First try at smoked sausage

[tod0987]

The Pig had shoulders on sale this week so I picked up a 12lbr hoping to end up with 10lbs of grind. I read up on what I could find online and ground it twice. I ended up with 9.5 lbs. Half went to a plain smoked sausage recipe and the other half I added jalapeno and sharp cheddar. The Kitchen Aid grinder/stuffer was horrible. If I try it again I'm going to have to buy some other grinder/stuffer.

I ground it all up yesterday and stuffed it, ending up with 4 plates of sausage(below). This morning, I now have it on racks drying for a few hours before smoking this afternoon. We'll see how it goes. Sure smells good so far.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Those look great

 

[CZfool68]

I’m always fearful of rolling my own and giving everybody botulism. What did you use to cure and how much?

 

[tod0987]

I’m always fearful of rolling my own and giving everybody botulism. What did you use to cure and how much?

1 teaspoon of #1 cure "pink salt" (not to be confused with pink "Himalayan" salt) per 5 lbs. I mix it with water and poke holes in the meat with my fingers and pure it all around and mix, mix, mix. Then left it overnight. I cooked them until the internal temperature read 155F.

I have cured pork loins with Morton's tenderquick, but that is a different process, a dry cure. It makes good Canadian bacon when smoked or if cooked after just curing, peameal bacon.

 

[tod0987]

We'll they're out and cooled down. The Jalapeno cheese was alright (a little light on the spices), the plain mix was a bit too herby with sage and oregano but was close to the bangers I had in London in taste and texture. Skin was a bit tough (I may have dried them out too much prior to cooking) but will let them age in the fridge for a day and see how they taste hot.

Had to take a peak while cooking


Final product

 

[Miss Lily]

Good job!

I am still working on my spice blend but, have had pretty good luck so far.

I understand your issue with Kitchenaid. My first kitchenaid grinder blade was great. When it broke, the new blades available were like cutting a steak with a butter knife. I have since procured another grinder that works quite well.

Check these guys https://www.sausagemaker.com/ . This is where I get many of my curing and cheese making supplies.

 

[tod0987]

Good job!

I am still working on my spice blend but, have had pretty good luck so far.

I understand your issue with Kitchenaid. My first kitchenaid grinder blade was great. When it broke, the new blades available were like cutting a steak with a butter knife. I have since procured another grinder that works quite well.

Check these guys https://www.sausagemaker.com/ . This is where I get many of my curing and cheese making supplies.

Thank you Miss Lily I'll check them out.

 

[Geezer]

Those look great, @tod0987 . When I was in Texas in December we went to a Christmas Eve dinner at a relative's house, he's cousin-in-law, or something. He had sausage that he had made, a mixture of deer and pork with jalapenos and cheese. Those things were killer! He even gave us 4 packages out of his freezer to bring back to SC. We had some for breakfast last Sunday morning.

He also had some Boudin Sausage. It's a Cajun sausage made with a mixture of pork and rice and Cajun seasonings. It was good but I didn't like the texture of it in my mouth.

 

[tod0987]

Those look great, @tod0987 . When I was in Texas in December we went to a Christmas Eve dinner at a relative's house, he's cousin-in-law, or something. He had sausage that he had made, a mixture of deer and pork with jalapenos and cheese. Those things were killer! He even gave us 4 packages out of his freezer to bring back to SC. We had some for breakfast last Sunday morning.

He also had some Boudin Sausage. It's a Cajun sausage made with a mixture of pork and rice and Cajun seasonings. It was good but I didn't like the texture of it in my mouth.

Thanks yes I think those Texans have their sausage down pat from the TV shows I've seen. Were the sausages small, finger size or larger normal size? Wondering if size matters to taste? (thank God were not in Chads' basement lol). Yes I think boudin is an acquired taste/texture too.

 

[bigfelipe]

Looks good. What's the casing? I have always had good luck with my KitchenAid grinder/stuffer. Just takes a little practice to figure out the speed...

 

[fieldgrade]

Casing quality can change. Years ago I placed an equipment engineer with the outfit near Columbia SC that made the casings for Slim Jims and other “similar” products. I remember a few years later buying a Slim Jim (shocking, I know) and the casing was like plastic. I called him and asked , “WTH??”

He said, “Uh, yea, we’ve had some recent quality issues.”

They didn’t make the Slim Jims and sausages, just the casings. And if you ever want to know how they make them, I’ll tell you.

 

[tod0987]

Looks good. What's the casing? I have always had good luck with my KitchenAid grinder/stuffer. Just takes a little practice to figure out the speed...

They were LEM natural Hog from Academy. I thought I had hog casings in the cabinet but they were really sheep for breakfast links and with the meat ready to go, beggars can't be choosers so they were the only ones I could find in town. I didn't have any blow outs and they seemed pretty consistent with no tears.

This was their brand new grinder attachment for a kitchen aid mixer. It ground the first "chunks" well but after the first grind it would not feed it through. I had to push like crazy to get the 2nd grind. It would not feed at all to stuff. I ended up figuring out that the stuffing horn fit from the kit fit on an old, old electric cookie gun. It held about 1 lb roughly per load and could stuff that amount in 30 seconds. It took longer to load then to stuff.

 

[np307]

Very nice. I've actually got two shoulders thawing right now to make some sausage here soon. I have a Gander Mountain grinder that's been good to me for several years. No problems with these batch sizes. I also have an upright 5 lb sausage stuffer and it is amazing how simple it makes the process. I'm going to be making some brats, andouille, chorizo, and something else that I haven't decided yet.

 

[tod0987]

Casing quality can change. Years ago I placed an equipment engineer with the outfit near Columbia SC that made the casings for Slim Jims and other “similar” products. I remember a few years late buying a Slim Jim (shocking, I know) and the casing was like plastic. I called him and asked , “WTH??”

He said, “Uh, yea, we’ve had some recent quality issues.”

They didn’t make the Slim Jims and sausages, just the casings. And if you ever want to know how they make them, I’ll tell you.

Thanks Fieldgrade!

In December I tried a caseless slim jim-esk recipe. It was 5lbs of ground beef (on sale mix of 4lbs of 70/30 and 1 lb of 93/7) with mix and #1 cure in two 8x8 brownie pans. Then they were smoked and sliced into meat-stick-esk slices. Basically you cut out the work of stuffing. Mix, let sit overnight, smoke, slice, package. The flavor was pretty good, I cut it around 3/16" thick for the most part but some were more shaved and the shaved slices were awesome! When I make it again I will cut them thin.

A peak while smoking and christening of the smoker.



Sliced final product. The wavy edge is from the rack.

 

[tod0987]

Very nice. I've actually got two shoulders thawing right now to make some sausage here soon. I have a Gander Mountain grinder that's been good to me for several years. No problems with these batch sizes. I also have an upright 5 lb sausage stuffer and it is amazing how simple it makes the process. I'm going to be making some brats, andouille, chorizo, and something else that I haven't decided yet.

yea I'm testing the waters to see if I want to invest in more dedicated equipment or just stick with the salty commercial sausage.

and something else that I haven't decided yet.

Yea I have this weird idea of something like a sweet caramelized onion sausage... Maybe add some garlic or green onion.

 

[np307]

yea I'm testing the waters to see if I want to invest in more dedicated equipment or just stick with the salty commercial sausage.



Yea I have this weird idea of something like a sweet caramelized onion sausage... Maybe add some garlic or green onion.

You should check out the book Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn. It's a classic in the field of sausage-making and contains a wide variety of recipes as well as some guidelines regarding percentages of various ingredients.

 

[tod0987]

You should check out the book Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn. It's a classic in the field of sausage-making and contains a wide variety of recipes as well as some guidelines regarding percentages of various ingredients.

Thanks Will do!

 

[Geezer]

Thanks yes I think those Texans have their sausage down pat from the TV shows I've seen. Were the sausages small, finger size or larger normal size? Wondering if size matters to taste? (thank God were not in Chads' basement lol). Yes I think boudin is an acquired taste/texture too.

They were normal size, maybe just a tiny bit smaller than the ones in you picture in the first post.

 

[Miss Lily]

You should check out the book Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn. It's a classic in the field of sausage-making and contains a wide variety of recipes as well as some guidelines regarding percentages of various ingredients.

Love this book. I haven't bought commercially cured corned beef since this came into my life.

 

[rodney1968]

check out waltonsinc.com they have everything you need, plus a YouTube channel with all kinds of informative videos for all kinds of sausage. they also have a forum in case you need to ask a question staff members and forum members are glad to help.
I make snack sticks all the time using their stuff

 

[nchunt101]

Thanks Will do!

Great book. I get gout from simply reading it.