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Sausage attempt #1 complete.

  • Thread starter Thread starter JamesB
  • Start date Start date
J

JamesB

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Well, my first attempt at sausage making is complete... I tried Bigwheel's Genuine Texas Hotlinks recipe as posted in the sausage section. Other than having great difficulty getting the hog guts on the feeder tube everything else went pretty well... Didnt' get any 'during pics' as I was at this solo...

Some of the end results. I need to work on getting more consistent sizing...
sausage_121907_med.jpg


Going to smoke some of the links tomorrow, but tonight I just grilled a couple of the larger ones on my little Weber go Anywhere gasser for a taste test ...
bw_hotlink_121907_md.JPG


These were very good as is, but I happened upon a few variations on this recipe. One of them included adding some beef to the mix. Bigwheel suggested that this will add a bit more of a firmer bite/texture... Next time, I'm going to try the beef addition too...

Thanks for ya'lls help... now dang it, I've got another hobby that's gonna cost money... :lol: :roll: :shock:

James.
 
Thanks RCS...

Here is a so so pic of a link sliced... was much more juicier than the pic shows...
sliced_md.jpg


James.
 
It helps if you apply some cooking oil to the stuffer tube. Guts will slide on after that.
That is a great first attempt. Did you use the grinder to stuff or did you use a stufer? If so, what type and brander stuffer is it? I'm in the market for one.
Looks really good too.
 
BobBrisket said:
It helps if you apply some cooking oil to the stuffer tube. Guts will slide on after that.
That is a great first attempt. Did you use the grinder to stuff or did you use a stufer? If so, what type and brander stuffer is it? I'm in the market for one.
Looks really good too.
Click to expand...

Hey Bob... after asking around, oiling the stuffer tube is what I ended up doing. The salted guts I got where all in short strands of about 4 feet... I just kind of expected them to be longer, so I had several sessions of fighting with the tube... :mad:

I picked up the 5lb vertical stuffer from Northern Tool. I read mostly good to great reviews about this one. There were a couple of concerns about it having nylon gears instead of metal, but I got it anyway... This is the one I got. Paid $69. for it at the store... I can see that if this hobby becomes a regular thing, a 15lb stuffer would be great!
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200308623_200308623
 
I'll check that one out. Thanks for the info.

Once you make your own links, you wont buy storebought again.
 
JamesB said:
Well, my first attempt at sausage making is complete... I tried Bigwheel's Genuine Texas Hotlinks recipe as posted in the sausage section. Other than having great difficulty getting the hog guts on the feeder tube everything else went pretty well... Didnt' get any 'during pics' as I was at this solo...

Some of the end results. I need to work on getting more consistent sizing...
sausage_121907_med.jpg


Going to smoke some of the links tomorrow, but tonight I just grilled a couple of the larger ones on my little Weber go Anywhere gasser for a taste test ...
bw_hotlink_121907_md.JPG


These were very good as is, but I happened upon a few variations on this recipe. One of them included adding some beef to the mix. Bigwheel suggested that this will add a bit more of a firmer bite/texture... Next time, I'm going to try the beef addition too...

Thanks for ya'lls help... now dang it, I've got another hobby that's gonna cost money... :lol: :roll: :shock:

James.
Click to expand...

Trust me, those look REALLY nice. Consistency wise, all guts are a little different, just don't overfill and you will be fine. As far as getting the gut on the tube, I'm assuming you are rinsing the inside of the casing...so following that, let them soak at least a couple of hours to really soften up. I leave one end outside the dish to make it easier to find, and make a new cut with a knife before threading on the tube. The best tip however is cranking a little nub of meat out the end of the tube. Wet it with a little water. This will make the gut almost thread itself.

3357ece6.jpg
 
Well, I learn something new everyday. This will make things much easier.
 
thirdeye said:
The best tip however is cranking a little nub of meat out the end of the tube. Wet it with a little water. This will make the gut almost thread itself.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the tip! Noted in my 'new' sausage making notebook... I do appreciate it!

James.
 
That looks delicious! Never made links before, have done "fattie" meat...
Nice job.
 
looks good- you can season them to your taste and I bet you won't be adding sawdust or any of the other undesireables that get into store bought sausages- nothing like homemade- How did the stuffer work?- thats a great price for one
 
smokestack said:
looks good- you can season them to your taste and I bet you won't be adding sawdust or any of the other undesireables that get into store bought sausages- nothing like homemade- How did the stuffer work?- thats a great price for one
Click to expand...

Thanks! The stuffer worked great! This sausage was a fairly fine grind... I hope some the coarser stuff I plan on trying hope all goes as well...

James.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
wife is going to hate me .... a new hobby to get into that goes along with BBQ ... thanks for the pron
 
Here's what I learned when it came to stuffing,,, the guy I learned from is an old time butcher. what we did was in a pan of warm water we placed the guts to rinse them,, but we also opened an end up and pushed water through the entire lenght of the gut, and when we placed it on the stuffer, then went on real easy, Its not a job to do with gloves on, its allot easier without gloves, we had a full hand wash station setup, so it was easy to keep hands clean and sterile, I thought it was pretty easy. It was terrible with gloves on, couldn't keep a hold of anything to slippery,,
 
Right thats it! I'm going next door and pick something up from my butcher! I'm famished now.
 
Those look great!!! I made that recipe once but thought the end result was a little dry. Maybe I am just used to all pork.

I have never had a problem with the casings. I soak/rinse them several times and keep them wet right up to when I put them on the stuffer tube. Once in a while, if it is a really long casing, I have had to moisten the casing when it ws on the tube.

Again, great work. Now you will be saving all those butt trimmings to add to sausage!!!
 
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