Hello to everyone, and let me start by expressing my utmost thanks to everyone that has spent so much time documenting their smoking/BBQ experiences and helping out newcomers. This site was very influential to me when I decided to invest in a smoker.
The background story is for many years I loved to BBQ as I learned from my grandfather, who was a farmer in the Eunice, Louisiana area (the very heart of the "prairie" Cajun country), had lots of rice, sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs and chickens on the farm, so almost limitless access to great meat. His, and my preferred method entailed cooking on a very thick barrel type smoker, his was a converted propane tank, with a smallish charcoal briquette fire fairly far below the grill, and lots of homemade BBQ sauce towards the end. Overall this was, for a directly over the coals method, a fairly low and slow process.
After much research, 3 years ago I purchased a LoneStarGrillz upright offset smoker, which is very heavily made - the cooker box is 1/4" steel and the firebox I upgraded to all 1/2" steel. I run this strictly as a stick burner, mostly pecan, and have wowed myself, family and friends with what we think are wildly successful smoking of pulled pork, baby back ribs, pork tenderloins, duck breast, spatchcocked turkeys, lots of chicken, etc. In short I'm very happy with using this smoker for typical low and slow cooking at temps between 200-300 F, although almost always aiming for around 225 F.
But, as always, I wanted more. And having my fondest memories in childhood rooted in the real deal southwest Louisiana version of Cajun cuisine, really heavily smoked pork sausage and tasso are absolute necessities for almost all traditional family recipes. And what is sold as pork sausage and tasso in the Baton Rouge/Gonzales area, even if made locally, might as well be "Made in New York City!". I made two attempts to make tasso, and while I pretty accurately reproduced the spice and smoke profile I was aiming for, it was a pretty major hassle trying to keep the stick burner in the 175 F range. But, I had proof of concept.
So now I just ordered a meat grinder, sausage stuffer and Amazen 18" oval smoker tube, along with a very small low pressure propane burner. Not sure how this will go, but hoping to place the small burner in the offset firebox and place the smoker tube at the bottom of the vertical smoke chamber on top of the baffle plates. Hoping to have the option to smoke with no heat at all or be able to control the 100-200F range using the propane burner. I know it will all be lots of checking of temps and fiddling around manually, but heh, I got time and love it.
I will also be making boudin, which seems relevant although no actual smoking involved, other than when I buy it now my family loves for me to put it on the smoker and give it a very short "cook" to crisp up the skin and a little smoke flavor. Boudin wasn't a big thing around my grandparents' place, so I'm not big on the squeezing it out of a rubbery skin style of eating it, need a quick pan fry, time on regular grill or the smoker for me.
Thanks to all of the fantastic postings documenting the making of andouille, I will also give that a shot, although again it is not something I ever had when visiting my grandparents in Eunice. Out there the heavily smoked pork sausage and or the tasso took care of all duties in various gumbos, vegetable, beans and even just cooked up in a skillet to make a very thin gravy. My wife is from Baton Rouge and is all about andouille, and I have a general impression, quite likely wrong and based on my limited experience, that andouille is more of thing in the Baton Rouge to New Orleans area.
Funny how people all over the world think that know what Cajun cooking is because they've had or can cook a couple of dishes, and right here we all know there a thousands of recipes for something like gumbo, and the only "right" and "best" one is the one your grandmother and mother cooked! And in reading pretty much every forum thread containing the words boudin, or tasso or Cajun sausage or andouille there are as many versions as contributors. And don't even get me started on the hundreds of recipes for tasso all over the internet that are fully cooked while smoking and so mildly spiced they can be served as charcuterie. All of it might be delicious but I'm trying to reproduce the stuff my grandparents used, which had so much salt and pepper on it you had to rinse it very well before using it, even in a huge pot of gumbo. And of course, like the pork sausage, had to be kept frozen and cooked before eating.
So thanks again to everyone that has shared their recipes and/or explained their making and smoking process for sausage, tasso and boudin. I do have a very, very big question about smoking the sausage, but will post that elsewhere.
The background story is for many years I loved to BBQ as I learned from my grandfather, who was a farmer in the Eunice, Louisiana area (the very heart of the "prairie" Cajun country), had lots of rice, sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs and chickens on the farm, so almost limitless access to great meat. His, and my preferred method entailed cooking on a very thick barrel type smoker, his was a converted propane tank, with a smallish charcoal briquette fire fairly far below the grill, and lots of homemade BBQ sauce towards the end. Overall this was, for a directly over the coals method, a fairly low and slow process.
After much research, 3 years ago I purchased a LoneStarGrillz upright offset smoker, which is very heavily made - the cooker box is 1/4" steel and the firebox I upgraded to all 1/2" steel. I run this strictly as a stick burner, mostly pecan, and have wowed myself, family and friends with what we think are wildly successful smoking of pulled pork, baby back ribs, pork tenderloins, duck breast, spatchcocked turkeys, lots of chicken, etc. In short I'm very happy with using this smoker for typical low and slow cooking at temps between 200-300 F, although almost always aiming for around 225 F.
But, as always, I wanted more. And having my fondest memories in childhood rooted in the real deal southwest Louisiana version of Cajun cuisine, really heavily smoked pork sausage and tasso are absolute necessities for almost all traditional family recipes. And what is sold as pork sausage and tasso in the Baton Rouge/Gonzales area, even if made locally, might as well be "Made in New York City!". I made two attempts to make tasso, and while I pretty accurately reproduced the spice and smoke profile I was aiming for, it was a pretty major hassle trying to keep the stick burner in the 175 F range. But, I had proof of concept.
So now I just ordered a meat grinder, sausage stuffer and Amazen 18" oval smoker tube, along with a very small low pressure propane burner. Not sure how this will go, but hoping to place the small burner in the offset firebox and place the smoker tube at the bottom of the vertical smoke chamber on top of the baffle plates. Hoping to have the option to smoke with no heat at all or be able to control the 100-200F range using the propane burner. I know it will all be lots of checking of temps and fiddling around manually, but heh, I got time and love it.
I will also be making boudin, which seems relevant although no actual smoking involved, other than when I buy it now my family loves for me to put it on the smoker and give it a very short "cook" to crisp up the skin and a little smoke flavor. Boudin wasn't a big thing around my grandparents' place, so I'm not big on the squeezing it out of a rubbery skin style of eating it, need a quick pan fry, time on regular grill or the smoker for me.
Thanks to all of the fantastic postings documenting the making of andouille, I will also give that a shot, although again it is not something I ever had when visiting my grandparents in Eunice. Out there the heavily smoked pork sausage and or the tasso took care of all duties in various gumbos, vegetable, beans and even just cooked up in a skillet to make a very thin gravy. My wife is from Baton Rouge and is all about andouille, and I have a general impression, quite likely wrong and based on my limited experience, that andouille is more of thing in the Baton Rouge to New Orleans area.
Funny how people all over the world think that know what Cajun cooking is because they've had or can cook a couple of dishes, and right here we all know there a thousands of recipes for something like gumbo, and the only "right" and "best" one is the one your grandmother and mother cooked! And in reading pretty much every forum thread containing the words boudin, or tasso or Cajun sausage or andouille there are as many versions as contributors. And don't even get me started on the hundreds of recipes for tasso all over the internet that are fully cooked while smoking and so mildly spiced they can be served as charcuterie. All of it might be delicious but I'm trying to reproduce the stuff my grandparents used, which had so much salt and pepper on it you had to rinse it very well before using it, even in a huge pot of gumbo. And of course, like the pork sausage, had to be kept frozen and cooked before eating.
So thanks again to everyone that has shared their recipes and/or explained their making and smoking process for sausage, tasso and boudin. I do have a very, very big question about smoking the sausage, but will post that elsewhere.
