ghacther,

Have you made another batch? We all should know that almost every sausage is better smoked. :) I've gathered knowledge from several people and many books trough out my career but by far the best resource is Stanley Marianski's book Home production of Quality sausages. I've used that book to make many of my own recipes to sell in restaurants. Its very straight forward and gives confidence and knowledge to create your own recipes. Nearly everything in the book is on his website. Links below. The book is 80% geared towards curing sausage/meat but your going to want to make bacon, ham or a cold smoker someday.

If you're smoking sausage and dont have nitrate issues use them. Most recipes will have you hanging fresh sausage for several hours to overnight then smoking at low temps. Cure #1 will make this a much safer process. 

I dont let sausage to go over 155* after that point the fat will begin to melt and run. Some people dont like to finish smoke sausage in water but I have not noticed flavor loss. Water is the best for cooking evenly. 

Here's a bison (15% pork fat added) and cherry sausage that I made with knowledge from the book. before twisting to links. It was a part of dish that won me a trophy.



I never got one of the final product but this was our temporary cooker at an "off the grid" festival. Thats a bison leg on the spit and i shoveled coals into the smokehouse on the right for the sausage to smoke.

I hope this helps. I really love sausage! Going crazy right now because dont have the equipment to make my own yet at the new gig.

Cheers,

Mike