Thanks for the help all, this cook didnt go as planned so I have ended up with some questionable sausage, but I am fairly comfortable with the end product so it will be for my own use. I used the Goetburg recipe I found on here as a base and modified it a bit with more mustard (whole seed and ground) and garlic and a little less nutmeg. Aside from have to abort the cook shortly after the smoke phase, ice bath to drop the temp back below 40 and then into the fridge overnight and then finishing the next day in a hot water bath. ( with a trip to the ER in the middle ) it actually went pretty well considering it was using a borrowed mes30 with no instructions and it was my first time playing with an amnps as I had been informed by many not to trust the mes chip system at low temps.
I started with venison, pork, and beef at a 40/40/20 ratio and added in the appropriate seasonings and cure as well as about 2 cups water that I had mixed the dry goods into for more even and quicker distribution.
back into the fridge to cool down for a bit while we got the stuffer set up and then into the chilled stuffer.
we were using the 1.5x12" casings from LEM, I liked them good enough so I think this will likely be a goto size in the future as they made about 1# sausages.
I used several suggestions from members here for setting up the MES, the wooden risers that fit into the top rack brackets and some 1/4 round that i had laying around made the sausages fit about perfectly in the smoker. I went about 3.5 hours of smoke with the pit masters blend that came with my amnps. (by the way, when nuking the pellets to dry them... 2-2minute cycles is to much, on the flip side if you dont know how to get them smoldering... use 2-2minute cycles in the microwave) I was able to wedge the amnps on the support rods next to the heating element and have about 6 inches separation from the bottom of my sausages so that worked out pretty good. I have to say the smoker worked really well. good enough that I am ordering my own mes40 tonight.
As I mentioned above an unexpected family emergency had me stop the cook after about 5 hours or so and then I resumed it yesterday morning by plunging them into 175 degree water and taking them to 165. I was/am a little concerned about this but we decided to try the sausage anyway and it has no off smell, texture, or color so (fingers crossed) we decided to eat some of it. I think the smoke was a little strong but not to the point of being unpleasant, its had a really good summer sausage smell and taste to it. if anything I think the texture is a bit off, it doesnt have a much chew as I like in sausage, but it was very well received by my wife and son so this will definitely be a base recipe that we work with for the next batch. The first change I am going to make is to get the AMNPS into an offset mod where I can play with the air flow to that unit to try and get a cleaner smoke, I am not sure I had adequate airflow to the tray and that might be some of what I am tasting in the smoke that seems a little towards the bitter side. It was about 10 below zero saturday so its hard to distinguish between steam and smoke coming out of a smoker running at low temps, but it never hurts to try different things.
![20180211_132606_resized[1].jpg](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='1000' height='562' viewBox%3D'0 0 1000 562'%2F%3E "20180211_132606_resized[1].jpg")
I want to thank all the members here who have been so helpful, this is really becoming one of my favorite boards on the inner web. Thanks again, Jim
I started with venison, pork, and beef at a 40/40/20 ratio and added in the appropriate seasonings and cure as well as about 2 cups water that I had mixed the dry goods into for more even and quicker distribution.
back into the fridge to cool down for a bit while we got the stuffer set up and then into the chilled stuffer.
we were using the 1.5x12" casings from LEM, I liked them good enough so I think this will likely be a goto size in the future as they made about 1# sausages.
I used several suggestions from members here for setting up the MES, the wooden risers that fit into the top rack brackets and some 1/4 round that i had laying around made the sausages fit about perfectly in the smoker. I went about 3.5 hours of smoke with the pit masters blend that came with my amnps. (by the way, when nuking the pellets to dry them... 2-2minute cycles is to much, on the flip side if you dont know how to get them smoldering... use 2-2minute cycles in the microwave) I was able to wedge the amnps on the support rods next to the heating element and have about 6 inches separation from the bottom of my sausages so that worked out pretty good. I have to say the smoker worked really well. good enough that I am ordering my own mes40 tonight.
As I mentioned above an unexpected family emergency had me stop the cook after about 5 hours or so and then I resumed it yesterday morning by plunging them into 175 degree water and taking them to 165. I was/am a little concerned about this but we decided to try the sausage anyway and it has no off smell, texture, or color so (fingers crossed) we decided to eat some of it. I think the smoke was a little strong but not to the point of being unpleasant, its had a really good summer sausage smell and taste to it. if anything I think the texture is a bit off, it doesnt have a much chew as I like in sausage, but it was very well received by my wife and son so this will definitely be a base recipe that we work with for the next batch. The first change I am going to make is to get the AMNPS into an offset mod where I can play with the air flow to that unit to try and get a cleaner smoke, I am not sure I had adequate airflow to the tray and that might be some of what I am tasting in the smoke that seems a little towards the bitter side. It was about 10 below zero saturday so its hard to distinguish between steam and smoke coming out of a smoker running at low temps, but it never hurts to try different things.
I want to thank all the members here who have been so helpful, this is really becoming one of my favorite boards on the inner web. Thanks again, Jim
