Old Bay Sausage

[bacon_crazy510]

Good morning!

I saw a recipe on FB for an Old Bay seasoned sausage. I took it and ran with it with a few modifications.
Here is my take on the recipe:

5 pounds pork butt -
10mm plate first grind
4.5mm plate second grind

35 grams Old Bay seasoning

9 grams garlic powder

4 grams onion powder

4 grams celery seed

17 grams Kosher salt

7 grams black pepper

6 grams #1 pink salt (curing salt, aka Prague Powder)

140 grams non-fat powdered milk

2/3 cup lager style beer

After resting, I "hot smoked" a handful of them with a hickory/cherry blend pellet in my Yoder smoker.

Simply delicious! The moisture level was great - the meat was juicy, and nice and firm from the double grind. I've got a family member who is an Old Bay fanatic, so that's what got me to try this recipe. He loved... LOVED these sausages. I thought I would add a little extra Old Bay next time, but he said the spice level was perfect.

Also... A tip I saw somewhere... After grinding the meat, I ran a good sized handful of ice chips through the grinder. It got ALL of the meat out of the auger and blades. It worked like a charm!

 

[Kvgsqtii]

Looks like some tasty sausage. Nice work!

 

[chopsaw]

Man you nailed that . Looks fantastic . I've wondered about using Old Bay .
Nice work bud .

 

[bacon_crazy510]

Man you nailed that . Looks fantastic . I've wondered about using Old Bay .
Nice work bud .

I highly recommend this one... They are tasty!

 

[xray]

The sausage is just simply gorgeous and well done. As another fanatic, when I see the words Old Bay, I stop in my tracks and have a look! And these look awesome, thanks for sharing the recipe, it’s something to add to the to-do list.

 

[tbern]

beautiful looking sausage, thanks for sharing them!! love the dog picture!!

 

[Coreymacc]

Thanks, i came across a huge container of Old Bay a while ago, it was cheap. Enough to last a lifetime, now I can get to using it.

Corey

 

[DRKsmoking]

Those are fantastic looking sausages , I picked up a jar of Old Bay, but have not tried it yet.

Thanks for the tip with the chipped ice

David, ps also love the pic of your helper.

 

[thirdeye]

Nice job on that. Typically for me, a 5# batch of sausage gets 34 grams of salt (1.5%), so I'm guessing you reduced salt since Old Bay contains: Celery Salt (Salt, Celery Seed), Spices (Including Red Pepper and Black Pepper), and Paprika.

There are some sodium and salt converters online, did you happen to calculate the percentage of salt? And if not... was the saltiness average, or below average, or above average?

 

[Hijack73]

That texture looks great. I'm not an Old Bay fan but I bet with some plain yaller mustard I could help you dispose of a couple of links!

That's primo magazine quality sausage!

 

[boykjo]

Very nice.......

 

[indaswamp]

Very Nice Sausages! Different....I like it! And this picture.....

Reminds me of that bud light commercial....sausages!!!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Nice job on that. Typically for me, a 5# batch of sausage gets 34 grams of salt (1.5%), so I'm guessing you reduced salt since Old Bay contains: Celery Salt (Salt, Celery Seed), Spices (Including Red Pepper and Black Pepper), and Paprika.

There are some sodium and salt converters online, did you happen to calculate the percentage of salt? And if not... was the saltiness average, or below average, or above average?

Not to speak for the OP, but my can of Old Bay contains 95mg sodium per .6g of seasoning. So he added 35g old bay, that would be 5.54g of sodium. There are roughly 400mg sodium per gram of salt, so this would be equal to about 13.85g salt. Then he added 17g of salt. So this would be about 30.8g (about 1.7% to 5#)salt then he added a smidge more than .25% cure #1 so all in about 1.95% total salt equivalent.

 

[thirdeye]

Not to speak for the OP, but my can of Old Bay contains 95mg sodium per .6g of seasoning. So he added 35g old bay, that would be 5.54g of sodium. There are roughly 400mg sodium per gram of salt, so this would be equal to about 13.85g salt. Then he added 17g of salt. So this would be about 30.8g (about 1.7% to 5#)salt then he added a smidge more than .25% cure #1 so all in about 1.95% total salt equivalent.

Hmmm, my Old Bay is showing 140mg of sodium per .6 grams of seasoning.

 

[smokerjim]

Looks fantastic, definitely going to have to try this

 

[SCBBQ]

Thanks for sharing! What casings did you use and how long did you smoke them?

 

[LoydB]

That looks great. And if you want to avoid commercial mixes, here's my go-to Old Bay clone: https://www.thespruceeats.com/old-bay-seasoning-mix-480917

 

[bacon_crazy510]

Thanks for sharing! What casings did you use and how long did you smoke them?

I used standard hog casings that I've got. I started them at 150° (as low as my Yoder will go) for about an hour, and when they had good color I ramped the temp up to finish them.

 

[bacon_crazy510]

Nice job on that. Typically for me, a 5# batch of sausage gets 34 grams of salt (1.5%), so I'm guessing you reduced salt since Old Bay contains: Celery Salt (Salt, Celery Seed), Spices (Including Red Pepper and Black Pepper), and Paprika.

There are some sodium and salt converters online, did you happen to calculate the percentage of salt? And if not... was the saltiness average, or below average, or above average?

I went with a recipe I found on Facebook. The salt level was perfect for me, but everyone has their own taste.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Hmmm, my Old Bay is showing 140mg of sodium per .6 grams of seasoning.

Interesting