- Jan 16, 2019
- 345
- 376
Had been a while since I did any sausage so this weekend was the weekend.
First, a trip to Costco:
I was not entirely pleased with the price but sometimes you gotta ignore it. The plan was breakfast, Zesty Italian, a pizza sausage, and a new one for me, Texas Hot link from a recipe I borrowed from a SMF member, Tallbm.
Gathering the ingredients:
I took about 3 pounds from the pork belly to add a little extra fat to the sausage. The balance of the belly is curing now for bacon.
Grinding. I put all the pork in the freezer for about an hour and a half to harden up. Wow, that really makes it easier to grind. No jams, no need to stop and clean, it just feeds through nicely. The first grind was with the 3/4 plate, as was the second. I actually just grabbed handfuls as it exited the cutter and fed it back through with some new slices. I usually refreeze before the second grind but this was so much easier. Saved a lot of time and cleaning.
Ended up with 21 pounds. Into the fridge overnight.
I separated it all out and started mixing. Portioned out all the ingredients. This is the Texas Hot Links. Used Digging Dog to measure the cure (as I do with all smoked meats products).
After about 7 minutes of hand mixing. Nice and sticky. Cold meat, cold water and a thin glove make for a cold hand.....
The stuffer is assembled:
Not too bad for stuffing alone... I only had a small pack of casings and they should have been a little smaller but hey, you gotta work with what ya got.....
My usual helper was not in the mood to assist:
Getting the smoker ready
I do not have a electric smoker so I use my big one, which is wood/charcoal. I had to make some mini mini splits of hickory.
The initial fire was way too hot
It finally cooled down so I could load the sausage
Small hot fire. I can usually keep it at about this temperature, plus or minus 10 degrees. It takes about 10-15 minutes to kick it up to a higher temp and maintain that one, but adding the mini mini split was easy. I would normally use my Amaze N tube but I wanted to see if I could maintain a decent temp with wood/charcoal.
Smoking away
Almost done
And Done
Took me three days, but I ended up with 5 lbs of breakfast sausage
6 lbs of pizza sausage, 5 lbs of Zesty Italian (The Sausage Maker pre-mix) and 5 lbs of Texas Hot Links.
I learned a few things. First, always take inventory before committing to a set amount. Turns out I found about 4 pounds of breakfast sausage at the bottom of the freezer. Second, if you put fennel and anise seeds in the spice grinder, the flavor comes out stronger. Third, if you use old spices, the flavor comes out more mild. Finally, the added fat from the pork belly, and the nonfat dry milk really helped the texture of the smoked sausage. My previous attempts have all been a bit dry and crumbly, but this one was much much better. I am pleased!
Fun weekend and we now have enough sausage to survive the zombie apocalypse!!! Thx for looking!!
HowlingDog (Mark)
First, a trip to Costco:
I was not entirely pleased with the price but sometimes you gotta ignore it. The plan was breakfast, Zesty Italian, a pizza sausage, and a new one for me, Texas Hot link from a recipe I borrowed from a SMF member, Tallbm.
Gathering the ingredients:
I took about 3 pounds from the pork belly to add a little extra fat to the sausage. The balance of the belly is curing now for bacon.
Grinding. I put all the pork in the freezer for about an hour and a half to harden up. Wow, that really makes it easier to grind. No jams, no need to stop and clean, it just feeds through nicely. The first grind was with the 3/4 plate, as was the second. I actually just grabbed handfuls as it exited the cutter and fed it back through with some new slices. I usually refreeze before the second grind but this was so much easier. Saved a lot of time and cleaning.
Ended up with 21 pounds. Into the fridge overnight.
I separated it all out and started mixing. Portioned out all the ingredients. This is the Texas Hot Links. Used Digging Dog to measure the cure (as I do with all smoked meats products).
After about 7 minutes of hand mixing. Nice and sticky. Cold meat, cold water and a thin glove make for a cold hand.....
The stuffer is assembled:
Not too bad for stuffing alone... I only had a small pack of casings and they should have been a little smaller but hey, you gotta work with what ya got.....
My usual helper was not in the mood to assist:
Getting the smoker ready
I do not have a electric smoker so I use my big one, which is wood/charcoal. I had to make some mini mini splits of hickory.
The initial fire was way too hot
It finally cooled down so I could load the sausage
Small hot fire. I can usually keep it at about this temperature, plus or minus 10 degrees. It takes about 10-15 minutes to kick it up to a higher temp and maintain that one, but adding the mini mini split was easy. I would normally use my Amaze N tube but I wanted to see if I could maintain a decent temp with wood/charcoal.
Smoking away
Almost done
And Done
Took me three days, but I ended up with 5 lbs of breakfast sausage
6 lbs of pizza sausage, 5 lbs of Zesty Italian (The Sausage Maker pre-mix) and 5 lbs of Texas Hot Links.
I learned a few things. First, always take inventory before committing to a set amount. Turns out I found about 4 pounds of breakfast sausage at the bottom of the freezer. Second, if you put fennel and anise seeds in the spice grinder, the flavor comes out stronger. Third, if you use old spices, the flavor comes out more mild. Finally, the added fat from the pork belly, and the nonfat dry milk really helped the texture of the smoked sausage. My previous attempts have all been a bit dry and crumbly, but this one was much much better. I am pleased!
Fun weekend and we now have enough sausage to survive the zombie apocalypse!!! Thx for looking!!
HowlingDog (Mark)
