Just for giggles I thought I'd play around with one of my most popular sausage recipes: Summer Sausage. The wife and I like things on the spicier side so this made sense. I also used fibrous casings versus standard collagen that I'd used in the past. This allowed for additional smoke penetration. The results were outstanding!! This is some of the most flavorful sausage I've ever had and it will be a staple around here. That typically happens when I get the wife's seal of approval.
Meat all cut up for grinding, spices mixed, Jalapenos chopped up, and Habanero cheese weighed out
All the goodies mixed together in the large bowl for my stand mixer. Ready to stuff
I cut the 24" long casings into 2) 12" lengths. The reason for this is that at the full 24" length, the bottom of the sausage is too close to the heating element of the smoker and cooks WAY faster than the top. This way it cooks much more evenly. I got 5) 12" chubs. Now to hang overnight and get happy
It took 8 hours for them to cook and I put hickory smoke to them for about 5 hours with the AMNPS. Pulled at an IT of 150*, let them sit overnight again, and here they are with the casings removed. The color is gorgeous!!
Cross section shot
All sliced up and ready to vac seal....after eating some of course :-)
I got 12) 6 oz. packages
Surprisingly enough, it was not nearly as spicy as I thought it'd be. The depth of flavor however by adding the high temp Habanero cheese and the fresh Jalapenos was simply amazing. This came out really, really well. Could not have been happier with the possible exception of a bit more spice. I may well add some Cayenne next time to see if I can get a bit more tingle.
Sausage happy in Lago,
Robert
Meat all cut up for grinding, spices mixed, Jalapenos chopped up, and Habanero cheese weighed out
All the goodies mixed together in the large bowl for my stand mixer. Ready to stuff
I cut the 24" long casings into 2) 12" lengths. The reason for this is that at the full 24" length, the bottom of the sausage is too close to the heating element of the smoker and cooks WAY faster than the top. This way it cooks much more evenly. I got 5) 12" chubs. Now to hang overnight and get happy
It took 8 hours for them to cook and I put hickory smoke to them for about 5 hours with the AMNPS. Pulled at an IT of 150*, let them sit overnight again, and here they are with the casings removed. The color is gorgeous!!
Cross section shot
All sliced up and ready to vac seal....after eating some of course :-)
I got 12) 6 oz. packages
Surprisingly enough, it was not nearly as spicy as I thought it'd be. The depth of flavor however by adding the high temp Habanero cheese and the fresh Jalapenos was simply amazing. This came out really, really well. Could not have been happier with the possible exception of a bit more spice. I may well add some Cayenne next time to see if I can get a bit more tingle.
Sausage happy in Lago,
Robert
