Alligator sausage

[cobrafnd]

Friend got a gator tag this year and brought me a whole small gator to smoke this weekend, and about 25-30 pounds of cheek and tail meat off this big boy. I am making sausage out of the cut meat. Made a small 12# batch last night to make sure that I liked the mix before doing it all. Turned out great. I am going to grill some and smoke some tonight to see what is better.

Recipe I used and you can just multiply to get your total meat weight. I multiplied by 6.

1# gator meat
1# Pork butt
1 tbls fresh finely chopped parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Tony’s creole seasoning
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2.8 g of #1 cure

 

[Sandbar smoka]

Looking good cobrafnd!! That's my favorite thing to do with any bit of gator I get. Recipe very similar to mine. Try using a little chef paul prudhommes blackened redfish magic next time. That's my personal favorite flavor in my gator sausage. Do let us know how it turns out.... I used peach wood last time I smoked gator....mais das good!!!! Great job!!

 

[js0813]

That looks friggin great! I grew up in FL, and this makes me really miss eating gator from time to time.

 

[link]

That is pretty awesome! Sausage looks fantastic.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Nice

I aint had any gator meat in while. Had some when we lived in Savannah but hard to get here in S, FL

 

[tallbm]

Wow that is awesome, looks great!
I just had some fried gator tail at lunch today at local'ish chain restaurant called Pappadeaux's. They serve creole and cajun food along with some other seafood options. The brown savory sauce with with a hint of sweet they serve with the fried gator tail is awesome!

It's not the kinda sauce I would imagine with gator sauce BUT if you touched up the sweetness with some sorghum syrup or some honey and added some mustard to it then I think you might have something for sausage :D

 

[crazymoon]

CF, Good looking sausage sir ! like

 

[cobrafnd]

Here we are at 2 hours. Next time will link them in 2s instead of 3s. Smoke won’t get to the middle. First time using my new smoker with hooks for hanging. Always had to lay it flat before. Also a little dry. Going to do 30% butts and 20% extra fat on the next ones.

 

[SmokinAl]

Mighty fine looking sausage!
Al

 

[tallbm]

View attachment 375498 Here we are at 2 hours. Next time will link them in 2s instead of 3s. Smoke won’t get to the middle. First time using my new smoker with hooks for hanging. Always had to lay it flat before. Also a little dry. Going to do 30% butts and 20% extra fat on the next ones.

I've never done alligator sausage but I have done plenty of lean wild game sausage (deer and feral hogs) and I always just go to a nearby butcher and buy trimmed pork back fat. I do 80/20 meat to fat and the sausage comes out consistently amazing!

Because I'm often cooking wild/feral pork meat in these sausages I MUST take them to 165F IT. I walk the smoker temp up in slow increments to 180F and I don't have any fat out so I can say without a doubt that 80/20 works very well even if you have to go a little higher with IT and smoker temp :)

 

[cobrafnd]

Thanks for the input Tallbm... That is my plan for the next batch. 20% fat, 30% butt, and 50% gator.

 

[tallbm]

Thanks for the input Tallbm... That is my plan for the next batch. 20% fat, 30% butt, and 50% gator.

Yeah it shouldn't be too hard to do. Just cut off all the big obvious fat from the pork butts.
Weigh the fairly defatted pork butt meat and the gator meat together to get your meat weight.
Weigh the store bought back fat and the pork butt fat you trimmed for your fat weight.

5 pounds sausage = 4 pounds meat and 1 pound fat
10 pounds sausage = 8 pounds meat 2 pounds fat

Go in increments of 5 or 10 from there and math is simple and you produce an amazing sausage! :D

 

[BuckeyeSteve]

Just curious, how do you hunt a gator? Do you trap them, shoot them, line catch?

 

[uncle eddie]

I wish I was your neighbor! It looks great!

 

[JckDanls 07]

Just curious, how do you hunt a gator? Do you trap them, shoot them, line catch?

Line catch them.. you can't use a hook though.. just a piece of wood... so If the gator gets off he won't be injured... when you get him to the boat you use a bangstick to finish him off...

 

[BuckeyeSteve]

Line catch them.. you can't use a hook though.. just a piece of wood... so If the gator gets off he won't be injured... when you get him to the boat you use a bangstick to finish him off...

Thanks, every time I've eaten one I wondered how they catch them.

 

[cobrafnd]

In mississippi you snag them with a hook, then you have to contain them, then you have to shoot them with shotgun only.