...my first smoked sausage of any kind. When I started down this sausage path a few months ago, I knew I wanted to make smoked sausage, but needed to get a little experience with general sausage making and stuffing first. Then I was concerned about my smoker and could I get the temps down low enough.
So for a recipe and advice, I reached out to Eric
SmokinEdge
and he was more than willing to help me out. As for the smoker temps, Brian
bmudd14474
also gave me some helpful tips.
So here we go...
The recipe I used from Eric...
Kielbasa (basic)
1 Kg ground pork (80/20 to 70/30)
Salt) 1.5%
Cure #1) .25%
Course black pepper) 2.0g
Coriander) .5g
Gran garlic) 2.0g
Paprika) 2.0g
Nutmeg) .5g
I used 2 Kg of pork ground through a 3/8" plate. Took out 500 g and ground that again through the 1/8" plate. Mixed everything together and stuffed. The sausage at the top is a bratwurst and was the rest of the pork from a 10 lb. butt. Hey, figured while I was in sausage mode, might as well try my hand at brats, too. The kielbasa was covered with plastic wrap and went into the fridge for what was supposed to be an overnight rest that turned into 2 days...
![20240424_114229[1].jpg](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='750' height='1000' viewBox%3D'0 0 750 1000'%2F%3E "20240424_114229[1].jpg")
Not the prettiest stuffing job, but I'm learning. Anyways, I rigged up a cross bar in my Ok Joe and with the helpful advice of Eric and Brian, got the kielbasa going...
Advice I got was to build a small fire and prop the lid open. Well that worked just fine, it's a lot of work to keep up with things, but patience and perseverance are critical. I learned a lot about my COS. Anyway, started out with a smoker temp around 130℉ and was able to slowly ramp that up to about 150℉ after 3 hours. One thing I saw was the sausages were getting more done on the top , but looked a little behind on the bottom. So I turned them over on the bar so hopefully the bottoms would catch up. Had a big pot of water on the stove heating up to around 170℉ and the IT of sausage was around 120℉ so, the color looks good, pulled them and into the pot of hot water to poach to an IT of at least 145℉...
Into a cold water bath...
Then hang in my spare bedroom/mancave for several hours...
Now for the finish...
Amazing flavor!! My only regret is waiting so long to do this and many thanks to those who have been patient with me and all my questions.
Things I learned...
1. I can get my cheap offset temps down to the temps needed to do this.
2. I can control the temps, but it takes patience and work and I'm not opposed to the work it takes to keep the smoker where it needs to be.
3. The tops of the sausages were done while the bottoms were not as done. I had to turn them upside down for some time to get things evened out.
4. I can see the advantage of a vertical smoker or a smokehouse.
5. This is something I'll do again.
My advice for anyone on the fence is to take the leap, if I can do this, anyone can...
So for a recipe and advice, I reached out to Eric
SmokinEdge
and he was more than willing to help me out. As for the smoker temps, Brian
bmudd14474
also gave me some helpful tips.So here we go...
The recipe I used from Eric...
Kielbasa (basic)
1 Kg ground pork (80/20 to 70/30)
Salt) 1.5%
Cure #1) .25%
Course black pepper) 2.0g
Coriander) .5g
Gran garlic) 2.0g
Paprika) 2.0g
Nutmeg) .5g
I used 2 Kg of pork ground through a 3/8" plate. Took out 500 g and ground that again through the 1/8" plate. Mixed everything together and stuffed. The sausage at the top is a bratwurst and was the rest of the pork from a 10 lb. butt. Hey, figured while I was in sausage mode, might as well try my hand at brats, too. The kielbasa was covered with plastic wrap and went into the fridge for what was supposed to be an overnight rest that turned into 2 days...
Not the prettiest stuffing job, but I'm learning. Anyways, I rigged up a cross bar in my Ok Joe and with the helpful advice of Eric and Brian, got the kielbasa going...
Advice I got was to build a small fire and prop the lid open. Well that worked just fine, it's a lot of work to keep up with things, but patience and perseverance are critical. I learned a lot about my COS. Anyway, started out with a smoker temp around 130℉ and was able to slowly ramp that up to about 150℉ after 3 hours. One thing I saw was the sausages were getting more done on the top , but looked a little behind on the bottom. So I turned them over on the bar so hopefully the bottoms would catch up. Had a big pot of water on the stove heating up to around 170℉ and the IT of sausage was around 120℉ so, the color looks good, pulled them and into the pot of hot water to poach to an IT of at least 145℉...
Into a cold water bath...
Then hang in my spare bedroom/mancave for several hours...
Now for the finish...
Amazing flavor!! My only regret is waiting so long to do this and many thanks to those who have been patient with me and all my questions.
Things I learned...
1. I can get my cheap offset temps down to the temps needed to do this.
2. I can control the temps, but it takes patience and work and I'm not opposed to the work it takes to keep the smoker where it needs to be.
3. The tops of the sausages were done while the bottoms were not as done. I had to turn them upside down for some time to get things evened out.
4. I can see the advantage of a vertical smoker or a smokehouse.
5. This is something I'll do again.
My advice for anyone on the fence is to take the leap, if I can do this, anyone can...
Attachments
Last edited:
to me. Makes me want to dive into sausage making. I have made a bunch of snack sticks using ground beef. 
