I've been wondering for a while now how smoked store bought sausage would compare to stove cooked. So I thawed out a package of Costco Hot Italian sausage. Friday night I cooked some up in the kitchen in the usual manner--poke them full of holes, boil for a while to remove a lot of the grease, and then slather with habenaro/tequila BBQ sauce and fry up. As usual they were great.
Saturday I fired up the MES. While it was prewarming, I got the sausage ready. Poked it full of holes and gave it a good coating of pork rub.
Since I had about 3/4 of a pound of really good bacon in the fridge and a can of pineapple chunks in the pantry, I decided to try out Smokin21BR's Pineapple/Bacon Roll Ups. I rolled out the bacon so it was nice and thin and cut each piece in half. The slices were pretty big so I put 2 pineapple chunks in each, rolled them up and stuck a toothpick in each one--ended up with 16 roll ups. Just for something different, I sprinkled my pork rub on half of them. Then I mixed up the sauce for the roll ups.
Everything went into the MES--roll ups on top, so the juice could drip onto the sausage. I would have liked to cook the sausages at 240, but the roll ups wanted 250, so 250* it was.
After 1 hour and 10 minutes the sausages were up to 160* IT, but the roll ups needed more time to crisp up the bacon, so I just pulled the sausages out.
Sliced the sausages lengthwise and built my sammies. Looked great--mayo, mustard, saurkraut, and hot banna pickles. Took a big bite and........ Well I tried to take a big bite.
Now I've got store bought teeth and had yet to find anything I couldn't eat..........until now. The casing on the sausage now had the texture of good quality shoe leather--I would have needed a meat cleaver to get through it. So, it became a 2 handed meal. Sausage in one hand and sammie in the other---messy, messy, messy. I gnawed out the meat (kinda like eating an orange segment--eat the flesh and dump the skin) and then took a bite of the sammie. Taste was GREAT, but it wasn't something I would ever consider serving to guests--although it would make for a really "interesting" meal.
By this time the roll ups had been in the smoker for 1 1/2 hours and were looking just fine. Bacon wasn't as crisp as I would have liked, but I was ready. I pulled them, poured the sauce over top, and into the oven at 350* for 20 minutes.
Out of the oven and ready to eat.
I was in such a hurry to try one, that I didn't even give them time to cool down, just popped one in and chewed it up--just a tad hot!!!!! Kinda like molten lava. But GOOD. With great restraint I waited a bit for them to cool down somewhat and tried again. Yep. Just as good. I'll be making them again.
[Edit] I forgot. The ones with the pork rub were even better than the ones without--I would definitely recommend adding the pork rub.
Thanks for looking
Gary
Saturday I fired up the MES. While it was prewarming, I got the sausage ready. Poked it full of holes and gave it a good coating of pork rub.
Since I had about 3/4 of a pound of really good bacon in the fridge and a can of pineapple chunks in the pantry, I decided to try out Smokin21BR's Pineapple/Bacon Roll Ups. I rolled out the bacon so it was nice and thin and cut each piece in half. The slices were pretty big so I put 2 pineapple chunks in each, rolled them up and stuck a toothpick in each one--ended up with 16 roll ups. Just for something different, I sprinkled my pork rub on half of them. Then I mixed up the sauce for the roll ups.
Everything went into the MES--roll ups on top, so the juice could drip onto the sausage. I would have liked to cook the sausages at 240, but the roll ups wanted 250, so 250* it was.
After 1 hour and 10 minutes the sausages were up to 160* IT, but the roll ups needed more time to crisp up the bacon, so I just pulled the sausages out.
Sliced the sausages lengthwise and built my sammies. Looked great--mayo, mustard, saurkraut, and hot banna pickles. Took a big bite and........ Well I tried to take a big bite.
By this time the roll ups had been in the smoker for 1 1/2 hours and were looking just fine. Bacon wasn't as crisp as I would have liked, but I was ready. I pulled them, poured the sauce over top, and into the oven at 350* for 20 minutes.
Out of the oven and ready to eat.
I was in such a hurry to try one, that I didn't even give them time to cool down, just popped one in and chewed it up--just a tad hot!!!!! Kinda like molten lava. But GOOD. With great restraint I waited a bit for them to cool down somewhat and tried again. Yep. Just as good. I'll be making them again.
[Edit] I forgot. The ones with the pork rub were even better than the ones without--I would definitely recommend adding the pork rub.
Thanks for looking
Gary
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