- Oct 23, 2007
- 206
- 10
This has turned out to be a week-end long sausage make. This time I did it in stages.
Friday: So Friday evening I picked up a 10# Packer Trim Brisket, and a 8# Pork Shoulder. I stayed up kind of late Friday night cubing up all this meat. By the time I trimmed off the "un-wanted's" and boned the Pork, I ended up with about 10# of lean Pork/Beef meats, and 3# of fat from the Brisket. Pretty much a good fat/lean ratio, right out of the packages.
I used my own favorite blend of spices for "German Sausage", and added Morton's Sugar Tender Quick for a cure, since my plan was to cold smoke these fresh meat links. I put the cubed meat in a covered plastic tray in the refrig for the night.
Saturday: I ground and stuffed the cubed meats into hog casings, and then since it was late evening once again, the links went back into the covered tray and into the refrig. to cure a bit longer.
All of this is basically covered on my site www.homesausagemaker.blogspot.com so,
no need for any new Qview pictures.
Sunday: Time for the cold smoke. This is actually the first time I've done this smoke, so at this point you folks might have some tips for improvements for me. The weather here today pretty much sucked for anything else, I don't watch NFL football, and NASCAR is over until Daytona in Feb., so it seemed like a good day to tend the smoker.
It has been a cold, wet day here, ambient temp. around 35F all day, kind of drizzle and mist. So the patio umbrella was needed to keep the Smoke Hollow cabinet out of the wet.
Since, I don't have a real smoke house, I've made a few mods to the Gasser Smoke Hollow. On gas, there's no way this smoker could stay below 100F., so I put a 1000 watt hot plate in the bottom. I found a stainless steel pet food bowl at Target, and drilled 4 air holes spaced around the lower part of the bowl. Here it is filled with a combo of dry and soaked Pecan chips. It gets covered with a piece of heavy foil with one air hole poked right in the center.
I also made a heat baffle out of 2 foil cookie sheets. $1.00 at the local grocery. Put them together with some metal clips along the edges, and with a few bends, they fit right in the Smoke Hollow above the hot plate. I poked holes in the bottom tray right over the smoke pan, and then in the top tray around the edges. The baffle shields heat, allows smoke to pass thru, and serves as a drip catcher to keep stuff off the hot plate. Here it's set up in the Smoke Hollow.
I also wanted to hang my Brats rather than having them lying on the racks, so I installed a grid of small eye bolts in the top of the smoker. The eye bolts were opened up to make hooks. Cost less than $5.00 at Lowes.
Some nice little finished nuts on the top outside. (yeah, I drilled one hole in the wrong place, but it works for my temp dial from my turkey fryer to help monitor inside temps. guess I could claim it was planned).
A view of the hooks from inside.
The sausages loaded into the smoker, ready to close the door.
I smoked them for about 3 hours, I had to do 2 loads. The smoker temp ran between 80-100F, closer to 80F all afternoon. The Brat's internal temp got up to about 75F.
Next I will package them in Food Saver bags, and into the freezer they go. Of course the Brats are still raw and will have to be cooked fully before they are eaten.
-=- Jerry -=-
.
Friday: So Friday evening I picked up a 10# Packer Trim Brisket, and a 8# Pork Shoulder. I stayed up kind of late Friday night cubing up all this meat. By the time I trimmed off the "un-wanted's" and boned the Pork, I ended up with about 10# of lean Pork/Beef meats, and 3# of fat from the Brisket. Pretty much a good fat/lean ratio, right out of the packages.
I used my own favorite blend of spices for "German Sausage", and added Morton's Sugar Tender Quick for a cure, since my plan was to cold smoke these fresh meat links. I put the cubed meat in a covered plastic tray in the refrig for the night.
Saturday: I ground and stuffed the cubed meats into hog casings, and then since it was late evening once again, the links went back into the covered tray and into the refrig. to cure a bit longer.
All of this is basically covered on my site www.homesausagemaker.blogspot.com so,
no need for any new Qview pictures.
Sunday: Time for the cold smoke. This is actually the first time I've done this smoke, so at this point you folks might have some tips for improvements for me. The weather here today pretty much sucked for anything else, I don't watch NFL football, and NASCAR is over until Daytona in Feb., so it seemed like a good day to tend the smoker.
It has been a cold, wet day here, ambient temp. around 35F all day, kind of drizzle and mist. So the patio umbrella was needed to keep the Smoke Hollow cabinet out of the wet.
Since, I don't have a real smoke house, I've made a few mods to the Gasser Smoke Hollow. On gas, there's no way this smoker could stay below 100F., so I put a 1000 watt hot plate in the bottom. I found a stainless steel pet food bowl at Target, and drilled 4 air holes spaced around the lower part of the bowl. Here it is filled with a combo of dry and soaked Pecan chips. It gets covered with a piece of heavy foil with one air hole poked right in the center.
I also made a heat baffle out of 2 foil cookie sheets. $1.00 at the local grocery. Put them together with some metal clips along the edges, and with a few bends, they fit right in the Smoke Hollow above the hot plate. I poked holes in the bottom tray right over the smoke pan, and then in the top tray around the edges. The baffle shields heat, allows smoke to pass thru, and serves as a drip catcher to keep stuff off the hot plate. Here it's set up in the Smoke Hollow.
I also wanted to hang my Brats rather than having them lying on the racks, so I installed a grid of small eye bolts in the top of the smoker. The eye bolts were opened up to make hooks. Cost less than $5.00 at Lowes.
Some nice little finished nuts on the top outside. (yeah, I drilled one hole in the wrong place, but it works for my temp dial from my turkey fryer to help monitor inside temps. guess I could claim it was planned).
A view of the hooks from inside.
The sausages loaded into the smoker, ready to close the door.
I smoked them for about 3 hours, I had to do 2 loads. The smoker temp ran between 80-100F, closer to 80F all afternoon. The Brat's internal temp got up to about 75F.
Next I will package them in Food Saver bags, and into the freezer they go. Of course the Brats are still raw and will have to be cooked fully before they are eaten.
-=- Jerry -=-
.
