Homemade Brats

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lugnutz

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
May 17, 2010
509
16
Lawson Mo
Well I finally got around to playing with homemade brats today, I used a kit from Sausage Source that came with 4 different seasoning packs that each will do 5lbs of meat. The kit also included casings as well and was a decent price if you don't figure in shipping !

We tried the plain ole brat pack to start with.  Never having messed with casings before I found them to be a bit of a challenge.  Once we figured out how to handle getting the cases on the horn, we worked out the bugs in twisting and filling.  The first 2 casings were great but the 3rd had a hole midway down it, so we cut it and made 2 cases out of it.  On the 3rd we also were reaching the end of our brat mixture, since we already made a kid size brat when we ran out of casing earlier this time we made a huge jumbo brat to use up the meat left over in the grinder/stuffer.

Enjoy the view!

ready for the smoker

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on the smoker

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on my plate and ready for some mustard!

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Alright I must admit, I'm jealous, those look great. I've been wanting to try my hand at these, that just sounds wrong..... anywhoo thats next on my long list of projects for the winter time when I can smoke in comfort. Smoke On!
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They tasted great but I am thinking they would have been better grilled instead of smoked, but they did have a great smoke ring !!
 
Looks great Lug,

Maybe next time you can smoke them for a while and then let the lid off and crisp up the outside. Nice ring.
 
I'll give that a try next time Tom, but that UDS gets wicked wild when you pull the lid for long LOL I'll have to get the long tongs out to preserve my arm hair
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Next batch I make I think I'll try the taco blend and maybe add some cheese to a few of em to see how that works out.
 
I hear ya, its crazy how the temps crank up like they do. And thats not funny about the arm hairs. I lost a few this weekend, not sure which rig they fell victim to but there gone.
 
Thanx for the praise guys! So many options are coming into my twisted lil mind on how to make these as popular as fatties!! They really are that easy!
 
lookin great!  I'll have to try the place you mentioned- sausage source. one question tho, were the casings already sanitized or did you have to do that? i saw a thread on here about 6 months ago that showed how to sanitize the casings, man it looked like a tough job.
 
They look delicious!!!!!  Thanks for the great View....
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I'd like to learn to do Sausages next. How many pounds of meat did you use for your Smoke and how many feet of casing did you use?    
 
The casings came packed in salt  DK  all I had to do was soak and rinse.

OPD, I used a 5lb butt.  Once I got it deboned and ground I was probably closer to 4.25lbs.

Each packet in the kit will season 5lbs.   The casings come in a pack and seem to all be about 4ft in length.  I grabbed 3 casings and it turned out to be just about right.
 
You will be an old hand making all kinds of sausages in no time!  The combination of making them yourself, far better than what you can buy, leaner, more flavorful, and enjoying the process makes it all worthwhile!
 
Congrats on a great looking first run with the brats. I remember (not too long ago) doing our first stuffing and how uncomfortable we were until the meat stated flowing out of the tube so easily - trying to keep up was the hardest part

Good job and keep it coming !!
 
Lugnutz - These look great! :)

I love working with casings. Once you're comfortable with them, you really can shove almost anything in there. mmmmmm....

If you know you're gonna get them in advance, next time buy water/brine packed instead of salt. Easier to clean, less likely to tear. Two feet per pound is what I use (but I like to tie good knots)  Run them real good with water, inside and out, look for holes. Use a ton of water on the stuffing horn, pour some on your table. You can't use too much water! A dry casing, or a casing stuck to a dry surface will tear.

-Princess
 
When I cooked em I left them in a strand.  I was afraid to cut em into individual links, thought they would untwist.  Is there a secret to them staying twisted?

I wanna do a breakfast sausage with bacon someday, would you like bacon, sausage or bacon sausage?
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