Venison boerewors, hot links, kielbasa and Italian sausage!

[Mauritius]

I started posting here a couple weeks ago, just before Christmas, when I got a new electric smoker from LEM. I had a horrible time regulating temperatures and figuring out how to make it work. Thanks to everyone around these parts I'm happy to present my first batch of sausage, both fresh and smoked! I've tried to get this right the past few years, many mistakes and lessons learned. I finally have a product I can say beats the pants off anything store bought.

I made 10 lbs of venison boerewors, my sister married a South African and I've been out to visit a couple times. I also did 10 lbs of smoked venison sausage - kielbasa and my take on a hot link. Both turned out fantastic, I'm happiest with the kielbasa but the hot links are serious business too. I also did 10 lbs of Italian sausage, straight pork shoulder with a little extra back fat.

This is the boerewors mix, about 4 parts venison, 2 parts beef fat trimmed from our Christmas rib roast, and 1 part bacon. Froze it 30 minutes and ground once through 1/4" plate.

The boerewors stuffed in 1 pound spirals.

I pulled everything out of the fridge when I finished to load test my home made folding sausage rack. Hot links are front left, kielbasa's are the loops and the Italian sausage is in the back, the smaller links.

After a day in the fridge I loaded the hot links and kielbasa in my LEM smoker. 1 hour to dry, 3 hours at 130 and 2 hours at 140 with hickory the AMNPS. This picture's from about 3 hours in.

Then I bagged and finished real quick with the sous vide, took less than an hour to get to 152.

Then I let them bloom for an hour. Lost a little fat, but they turned out amazing!

If anyone wants recipes, let me know. Thanks for watching!

 

[crazzycajun]

Looks good like the color on the hot link

 

[SonnyE]

Yummy looking!

Glad you hit the mark.

 

[motocrash]

Gorgeous man! Nice job on the rack too;)

 

[azbohunter]

Looks awesome, I have to get up the nerve to try sausage, I usually have a freezer full of venison. Yours looks awesome, nice job!

 

[crazymoon]

M, Nice job on your sausage,looks like a professional job! like

 

[ab canuck]

Good work and good for you.... Sausage looks great!!! Persistence paid off...

 

[tallbm]

That looks awesome! Congrats on tackling the smoker issues and now being able to produce basically any smoked product you can think of. I'm glad the extra cost of buying a PID controller didn't scare you away. In the end it is about making the best and most enjoyable smoked food you can and not the extra cost or being defeated by the short comings of a poorly created smoker.

The old saying is usually true, "If you want something done right you gotta do it yourself!"

 

[SmokinAl]

Excellent looking sausage!
Great color!
I bet it was delicious!
Congrats on making the carousel!
Al

 

[Rings Я Us]

Very nice sausage work.
Good pics!

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Looks awesome.
Like your sausage rack. TSM has one on their web site for like $35

 

[tropics]

Great job all the way making the sausage smoking it wow. Point worthy
Richie

 

[tropics]

Just looked at the smoker I see you are handy with wood.Here is a rack I made for my MES
Richie

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/sausage-jerky-rack-mes40-w-step-by-step.174140/

 

[driedstick]

Looking good,,,,, looking good,,, nice job

 

[forkin pork]

Your pic on the carousel caught my eye with all that beautiful sausage hanging.
Can't see pics in the post though, but from the sounds of it, it will make my mouth water, hell my mouth was watering just reading about it.
So, super great job, and yes that is what we all strive for, to out do the store bought stuff.

 

[Mauritius]

Thanks everyone!

Looks awesome, I have to get up the nerve to try sausage, I usually have a freezer full of venison. Yours looks awesome, nice job!

Yes you should! I get tired of plain old ground venison, and we have SO MUCH of it. 6 deer this year, probably 40lbs of grind off each of them. It took me a few tries to get it right, and I wasted some meat, but it's obviously worth it in the end.

That looks awesome! Congrats on tackling the smoker issues and now being able to produce basically any smoked product you can think of. I'm glad the extra cost of buying a PID controller didn't scare you away. In the end it is about making the best and most enjoyable smoked food you can and not the extra cost or being defeated by the short comings of a poorly created smoker.

The old saying is usually true, "If you want something done right you gotta do it yourself!"

I wouldn't be lying if I said your advice on the PID made this possible :) If you're looking for a new tool for your arsenal I can recommend the Fireboard thermometer. The PID + Fireboard combo is a sight to behold.

Check this out - two smokers and two probes going at once, it's a pretty good visualization of how I spent Monday. And you can see the PID holding the electric smoker rock solid, except when I open the door.

Just looked at the smoker I see you are handy with wood.Here is a rack I made for my MES
Richie

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/sausage-jerky-rack-mes40-w-step-by-step.174140/

That's a really good idea. I have a few dowels leftover from the rack, I might give that a shot. One nice thing about the LEM smoker is it has a couple metal bars inside the roof for hanging. But there's only 2 of them, and that's not nearly enough.

A tip for fellow woodworkers - I've started using Sketchup to do drawings of my more complicated projects. Makes the whole measure twice cut once thing a lot easier. Here's the drawing I made of the rack. This let me work out the angles and how to make sure it actually folded flat all the way.

Then I can break out the parts and do measurements like so -

Super handy if you are so technically inclined... it's a pretty easy tool to use and there are decent video tutorials.

 

[Mauritius]

Your pic on the carousel caught my eye with all that beautiful sausage hanging.
Can't see pics in the post though, but from the sounds of it, it will make my mouth water, hell my mouth was watering just reading about it.
So, super great job, and yes that is what we all strive for, to out do the store bought stuff.

Thanks! I just edited my post to hopefully fix the image problem.

 

[ab canuck]

Pretty neat unit, Thx for posting it as well, Congrats on the carousel as well!!!!

 

[SmokyMose]

VERY nice, Mauritius!
I keep saying I’m going to try finishing in the Sous Vide, but never seem to try. Next time for sure. Tired of watching the Maverick waiting for that last 5 degrees in the oven....

 

[chilerelleno]

Great work on the sausages and woodworking too.

But back to the sausages... Dang'it man, I'm Jonesing for some HotLinks now.
Congrats on making the Carousel.

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