First batch in the fridge!

[kelbro]

Got tired of waiting on the boston butts to go back on sale so I choked up and paid the $2/lb so I could get started. Used a 6 lb. butt and 2 lbs of 73/27 beef and a simple smoked sausage recipe. LEM hog casings. LEM Big Bite 8 with the plastic tube. Worked fine but I can see that if you didn't have the foot pedal, this would definitely drive one to purchase a dedicated stuffer. Only had a couple of blowouts and one that was stuffed a little tight and was hard to twist but overall it was pretty easy going. Pricked them and then into the fridge tonight to be smoked in about 24 hrs. Copped a little out of the tube to fry tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Thanks for answering all of my questions and helping motivate me to finally get this going.

Also open to any advice from your take on the pic below.

 

[DRKsmoking]

Big batch of goodness right there.

What will you smoke them on ( wood )

David

 

[Dave in AZ]

Looks fantastic! Love to see someone jumping into it!
So long as your sausage is chilled down almost frozen, say 29 to 30f, and you pinch off big T size chunks and just feed it into the grinder, you can stuff OK with it and not smear fat too much if any. I used to put grinder head in freezer too before stuffing with it.

Nice work!

 

[tbern]

Looks really good to me!! Nice job!!

 

[kelbro]

Big batch of goodness right there.

What will you smoke them on ( wood )

David

Thanks! Hickory is planned right now. I have some cherry too but for my first batch, it's going to be hickory.

 

[kelbro]

Looks fantastic! Love to see someone jumping into it!
So long as your sausage is chilled down almost frozen, say 29 to 30f, and you pinch off big T size chunks and just feed it into the grinder, you can stuff OK with it and not smear fat too much if any. I used to put grinder head in freezer too before stuffing with it.

Nice work!

Thanks. I ground the meat early this morning, mixed in the seasonings, covered and put in the fridge for about 8 hrs and then stuffed them.

 

[indaswamp]

Looking good! Glad you finally took the plunge into making sausage.
Few tips- as you are stuffing the casing, if you will be twisting them into links, you can squeeze the sausage between your thumb and index finger. You should be able to pinch about 3/4 the way through. If you are stuffing any tighter than that, they are too tight to twist. You can tighten them up as you twist so pack the casing loose.

Take a serrated knife and put some marks on the lip of a tray at 3,6,9,12 inches and so on... you can use these marks for the length of your links at a glance. Twist the first one towards you, skip on, mark the next and twist towards you. It is faster this way rather than twisting one towards you, then the next one away from you, then towards you...etc...

Skipping every other one is just faster and you don't have to keep track of the direction you are twisting......

 

[kelbro]

Looking good! Glad you finally took the plunge into making sausage.
Few tips- as you are stuffing the casing, if you will be twisting them into links, you can squeeze the sausage between your thumb and index finger. You should be able to pinch about 3/4 the way through. If you are stuffing any tighter than that, they are too tight to twist. You can tighten them up as you twist so pack the casing loose.

Take a serrated knife and put some marks on the lip of a tray at 3,6,9,12 inches and so on... you can use these marks for the length of your links at a glance. Twist the first one towards you, skip on, mark the next and twist towards you. It is faster this way rather than twisting one towards you, then the next one away from you, then towards you...etc...

Skipping every other one is just faster and you don't have to keep track of the direction you are twisting......

Thanks. I like the 'pinch gauge' suggestion. Yes, I'm definitely going to try for more consistent measurements next time.

 

[indaswamp]

Thanks. I like the 'pinch gauge' suggestion. Yes, I'm definitely going to try for more consistent measurements next time.

No worries kelbro....you'll get the hang of it. It'll be second nature in no time!

 

[SmokyMose]

Welcome to sausagemaking!
Next thing you know you'll have a freezer full LOL!
I twist as I go and never had much luck with running the whole batch then going back to pinch and twist.
I'm probably stuffing too tight and don't have lot of counter space. As far as length, I start out trying to use a ruler but always end up just "eyeballing". With my left thumb extended the distance to the edge of my pinky finger is about 6" to 7". Good enough for me.
If this was your first time you're doing great!

 

[kelbro]

Off the smoker and set out to bloom for a couple of hours. Had to sample one. Pretty doggone good!

 

[indaswamp]

Awesome! Congratulations on your first smoke sausages! They look good to me!

 

[Dave in AZ]

Congratulations, they look good!

 

[sawhorseray]

That's a fine looking batch of smoked links, nice piece of work! As for uniform length, I make marks on my sausage board for 7" links, black electrical tape will work well and come right off too. RAY

 

[DukeKengi]

Got tired of waiting on the boston butts to go back on sale so I choked up and paid the $2/lb so I could get started. Used a 6 lb. butt and 2 lbs of 73/27 beef and a simple smoked sausage recipe. LEM hog casings. LEM Big Bite 8 with the plastic tube. Worked fine but I can see that if you didn't have the foot pedal, this would definitely drive one to purchase a dedicated stuffer. Only had a couple of blowouts and one that was stuffed a little tight and was hard to twist but overall it was pretty easy going. Pricked them and then into the fridge tonight to be smoked in about 24 hrs. Copped a little out of the tube to fry tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Thanks for answering all of my questions and helping motivate me to finally get this going.

Also open to any advice from your take on the pic below.

View attachment 645553

they look great to me. Never done sausage but I'm getting ready to start

 

[boykjo]

Nice job..............