Texas Sausage?

I think your best option here would be to find a good German, Czech or Polish meat market or butcher shop that makes their own sausage links. Central Texas was a German and Czech settlement spot during the 1800's and they brought their sausage making techniques with them which ended up being the Texas hot link.
Apart from finding a quality link, you'll need to cook it slowly over smoke to get the flavor right. If your sausage is uncooked you'll want to cook at about 200 - 225 for about 30 min. to an hour, keeping an eye on them and not allowing them to split open.
If the sausage is already cooked and smoked, cook them for 15 to 20 min. and again watch them for signs of bursting.
As for the wood, we use oak here in central Texas but I also like pecan which would be more of an east Texas style.:-D
I suppose for grocery store sausage in your area I'd go for Johnsonville, Opa's or another higher quality German style link.:wink:

OldBill has the right of it. A butchershop is your best bet - and if the butchershop isn't an option, you can't go wrong with Johnsonville. My goto smokewoods are pecan or mesquite.

The way I see it, is use what ever sausage you want or like, as long as its low and slow its Texas cooked Sausage to me.

There are two common Texas sausages, one is hot guts, a spicy beef or beef/pork sausage, the other is smoked sausage that comes with a load of black pepper and is a mix of pork and beef. This sausage is the most common one now, and was born from the fact that Texas BBQ came from butcher shops finding a way to sell the trimmings and waste cuts off of cattle and hogs.

Any good, well-seasoned pork sausage will be great cooked as Old Bill says. I use brats or coarse garlic sausage when I can find them. If you have a butcher shop, maybe you can convince them to make you some Texas sausage.

Southside Market has started selling in grocery stores around here, not sure if it's nationwide or not. Meyers is another brand to look for.

If you want to order online:

https://southsidemarket.com/Products/Elgin-Sausage.aspx

http://shop.cuetopiatexas.com/texas-sausage-1/

OldBill is right, a good butcher/sausage maker will have some hot sausage in the meat case. The variety will vary from place to place due to regional tastes and likes.

The only sausage that will be consistent will be the national brands. But I can't help you there, I haven't bought sausage at the grocery store in over 6 years. I make my own sausage the way I like it so it is always great.

I do buy my hot dogs from a German Butcher who makes the best Frankfurters and Wieners ever. I can't eat store bought dogs or sausage when we are out, I simply say I am not hungry and eat the salads and sides.

this is my go-to for sausage:

http://slovacek.com/products/hickory-smoked-pork-beef-sausage/

their stuff makes the national brands taste like dog food.

I could be talked into shipping some if ya wanna try it.

Sorry for the lateness of the reply; I've been smoking.

I recently went through a lengthy process of trying to find or re-create a sausage I recall from years ago in Texas - it was cured and smoked, fairly uncomplicated seasonings (not a lot of herbs or spices, mostly salt and pepper), but spicy with a good bit of mustard seed and, IIRC, cayenne. It could have been pure pork, pure beef, or a combination; it's been too long for me to remember. I only knew this taste from two places, a long-ago burnt-down beer joint whose owner bought the stuff from an elderly German farm couple in Tyler, and a meat market on a back road somewhere outside of Brenham, where they made a lot of venison sausage. To me, that taste was always vastly superior to the stuff from Elgin or most 'que joints.

I haven't found it commercially, but did come close enough by stuffing my own - straight ground pork butt, Bohemian Garlic sausage seasoning mix from Heinsohn's (New Ulm), a good bit of freshly-cracked Kampot peppercorns, a liberal dose of yellow mustard seeds, and a combination of cayenne and crushed red pepper flakes. Since I was smoking them on the low end of "hot smoking", I added Cure #1 to be safe. Smoked them around 160 over pecan, cranked the temperature up to 235 toward the end, stopped at internal temperature of just over 170, followed by a quick cold-water chill.

Oak-n-hickory said:

Sorry for the lateness of the reply; I've been smoking.

I recently went through a lengthy process of trying to find or re-create a sausage I recall from years ago in Texas - it was cured and smoked, fairly uncomplicated seasonings (not a lot of herbs or spices, mostly salt and pepper), but spicy with a good bit of mustard seed and, IIRC, cayenne. It could have been pure pork, pure beef, or a combination; it's been too long for me to remember. I only knew this taste from two places, a long-ago burnt-down beer joint whose owner bought the stuff from an elderly German farm couple in Tyler, and a meat market on a back road somewhere outside of Brenham, where they made a lot of venison sausage. To me, that taste was always vastly superior to the stuff from Elgin or most 'que joints.

I haven't found it commercially, but did come close enough by stuffing my own - straight ground pork butt, Bohemian Garlic sausage seasoning mix from Heinsohn's (New Ulm), a good bit of freshly-cracked Kampot peppercorns, a liberal dose of yellow mustard seeds, and a combination of cayenne and crushed red pepper flakes. Since I was smoking them on the low end of "hot smoking", I added Cure #1 to be safe. Smoked them around 160 over pecan, cranked the temperature up to 235 toward the end, stopped at internal temperature of just over 170, followed by a quick cold-water chill.

Click to expand...

I did a 5# batch of andouille Monday, using a new to me recipe. Smoked with pecan @180 F to an internal of 150 F. Also gave them an ice water chill. Came out great, but will adjust the heat higher next time.