ISO tips/help with sausage making

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xmascarol1

Senior Cook
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Messages
147
Location
northern Michigan in the forest, overlooking a wat
I'm about to make a batch of Andouille smoked Cajun sausage, as pork butt was only $1 /# today at the butcher shop. I was going to make just Italian sweet sausage( though I still have some left from last fall) and then as I researched different recipes, I came across a site that had the Andouille smoked sausage recipe and procedure.
I'm chunking up the meat tonight and adding the seasonings and will let it cool in the fridge overnight until I grind it tomorrow. I bought about 15 # of meat so by the time I cut out some of the fat, and a little bone, it will probably be about 12#. I plan to use my smoker out in the pole barn. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Has anyone made some good smoked sausages? What kind have you made? Tell me about your experience with smoking.
 
I smoked some breakfast sausage with green peach wood and it turned out spectacular
Now I live on the 16 floor and can't smoke a thing >:-(
 
My husband has made hot Italian sausage & chorizo using pork & venison. We just bought a smoker, so be sure to let us know how it turns out. We still have lots of casings in a brine in the freezer just waiting to be stuffed.
 
task finished

Well, I ground up the 15 #'s of pork butt and added all the spices, and the Tendercure and refrigerated the whole mess for 24 hours. I was careful to keep chilling the cubes of meat while I was grinding some. Then I soaked the casings and rinsed them, threaded them on my sausage stuffer attachment on my Kitchen Aid (which I also used for the grinder) and proceded to make the sausages, about 5-6 inches long. I got really tired stuffing the sausages after about half of the meat mixture was used up, and I was also worried I wouldn't be able to get all the sausages in the smoker. So I refrigerated the remaining meat, and smoked the sausages I made. The directions recommending smoking them for about 6 hours to a temp. of 180. So I stuck my thermometer (with the cord)into one of the sausages on the top rack. I had 2 racks of sausages. Lo and behold, it was just about 6 hours and the temp was 180 right then. Taking them inside, I cooled them in water to get the temp down, let them dry a bit and then bagged them for the freezer. I did the next batch the following day. They are delicious and the recipe made about 5 dozen. I was very proud of myself! I do recommend you have 2 people working together in the stuffing part of the project but hubby had another project going downstair, remodeling the stairs and I didn't want to bother him. So the next time I'll do it when he's not busy.
 
Thanks for posting your results. I'm glad they turned out yummy. It is a lot of work. I helped my husband with the stuffing. We laughed a lot doing it. I look forward to making some sausages & smoking them when we get back to NY.
 
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