Venison jalapeño cheddar sausages 2nd try

[Qazaq15]

So this is my second try, and I think I nailed it! The first time I used salted pork fatback, and I didn’t take the salt into account. It was good but too salty, with little pieces of skin. This time I only added the cure #1, with the peppers and cheese, and cut the skin off the fatback. Perfect!
2 things I’ve learned so far: I need a real sausage stuffer, and it’s really difficult to maintain the temperature on a propane smoker. Does anyone have any tips to keep the temperature more stable? I think I’ve walked a mile today checking on it and adjusting it.

 

[JckDanls 07]

Im not familiar with your first try but... The second try looks awesome.. Great job

I need a real sausage stuffer

So I'm assuming you used a grinder to stuff with ?

Does anyone have any tips to keep the temperature more stable?

Do you have a Needle Valve on the smoker ?? If not, research it... Much better control...

 

[Qazaq15]

Im not familiar with your first try but...



So I'm assuming you used a grinder to stuff with ?




Do you have a Needle Valve on the smoker ?? If not, research it... Much better control...

First I tried using the grinder to stuff it with. It kept pushing a bunch of air into the casings and it was difficult to control. So I used my jerky gun and that worked better, but I had to stop and reload it frequently. Being able to load 5 or 10 lbs of meat into a stuffer would be a huge time saver. Anyway, it was my second time making sausage ever, and it turned out a lot better than I expected.

 

[JckDanls 07]

That's good that you tried stuffing both ways ... Showed how much easier the cannon was than the grinder... Now imagine how much easier a stuffer (I recommend the LEM Mighty Bite 5lb) will be than the cannon ... And I say the 5 lb'r as it has advantages over the bigger ones for doing snack sticks (if they are in your future) ...

Try to refrain from the stuffers that have the tube coming out of the bottom of the canister via a 90` elbow... The elbow and tube hold a lot of extra meat that doesn't make it into the casing when emptied ... Look for the canister with the tube out the side at the bottom (as the LEM does)...

 

[indaswamp]

Nice sausages. You will find like many of us that a dedicated sausage stuffer is a game changer. 5# stuffers are a good intro model and can be had for about $100-120 with occasional deals on sale for less..

 

[Qazaq15]

That's good that you tried stuffing both ways ... Showed how much easier the cannon was than the grinder... Now imagine how much easier a stuffer (I recommend the LEM Mighty Bite 5lb) will be than the cannon ... And I say the 5 lb'r as it has advantages over the bigger ones for doing snack sticks (if they are in your future) ...

Try to refrain from the stuffers that have the tube coming out of the bottom of the canister via a 90` elbow... The elbow and tube hold a lot of extra meat that doesn't make it into the casing when emptied ... Look for the canister with the tube out the side at the bottom (as the LEM does)...

Good tip, I’ll look for that when I’m shopping for one.

 

[chopsaw]

Good tip, I’ll look for that when I’m shopping for one.

That is a good tip . Last time I stuffed I saved this picture to show what's left in a LEM 5lb stuffer . Most of that was in the tube , very little left in the stuffer .
Not much bigger than a golf ball . Makes a nice snack .

 

[tallbm]

View attachment 655257

So this is my second try, and I think I nailed it! The first time I used salted pork fatback, and I didn’t take the salt into account. It was good but too salty, with little pieces of skin. This time I only added the cure #1, with the peppers and cheese, and cut the skin off the fatback. Perfect!
2 things I’ve learned so far: I need a real sausage stuffer, and it’s really difficult to maintain the temperature on a propane smoker. Does anyone have any tips to keep the temperature more stable? I think I’ve walked a mile today checking on it and adjusting it.

Hi there and welcome!

Those look fantastic!

Yeah you can't beat a dedicated stuffer.

When you start shopping for one know that they do 1-2 pounds less than what they claim the capacity is. So a 5 pound stuffer does about 4 pounds.

If 5 pound batches are the size you will do most of the time then I would suggest getting a 7 pound stuffer.

Another thing to understand as well... The larger the stuffer gets the more difficult it is to stuff sausage alone. If you try to push 20 pounds of sausage through a tube to make sausage it takes some serious cranking strength, I know with my 23 pound stuffer hahaha.

I've never used a 11-12 pound stuffer but I imagine more than that will take 2 people. 1 person to do some serious cranking and 1 to feed sausage/casings.

After my hunting is done I make sure my brother or someone else is with me on sausage stuffing day. It's a mandatory 2 person day with my 23 pound stuffer (does 20 pounds) but we also do about 200lbs+ of sausage stuffing and bagging ground meat so you can see why I use such a big stuffer :)

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Very nice job, looks real tasty!

 

[Qazaq15]

Hi there and welcome!

Those look fantastic!

Yeah you can't beat a dedicated stuffer.

When you start shopping for one know that they do 1-2 pounds less than what they claim the capacity is. So a 5 pound stuffer does about 4 pounds.

If 5 pound batches are the size you will do most of the time then I would suggest getting a 7 pound stuffer.

Another thing to understand as well... The larger the stuffer gets the more difficult it is to stuff sausage alone. If you try to push 20 pounds of sausage through a tube to make sausage it takes some serious cranking strength, I know with my 23 pound stuffer hahaha.

I've never used a 11-12 pound stuffer but I imagine more than that will take 2 people. 1 person to do some serious cranking and 1 to feed sausage/casings.

After my hunting is done I make sure my brother or someone else is with me on sausage stuffing day. It's a mandatory 2 person day with my 23 pound stuffer (does 20 pounds) but we also do about 200lbs+ of sausage stuffing and bagging ground meat so you can see why I use such a big stuffer :)

Dang! I’m definitely a 5 lb batch guy, that’s about all I have the patience and space for. It’s a little intimidating the first time you try but there really isn’t a whole lot to it.
I do have a question about salt content though. If I want to get my salt from a few different sources(curing salt, sea salt, teriyaki sauce, hot sauce…) how do I tally all of them up? I read that the ratio of 9 grams of salt per lb of meat, but that doesn’t work when adding liquids. Is there a formula?

 

[tallbm]

Dang! I’m definitely a 5 lb batch guy, that’s about all I have the patience and space for. It’s a little intimidating the first time you try but there really isn’t a whole lot to it.
I do have a question about salt content though. If I want to get my salt from a few different sources(curing salt, sea salt, teriyaki sauce, hot sauce…) how do I tally all of them up? I read that the ratio of 9 grams of salt per lb of meat, but that doesn’t work when adding liquids. Is there a formula?

I find that with about 1.65% direct salt you will have good flavor and not be too salty even when using the proper amount of cure #1.

The ideal approach is to check all those different things and give a good guess you add and see how much sodium they are adding.
In reality no one is adding so much of that other stuff that it comes out to 1% sodium for the entire weight of the sausage.

Now if you ARE adding so much of something like soy sauce then get a ball park estimate of how much % the sodium and then reduce your 1.65% direct salt to account for it.

It's not too hard in the end once you start knowing how much direct salt you are adding and can guestimate how much is coming from the other items :)

 

[tbern]

look great, nice job!!

 

[uncle eddie]

Nailing a sausage recipe is something to enjoy! Congrats!

Be sure to post more sausage attempts...even the failures (I have a few of those up here) so we can all learn.