My first sausage

[tastetester]

Just took it out of the smoker an hour or so ago.

The makings are venison and pork.  The spices are black pepper, marjoram, yellow mustard, smoked sweet paprika, garlic and red pepper flakes.

That's the raw state.

This is the done state.

I know, I know, there are issues with them touching at the tops and not taking the color.  And a blowout or two.  But I think I'm happy.  They look tasty to me and I'm really hoping they are.  They are into the fridge and I will try them on Wed.  I smoked them at 115 =>130=>150=>180 to an internal of 152.  Seem ok?  Took about 6 hours total.

I have another batch in the fridge tonight that I'm going to stuff tomorrow.  Different recipe.  I'm going to run a pastrami with them too.  After the sausages are done I will up the temp to 220 to finish off the pastrami.  This will be my third outing on pastrami.  I smoke to 165, foil and rest, chill, and then steam to 205 the next morning.  I haven't been complaining about the results.

All in all for a first outing at stuffing and smoking I would say I'm happy.

 

[raptor700]

Welcome to SMF, Your sausage looks great from here.

It would be nice to see the inside(sliced pics). You got any?

You can go over to Roll Call and introduce yourself so we can give you a proper SMF welcome.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/list/133/roll-call  

 

[fpnmf]

Looks good!!

  Craig

Welcome..

This site has tons of info.

I would suggest you spend some time reading all the different forums and the

WIKIs.

Then use the handy dandy search tool for specific interests!!

Take the awesome free E-Course!!!

Have a great day!!!

Craig
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/wiki/about-jeffs-5-day-ecourse
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/wiki/basic-pulled-pork-smoke
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/wiki/finishing-sauce-for-pulled-pork-by-

soflaquer
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?736-Curing-Salts
http://www.educationbug.org/a/marinate-vs--marinade.html

 

[mossymo]

Nice looking 6 quart Enterprise, temps sound good and the sausage looks great, well done!

First hour in the smoker I do not add smoke, it is just for drying time. Then I smoke for 2 hours; 2 hours is my preference, some like more, some less. Then If I have another batch to smoke I finish in the oven to free up the smoker.

Glad you joined us Tastetester, and welcome to SMF!

 

[bmudd14474]

great job

 

[tastetester]

Thanks for the welcomes guys.  I'll drop by the Roll Call area and put a little write up there as soon as I can.  I just pulled the second batch out of the smoker and they are taking an ice water bath.  I think I need to get a better thermometer.  I got some low readings and so I ran them longer and I think they might be a little too done.  The pastrami is still going.  Hope it doesn't run as late as it did last night.  Ha ha.  No pictures of the new ones yet, and I'll take some interior shots when I cook up a few tomorrow.  In the meantime I have an interior shot of an earlier pastrami.

I built the smoker out of an old fridge.  Turned out to take a little longer than I was hoping, but worked out in the end.  I'm using an air pump type smoke generator and have been using lathe turnings from apple and native cherry for the smoke.

I picked up the Enterprise at an auction a few years ago with the idea of giving it to my Mom's new husband.  He's an avid smoker and hog roaster.  Turned out that before I got it to him he bought some new fangled SS electric job.  There were two of stuffers at the auction, one might have been an 8 quart, and I think some joker switched plates so I ended up with two small plates.  I'm guessing the other guy got two larges.  Anyway, I cut a circle out of a plastic cutting board with a jig saw and perfected the round using a drill press as a sanding lathe.  Other than that it was in perfect condition when I got it.  As luck would have it though it was in my storage unit the year we got a huge flood here and so the feet and plates rusted a bit.  I started cleaning it up and then decided it might be best to go the whole way.  So I stripped the old paint, dipped all the parts in HCl to get rid of all the rust, and I mean all, and then treated the outside parts with two coats of Rustoleum Rust Reformer.  That's a tannic acid product that forms an iron tannate layer that is very resistant to rust.  After I was done I was ready to swear that they must have used the process for the original coating.

Sorry for the long ramble, it's time to go check the pastrami again and to see how the sausages are drying.

 

[venture]

I would do it just to use that stuffer?

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[mossymo]

Great looking pastrami!

Can always check your thermometers with boiling water, should read 212º.

What do you use for your source of heat in your fridge smoker? Have any pics of it? I have made a few fridge smokers, the one I have now is propane, thermostat controlled with auto pilot.

Nice job cutting out a cutting board to use as a wiper ring; great thinking! Quite a few years ago I redid a 4 quart Enterprise and took it down to metal with a bead blaster.

 

[tastetester]

Thanks all.  Here are a couple of pictures of tonight's batch.  And could I ask how to do quickview?  Do I have to put the images online somewhere?

Drying after the ice water chill.

Here is a shot of a cut one.

This was a rather odd batch.  Sort of once around the fridge looking for stuff to stuff.  Venison, ground beef, ground beef fat, half fat ground pork and ground bacon.  Details available if requested.

 

[tastetester]

Here is a picture of the smoker loaded up and ready to start the drying this afternoon.

And here is the pastrami from today.

 

[raptor700]

That's what I'm talkin' about

Very nice 

I built the smoker out of an old fridge.  

 I was wondering about the GE fridge in the pic. Is that it?

We would love to see more of this sausage (smoking) machine.

 

[tastetester]

Yes, that's the fridge.  I don't remember the brand right now and it sounds like it is raining pretty good now, so I don't think I'll go look.  Ha ha.  I was planning to document the build with pictures and post a thread on it, but I'm afraid I may have come up short on that front.  I'll see if I have enough to tell the story.  It was a nice one to modify as the freezer/cooling coils were very handily mounted for removal.  The inner liners are all porcelain on steel and the insulation is rock wool or fiberglass.  The downside was that the inner door panel surround and the surround on the box side were plastic.  I removed all of that as well as the shelf supports and a couple of other odd bits.  I cut replacement parts from some light aluminum roofing material, shaped the profile by hand and attached into the original screw holes.  Plus a few extra holes.  I still need to silicone under the outside edges of the new surround and then pop rivet them down where they bulge between the screws.  It's not important to the function, but I want to make it watertight so rain doesn't seep in and wet the insulation.  It's heated with a 1500 W Farberware SS indoor grill that I picked up at a thrift for a couple of bucks.  The heat is controlled by the thermostat from an old toaster oven.  It heats up plenty fast and holds a temperature very nicely.  The only problem is a given setting of the thermostat will give different temperatures from day to day.  I need to get a controller when I can afford one.

Here's the heater.

And here is where the smoke comes from.

I have a couple of stainless containers that are possible replacements for the tin can.  I want to run this a couple of more times to find out what I might want to change about it when I rebuild.

 

[tastetester]

This is the heart of the smoke generator.  It's the air pump from an old hospital blood pressure cuff inflater.  I need to get a bleed valve mounted so I can adjust the air flow.  I maybe don't need it, but I would like to see what it does.

And here is what it does.

It can put out a fairly heavy smoke if it is loaded for it.

 

[raptor700]

Freakin' nice build Tester,

You need to post it in the Build Forum, even if you have just a few pics.

There are many who could learn from this.(me included)

 

[africanmeat]

Nice job and Welcome to SMF I am glad you joint us

 

[Bearcarver]

Nice looking sausage & pastrami!!!!

Nice pics too!

Thanks for sharing,

Bear

 

[tastetester]

Hey all, thanks for all the encouragements and advice.  I learned a lot from this forum and a few others that got me going.  I realized after I posted the smoker pics that I'm getting a bit far afield for the sausage forum so I'll start a build thread in that section in the next couple of days.  The pastrami from last night is steaming as I write.  And today my sister and her husband are coming for a short visit and bringing fresh fish that is brining as they travel.  So today the smoker gets a taste of fish.  She is also bringing a piece of expanded steel, so the smoker will get some more shelves.

Thanks again, for all the help.

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks like everything turned out great!   

 

[chef willie]

love the ingenuity there....all kinds of recycled parts ....nice build and pics

 

[alelover]

Nice build. Good use of old recycled parts.