The past several days I've been helping my new friend David (
dwdunlap
) through the learning curve of making sausage. He made a batch of the Cajun sausage I sent him the spice mix for. At the end of the day, he apparently did OK but hit a couple of roadblocks. I got a PM from him asking a few questions. Instead if typing out the response, knowing I was going to be making a batch for myself, I just took pics of the process. The plan was to send them to him via PM but decided if I was going to post any sort of an informative tutorial, I may as well go ahead and post it here to possibly help others who may have questions and tag David on it so he can see it here.
David didn't seem to have any issues grinding the meat, so I did not take pics of that part. I'll just make some comments here for those who may not be in the know.
-No matter what type or flavor of sausage you're making, there are three components that are crucial to any sausage: lean meat, fat, and liquid. Some folks go with an approximate 85/15 ratio and some go as low as 70/30. My preference is 80/20 to 85/15.
-The sausage I made is what I'd consider a medium sized sausage so I used the medium grinding plate
-When cutting the meat before grinding, cut into cubes 3/4" to 1" in size. This will allow the meat to go down the throat of the grinder without binding up or clogging the auger
-After the meat is cut, put it on a sheet pan and place in the freezer. Let it sit for as long as it takes for the meat to start crusting up. It will grind much cleaner if it's that cold. This is when I typically mix up my spices
-Place the holding tray and grinder tube (with blade and grinding plate installed) into the fridge to get cold. DO NOT put in freezer!!
-Once the meat is starting to crust up, it's ready to grind. Drop the meat into the grinder a couple of cubes at a time. Don't try filling the entire throat or it's going to clog the auger and turn your meat into silly putty. You should be able to get by with just an occasional prod with the stick if a particular chunk of meat won't drop into the auger.
-I like to sprinkle my spices into the meat as it's grinding into the bowl a little at a time. Maybe 3 or 4 applications. This helps to incorporate the spices throughout the meat and will require less mixing thus minimizing the possibility of breaking the farce and it emulsifying.
-A general starting point for liquid is about 1/4 cup of water for 5# of meat. The water is best if it's put in a glass and into the fridge so it's cold. You'll soon note that "cold" is the word of the day when making sausage. Put about 1/8 cup of water in when you start mixing and add as necessary. The meat should be sticky but still have visible textures of meat and fat. When at the proper consistency, you should be able to take a small gob of meat, stick it to the palm of your hand, turn your hand upside down, and the meat will stay stuck to your hand.
At this point, I had the meat ground, the seasonings mixed, and about half of the meat into the hopper of the stuffer. Decided to go ahead and take a pic so you could see what the meat is supposed to look like after mixing
I love the pre-tubed casings from Syracuse Casing Company. They are so easy to use. Soak in warm water for 10 minutes, slide onto the stuffing horn, and you're ready to go. This is a partial casing left over from last time I made sausage
Gently crank the handle until the meat is almost coming out the end of the stuffing horn. This will purge the air and stop your casing from blowing up like a balloon
Pull off enough casing to tie a basic overhand knot (make a loop, pull the end through, and snug it up). Make sure to leave a 1 to 1 1/2 inch tail of casing. The pressure of the meat going in will make the knot slide and you don't want it sliding all the way off and meat going all over the counter. I built a stuffing table. It's made of Cedar, has a clear Plexiglas top, adjustable height feet, and a ruler glued on the underside so I can measure the links as they come off. Keep the bulk of your casing toward the dispensing end of the tube. It will minimize resistance as the casing is coming off the tube, thus minimizing the possibility of a blow-out
For my smoked sausage, I like making 12" links
When the link is at the desired length, pinch off the end, slide off the stuffing horn, and leave yourself 3" or so of casing to tie the same knot. Don't shortcut yourself enough casing to tie the knot or you'll be hating life!! Get the knot started and you can slide it right down to where the meat stops, then snug it up.
Continue until the plunger in the stuffer bottoms out. I took multiple pics to fully document the color. You'll see a big difference with the next pics.
Here they are the next day after hanging in the fridge overnight. They will be going on the Rec Tec in a few minutes. See the color difference?
Onto the smoker. If you have the availability of really regulating your smoker temp, you ideally want to start about 130* and slowly raise the temp over several hours to 160* or 170*. Do not let the smoker go above 180* for any length of time or you'll get whats called a "fat out". This is where the fat starts to melt and break down. It'll make the sausage really greasy and it'll start blowing up your casings.
About 2 hours in. These are looking beautiful!!
All done and in the house. From here they go into an ice bath for about 20 minutes to stop them from cooking any more from the residual heat.
Out of the ice bath, ends snipped, and string loops removed
Cut away view
I will say that this is about the most beautiful batch of sausage I've ever made. The coloring I got from the Rec Tec is just off the charts, and the sausage was absolutely amazing. It'd been a while since I made any of this and now remember why Steve (
Steve H
) was raving so much about it in his recent thread. Like him also, I proceeded to make some sausage and chicken Jambalaya for dinner last night. It was so good!!
No doubt I've missed a few things but think I managed to hit on most of the high points. Please fire away if I missed anything and I'll get back as quickly as I can.
Hoping somebody can benefit from this,
Robert
dwdunlap
) through the learning curve of making sausage. He made a batch of the Cajun sausage I sent him the spice mix for. At the end of the day, he apparently did OK but hit a couple of roadblocks. I got a PM from him asking a few questions. Instead if typing out the response, knowing I was going to be making a batch for myself, I just took pics of the process. The plan was to send them to him via PM but decided if I was going to post any sort of an informative tutorial, I may as well go ahead and post it here to possibly help others who may have questions and tag David on it so he can see it here.David didn't seem to have any issues grinding the meat, so I did not take pics of that part. I'll just make some comments here for those who may not be in the know.
-No matter what type or flavor of sausage you're making, there are three components that are crucial to any sausage: lean meat, fat, and liquid. Some folks go with an approximate 85/15 ratio and some go as low as 70/30. My preference is 80/20 to 85/15.
-The sausage I made is what I'd consider a medium sized sausage so I used the medium grinding plate
-When cutting the meat before grinding, cut into cubes 3/4" to 1" in size. This will allow the meat to go down the throat of the grinder without binding up or clogging the auger
-After the meat is cut, put it on a sheet pan and place in the freezer. Let it sit for as long as it takes for the meat to start crusting up. It will grind much cleaner if it's that cold. This is when I typically mix up my spices
-Place the holding tray and grinder tube (with blade and grinding plate installed) into the fridge to get cold. DO NOT put in freezer!!
-Once the meat is starting to crust up, it's ready to grind. Drop the meat into the grinder a couple of cubes at a time. Don't try filling the entire throat or it's going to clog the auger and turn your meat into silly putty. You should be able to get by with just an occasional prod with the stick if a particular chunk of meat won't drop into the auger.
-I like to sprinkle my spices into the meat as it's grinding into the bowl a little at a time. Maybe 3 or 4 applications. This helps to incorporate the spices throughout the meat and will require less mixing thus minimizing the possibility of breaking the farce and it emulsifying.
-A general starting point for liquid is about 1/4 cup of water for 5# of meat. The water is best if it's put in a glass and into the fridge so it's cold. You'll soon note that "cold" is the word of the day when making sausage. Put about 1/8 cup of water in when you start mixing and add as necessary. The meat should be sticky but still have visible textures of meat and fat. When at the proper consistency, you should be able to take a small gob of meat, stick it to the palm of your hand, turn your hand upside down, and the meat will stay stuck to your hand.
At this point, I had the meat ground, the seasonings mixed, and about half of the meat into the hopper of the stuffer. Decided to go ahead and take a pic so you could see what the meat is supposed to look like after mixing
I love the pre-tubed casings from Syracuse Casing Company. They are so easy to use. Soak in warm water for 10 minutes, slide onto the stuffing horn, and you're ready to go. This is a partial casing left over from last time I made sausage
Gently crank the handle until the meat is almost coming out the end of the stuffing horn. This will purge the air and stop your casing from blowing up like a balloon
Pull off enough casing to tie a basic overhand knot (make a loop, pull the end through, and snug it up). Make sure to leave a 1 to 1 1/2 inch tail of casing. The pressure of the meat going in will make the knot slide and you don't want it sliding all the way off and meat going all over the counter. I built a stuffing table. It's made of Cedar, has a clear Plexiglas top, adjustable height feet, and a ruler glued on the underside so I can measure the links as they come off. Keep the bulk of your casing toward the dispensing end of the tube. It will minimize resistance as the casing is coming off the tube, thus minimizing the possibility of a blow-out
For my smoked sausage, I like making 12" links
When the link is at the desired length, pinch off the end, slide off the stuffing horn, and leave yourself 3" or so of casing to tie the same knot. Don't shortcut yourself enough casing to tie the knot or you'll be hating life!! Get the knot started and you can slide it right down to where the meat stops, then snug it up.
Continue until the plunger in the stuffer bottoms out. I took multiple pics to fully document the color. You'll see a big difference with the next pics.
Here they are the next day after hanging in the fridge overnight. They will be going on the Rec Tec in a few minutes. See the color difference?
Onto the smoker. If you have the availability of really regulating your smoker temp, you ideally want to start about 130* and slowly raise the temp over several hours to 160* or 170*. Do not let the smoker go above 180* for any length of time or you'll get whats called a "fat out". This is where the fat starts to melt and break down. It'll make the sausage really greasy and it'll start blowing up your casings.
About 2 hours in. These are looking beautiful!!
All done and in the house. From here they go into an ice bath for about 20 minutes to stop them from cooking any more from the residual heat.
Out of the ice bath, ends snipped, and string loops removed
Cut away view
I will say that this is about the most beautiful batch of sausage I've ever made. The coloring I got from the Rec Tec is just off the charts, and the sausage was absolutely amazing. It'd been a while since I made any of this and now remember why Steve (
Steve H
) was raving so much about it in his recent thread. Like him also, I proceeded to make some sausage and chicken Jambalaya for dinner last night. It was so good!!
No doubt I've missed a few things but think I managed to hit on most of the high points. Please fire away if I missed anything and I'll get back as quickly as I can.
Hoping somebody can benefit from this,
Robert
