BOO-YA! Butts on sale-time to make andouille!

[indaswamp]

Local grocer has a one day meat sale Nov. 1st. Butts on sale $0.99/lb. Time for a big batch of andouille. Prolly do a 100lb. batch. Pics. and posts to come...

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

99 is as cheap as we see them here. Great price!

Scott

 

[chopsaw]

We have the same thing goin on , but it was 4 or 5 day sale . . I bought 6 at or around 10 lbs each . So I bought the butts , casings and 4 types of seasonings . Now all I need is the Deer .

Be watchin ,,,

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

The rut is about to start here chop! Gearing up for deer camp while we’re running the dogs on waterfowl!

Up here in the north people are upset about the dropping temps. I love it! As much as I hate the cold it means hunting season is here!!! Time to sit around a pond, or a river, or in a tree stand and hunt! If your not a hunter I get it. But if you are this is what you wait for every year. This is what you live for!!! Training dogs daily for weeks on end! Payoff!! For me a bit, but for the dogs it’s living the dream!

Sorry to highjack the post. Just excited about this time of year! Good luck to all you hunters this season!

Scott

 

[indaswamp]

Drove down to LaPlace today to pick up a hank of beef middles. I have been getting it @ Wayne Jacobs for years. They stopped selling it to the public. After asking the staff there, they directed me to Bailey's Andouille. Sure enough, they had some they could sell me. Good price too, $18 dollars a hank. I'll head to the store and pick up the boston butts in the morning but a strong line of storms is pushing through with the front, might wait until after it passes around 8am. Also need to pick up some more 4" zip ties. I'll be grinding tomorrow....

 

[indaswamp]

Keeping the wild hog train rolling...
Got my cousin and some of his firefighter buddies that got invited up to a private lease in mississippi that is over run with wild hogs. They will be shooting AR's and killing as many as they can. Hogs are coming out regular to feeders last hour of daylight. I told my cousin to keep all he feels like cleaning and keep all the 60~100lb. sows if he can. I'll be making a lot of sausage with the meat soon.....

 

[indaswamp]

Got started around 9am after the heavy line of storms rolled through. Bought 100# of pork butts and broke them down. separated the fat caps off the top and chunked the butts into strips for grinding. While the meat was in the freezer getting cold, I helped my cousin process a doe he shot on tuesday. After that was finished, time to grind the meat.

Here, I'm grinding 10# of fat through a 3/8" plate

Next, grind the meat through the kidney plate

Nice sized plugs of meat for the andouille links

If you have a 1/2", 5/8" or 3/4" plate, you can grind it all in one pass. I like to grind the fat a in smaller chunks for better distribution when using the kidney plate.

All ground inda ice chest

Add the cure and seasoning slurry, then mix and back into the fridge for a couple days for protein extraction.

I'll stuff the links saturday and smoke sunday.

 

[indaswamp]

Beef middle casing prices have gone up significantly over the last 5 or so years. This is one thing I do to utilize all the casings I can.

I zig zag a length of casing on the cutting board back and forth. I adjust each piece until they are all pretty much the same length. The black mark is just a reference mark of 18" long. I want all the individual andouille links at least this long.I might could have gone one more zig but the length would have cut it close to 18".

All the links will be within 2~3" of each other, which is fine with me for andouille links. I'm not selling them so I don't really need them all the same length.

Once you have the casing zig zagged like you want it, you make a cut at the turns..

(this is a different section of casing)

Then after you have the individual lengths of casing, you can flush them with water and seal one end for stuffing. I use zip ties, but twine or hog rings will work as well.

Pics. when stuffing tomorrow...

 

[indaswamp]

You can make them as long or short as you like. Traditionally, Andouille links are roughly 16" long. I'm going 18" to fit 60# in my smokehouse.

 

[indaswamp]

Had a change of plans and I was able to stuff the Andouille links tonight.

first stuffed link; this one is about 24" long...big and fat on the end though-almost 3" in dia.! Casings are stuffed tight.

Got 'em finished and in the cooler while I cleaned up. 60# of Andouille sticks.

While cleaning up it occurred to me that I probably had room to hang the links to help them dry. I removed a shelf and yep, worked perfectly...

I put the sheet pan under the links to catch the drippings. I should not need a very long dry cycle on the smokehouse for the pellicle.

 

[indaswamp]

I ended up with 20 links. 60# total so about 3lbs. per link on average. I will be able to hang roughly 5 links per pole and use 4 pole on the top rack. This will give me room to smoke the 20# of regular smoke sausage on the top rack as well; all on one pole. I will need to make the sausage loops a little longer than usual but it should work.

 

[crazymoon]

IDS, Looking good ,I'm in !

 

[indaswamp]

Hung the links in the smokehouse @6am to dry the casing @100* for 1 hour...

Then put the burning pecan and oak logs on the burner and put the sugar in a pile in the middle of the cast iron pan.

Almost 3 hours in right now. Smellin good....

 

[indaswamp]

4 hours in...holding 120~130*. It is windy today so hard to dial the temp to within 5*.

Sausage on the front two racks, andouille in the back. Added more wood and sugar, sweet TBS rolling out the vents.

 

[chopsaw]

Swamp , lookin good .

 

[wazzuqer]

Looks great

 

[indaswamp]

rain is moving through...no need for a water pan; 100% humidity! LOL!

 

[indaswamp]

Swamp , lookin good .

Thanks chopsaw.

Looks great

Thanks wazzuqer.

 

[indaswamp]

Looking good...

7 hours of smoke. About another 2~3 to go until they are done.

 

[Fatzak123]

Hey there. Im in St Amant. Where is the butts on sale? The weather is finally cool enough to make sausage!. Im starting on my smokehouse tomorrow. Can't wait.