I get to make SAUSAGE this weekend!!!!! Care to share recipes Brethren????

[KnucklHed BBQ]

...What is the effect of adding all that water to the meat. Do you have to amp up the seasoning to mitigate? Also, when the sausage is cooking does the steam make the casings expand? Cold meat is crucial to sausage making but it never dawned on me to add ice.

The only effect that I've seen is that they are definitely juicy when you cook them. If I poke one with my thermo it will literally geyser juices out the probe hole about 2-3 inches... no extra spices needed, the same amount of spices are still going into the sausage meat, you haven't added more meat volume, there's just a bit of water added.

As for steam expanding the casings, if you over cook them then when they cool the casings will be wrinkled and unsightly, but if you slowly and just barely bring them to temp they stay round and juicy. That being said, I usually cook these as I plan on serving them, I don't smoke them and then freeze & reheat...

SOOOOO glad you posted this.

A couple of questions:
You cut the pork into strips, then add spices and let sit overnight BEFORE grinding? Is this key? We're going over to his place on Saturday, but if needed, I'll do this work on Friday.

No, I usually mix the spices, water & ice together and allow to sit for 10 15 min (enough time to get another beer and set up the grinder and clean up the counter space I used to cut the meat) I was just saying that if you needed to allow it to sit over night there wouldn't be a problem with that.

Also, he recommended just using pork butts, cut up. Does this sound right? I was thinking that the pork butts would have good fat content, plus I have some pork fat frozen too (that were the fat caps off of several butts earlier this year).

Yeah, I just use butts, a few of the other recipes I tried called for either veal and pork or lean beef and pork, the beef is used in a more traditional brat, this one is considered a "Wisconsin brat" think Johnsonville with waaay better flavor, and I'm not doggin' Jville's brats, I like em' just fine, but these... :shock:

I do kinda cringe each time I grind up a money muscle tho...

He also mentioned, too, that fat content was key, so I'm glad you all agree with him.

Yup, fat is your friend!! I usually try to find the butts with the thickest looking fat cap (what you can see thru the cryo anyways) and I feel like that is plenty of fat for these brats, they absolutely are not dry!

I've made thousands of tons of sausage when I worked for our families butcher shop.Fat = juciness and flavor.Grind meat,add spice then stuff.Very rarely did we add water to it.

Interesting, I picked up the ice trick from a butcher I knew and a few folks on this site, I'm curious, is/was there a reason behind not adding water at your shop?

I have another question for you, in dang near every sausage recipe I've read, they all say to grind and then mix in the spices, is there a reason they put it in that order?? It seems so much easier and consistent (to me at least) to mix the spices with the cubes or strips before grinding (after all the grinder is going to thoroughly combine the spices with the meat as it grinds, right?)

And adding spices before grinding also allows you to do minimal mixing of the ground meat which lends to a much more delicate texture (kinda like over mixing ground beef for hamburgers will give you a denser, tougher burger)

I also find that mixing the spices first along with the water & ice makes a slurry that helps the pieces slide into the grinder tube, not a big deal for massive commercial grinders, but at home it has made the grinding experience much better!!

Thanks!

 

[KnucklHed BBQ]

I've really enjoyed these hot links - you can dial back the heat easily. Recipe is from this site, which seems to be very good.

^^^^^^Holy carp! New fav site!! Thanks! :thumb:

 

[gtr]

Here are a few more! I can't remember if I've done recipes off of these sites :twitch: but there are lots and lots of recipes here. ^^^That one that you're referring to is probably my favorite one at the moment. :thumb:

http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-recipes

http://www.panix.com/~clay/cookbook/bin/table_of_contents.cgi?sausage

http://web.archive.org/web/20010214020112/http:/home.att.net/~g.m.fowler/frame/Sausage1.htm

 

[Yellowhair42]

The only effect that I've seen is that they are definitely juicy when you cook them. If I poke one with my thermo it will literally geyser juices out the probe hole about 2-3 inches... no extra spices needed, the same amount of spices are still going into the sausage meat, you haven't added more meat volume, there's just a bit of water added.

As for steam expanding the casings, if you over cook them then when they cool the casings will be wrinkled and unsightly, but if you slowly and just barely bring them to temp they stay round and juicy. That being said, I usually cook these as I plan on serving them, I don't smoke them and then freeze & reheat...





Interesting, I picked up the ice trick from a butcher I knew and a few folks on this site, I'm curious, is/was there a reason behind not adding water at your shop?

I have another question for you, in dang near every sausage recipe I've read, they all say to grind and then mix in the spices, is there a reason they put it in that order?? It seems so much easier and consistent (to me at least) to mix the spices with the cubes or strips before grinding (after all the grinder is going to thoroughly combine the spices with the meat as it grinds, right?)

And adding spices before grinding also allows you to do minimal mixing of the ground meat which lends to a much more delicate texture (kinda like over mixing ground beef for hamburgers will give you a denser, tougher burger)

I also find that mixing the spices first along with the water & ice makes a slurry that helps the pieces slide into the grinder tube, not a big deal for massive commercial grinders, but at home it has made the grinding experience much better!!

Thanks!

The only time we added water was when it was kinda dry to help it grind or stuff easier.It probably won't matter at all.You may be overthinking the overmixing,it is going to be compressed when it gets stuffed.But what do I know,we never tried any other way. The only reason to mix after grinding that I can think of is not to crush whole spices like fennel seeds.It probably doesn't matter that much.Plus like you stated,we did 200# batches with a giant mixer.Try doing that by hand.:twitch: Although we did add ice to anything that went through the chopper(think giant horizontal blender that whips meat into a fluff)because the blades would actually heat up the meat.

 

[RL Reeves Jr]

We don't season before grinding because my buddy, who owns the machine, is worried that the salt would cause rust in the metal grinding apparatus. Also, I made a batch of pork stock last night with a pile of smoked hog feet and froze a couple ice cube trays of it. I'll add the smoked hog cubes next time we do a batch of links. Thanks for all the great tips y'all. Loving the site. RL

 

[gtr]

^^^got any hot guts recipes? :hungry:

I used to live in Austin (or so I'm told...:twitch I loved getting New Braufels and Elgin sausage. :thumb:

 

[Wampus]

THIS PLACE ROCKS!!!!!!


Farkin AWESOME info here. Thanks so much.



NOW.....the only thing to do is decide WHICH sausage I want to try.....:decision:

 

[gtr]

Trout?

 

[chad]

Crap! Now I've got to break out the stuff to make sausage this weekend. Damn!

Jamaican Jerk sausage is on the gotta do list: http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Jerk Sausage.pdf

I'll probably do 5# of this and 5# of Italian. I need to do some andouille.
I use Michael Ruhlman's recipes for the Italian and andouille.

Any extra pork butt goes into the cure for tasso.

 

[pahutchens]

I've been looking at some Lamb sausage recipes to mimic a gyro then gyro jerky came to mind this morning while smoking some chuckies

 

[bigkahunaranch]

Bigwheels Genuine Texas Hot Links



6-7 lbs. Boston Butt
1 bottle beer
2 T. coarse ground black pepper
2 T. crushed red pepper
2 T. Cayenne
2 T. Hungarian Paprika
2 T. Morton's Tender Quick
1 T. Kosher Salt
1 T. Whole Mustard Seeds
1/4 cup minced fresh garlic
1 T. granulated garlic
1 T. MSG
1 t. ground bay leaves
1 t. whole anise seeds
1 t. coriander
1 t. ground thyme

Mix all the spices, cure, and garlic into the beer and place in refrigerator
while you cut up the meat to fit in the grinder. Pour the spiced beer over
the meat and mix well. Run meat and spice mixture through the fine plate and mix again. Stuff into medium hog casings. Smoke or slow grill till they are done. Wrap in a piece of bread and slap on the mustard heavy.

This is a great recipe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Made my first sausage using it and now have made another 40 or 50 lbs using same recipe.
Last two batches I did change to 2/3 pork, 1/3 beef (chuck roast).
Oh and for the beer, I use SHINER !! :wink:

 

[Wampus]

Here are a few more! I can't remember if I've done recipes off of these sites :twitch: but there are lots and lots of recipes here. ^^^That one that you're referring to is probably my favorite one at the moment. :thumb:

http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-recipes

http://www.panix.com/~clay/cookbook/bin/table_of_contents.cgi?sausage

http://web.archive.org/web/20010214020112/http:/home.att.net/~g.m.fowler/frame/Sausage1.htm

HOLY FARKIN SAUSAGE RECIPES BATMAN!!!


I actually JUST NOW checked these "links" (no sausage pun ) out and WOW GREG!!!!!



I almost wish I HADN'T. A little overwhelming to say the least!!!! :shock:

 

[KnucklHed BBQ]

Did I miss the results of this festive occasion?

 

[gtr]

Yeah Wamp, let's hear about/see it! :hungry:

 

[Big Mike]

Bigwheels Genuine Texas Hot Links



6-7 lbs. Boston Butt
1 bottle beer
2 T. coarse ground black pepper
2 T. crushed red pepper
2 T. Cayenne
2 T. Hungarian Paprika
2 T. Morton's Tender Quick
1 T. Kosher Salt
1 T. Whole Mustard Seeds
1/4 cup minced fresh garlic
1 T. granulated garlic
1 T. MSG
1 t. ground bay leaves
1 t. whole anise seeds
1 t. coriander
1 t. ground thyme

Mix all the spices, cure, and garlic into the beer and place in refrigerator
while you cut up the meat to fit in the grinder. Pour the spiced beer over
the meat and mix well. Run meat and spice mixture through the fine plate and mix again. Stuff into medium hog casings. Smoke or slow grill till they are done. Wrap in a piece of bread and slap on the mustard heavy.

This makes really good hot links

 

[Big Mike]

A question was asked about adding spices before grinding. I always add my spices before grinding. I add spices to cut up meat and place back in the fridge for an hour or so. I find spicing before grinding allows the spices to mix more evenly.