QueView - Four sausages

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

shyzabrau

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Mar 29, 2017
803
168
Troutville, Virginia
I was a bit too ambitious this week. I picked up a butt and decided to make four different sausages out of it:

* Korean-influenced

* Jalepeno/cheddar

* Southwestern

* Breakfast

I will make individual posts for each one I finish them...

I made a basic SPOG (recipe below) and mixed it with the meat before grinding.


Note: I cut the butt into strips rather than cubes. Less effort.

I ran the meat twice through the larger of the two standard grinder plates. This was to get a more uniform distribution of the fat and different muscle types. I'm not sure if it is worth it, though.

SPOG (Salt, Pepper, Onion, Garlic):

(For 10 pounds of meat)

100 g Kosher salt, coarse

50 g black pepper, coarse

50 g garlic powder

50 g onion powder

plus 12 g of cure #1

I felt that this was a bit too salty. I would suggest 80 g instead.

Not to let anything go to waste, I took the bone from the butt (which still had some meat on it) and made stock. I added onion, garlic, celery and carrots (somewhat random amounts). I simmered it about 16 hours, strained and poured it into silicone 2" ice cube trays. Each cube is roughly 1/3 cup. I bag all the cubes and pop them in the kitchen freezer. Very convenient for sauces, soup, etc. There was very little fat, so I didn't separate.


Next up: Korean-inspired snacking sausage!
 
Korean BBQ inspired sausage

I made a version of a Korean marinade for BBQ. Because the meat was already a bit too salty, I used a mix of sweet soy sauce and low-sodium soy sauce. AND, because I used sweet soy sauce, I didn't add any additional sugar. Typically, Asian pear juice (or shredded Asian pear) is used, but I skipped that because it is primarily a tenderizer (not needed) and because I didn't have an Asian pear handy. I added fish sauce for some additional umami.

I was going for bold flavors to stand up to the smoke.


Quite the pan-Asian selection! Indonesian sweet soy; Chinese-style soy; Japanese rice vinegar & sesame oil; Thai fish sauce; and Korean-style pepper flakes.

For 5 pounds of meat:

1/2 cup - sweet soy sauce

1/2 cup - low sodim soy sauce

1/4 cup - rice wine vinegar (seasoned - roasted garlic)

1/4 cup - sesame oil

2 tablespoon - fish sauce

1/2 cup - green onion, thinly sliced

2.5 tablespoon - garlic, minced

2 teaspoon - gochugaru Korean pepper flakes

Note: I used half of this for 2.5 pounds of meat and reserved the remainder for a dipping sauce for the finished sausages.

I mixed this with the meat (very wet!) and refrigerated overnight.

I used sheep casings and made very short links (about 2.5"). This was intended as a cold snacking sausage. I had a lot of trouble with the sheep casings breaking and getting small holes. They were packed in dry salt. I only rehydrated them for a day (which has worked for me in the past with hog casings) but that clearly wasn't enough, despite them feeling very silky and looking nice and white.

Because there were a half dozen links with small leaks, I decided to vacuum bag them before putting them in the sous vide bath. (I had that problem once when all of my sausages fell apart when I was boiling them.) After sous vide for 2 hours at 150, I froze half and put the other half in the smoker. All of the links separated, so I couldn't hang them and just put them on a rack.

I cold smoked for an hour (cherry wood) and then smoked for an hour each at 130 and 150. (Total smoke - 3 hours)


Note: I was going to stuff all four sausage types and smoke them yesterday, but after the difficulty with the sheep casings, I postponed the rest. I will do the jalapeno/cheddar and Southwestern sausages today in hog casings, and the breakfast sausages tomorrow in the sheep casings. Hopefully three days soaking will be enough for the sheep casings!


Even though I only did three hours total smoke time, I still felt that these sausages were too smoky. The Korean flavor that was so evident in the test patty was overwhelmed by the smoke. I've always thought that electric smokers (I have the Bradley digital) imparted less smoke per unit time than offset or other smokers. I think I'll back off to 2 hours when I do flavored sausages.

Next up: jalapeno/cheddar
 
Last edited:
Definitely watching this one! These look great and i love new sausage recipes to try 
sausage.gif
 
Nice and uncommon sausage idea!  I'll be tagging along to see how everything else turns out.  Also, I'm a strip guy as well when it comes to grinding the meat.  The strips self feed and when I'm cutting, feeding, and grinding it helps that they self feed since I'm usually a one man shop at grinding stage of my sausage making :)
 
Looks tasty so far! Sheep casings I let soak for at least three days. Did you stuff with the KA or did you use a different stuffer? Once many moons ago I tried using the KA with sheep casings. Even after a long soak it was a pita.

Did the casings dissolve during the sous vide causing them to separate?
 
 
Looks tasty so far! Sheep casings I let soak for at least three days. Did you stuff with the KA or did you use a different stuffer? Once many moons ago I tried using the KA with sheep casings. Even after a long soak it was a pita.

Did the casings dissolve during the sous vide causing them to separate?
Yes, I'm using the KitchenAid for both grinding and stuffing. I definitely have a new stuffer on my Christmas list...

The casings didn't dissolve per se, but became so delicate that when I tried to pull the links out of the bag, they would break apart. I had to handle them very carefully.
 
 
Great looking sausage so far! The Korean ones have my interest perked for sure! Watching. point!
Thanks. I'll taste the unsmoked Korean-style on Saturday - in defiance of the weather, we'll be tailgating before/after the VT football spring game. And Sunday, I have a homebrew club meeting. Hence all of the sausage...
 
Last edited:
Jalapeño/Cheddar Sausage

I decided to forgo the high temperature cheese for two reasons: (1) I've heard bad things about the taste; and (2) I planned to keep the temp no higher than 150 at any point in the process. (Also, I didn't have any...)

Since the meat mix already included the SPOG, the recipe was pretty simple...


For 2.5 pounds of meat, I used the following:

4 ounces - pickled jalapeños, coarsely chopped

4 ounces - sharp cheddar, diced

1/4 cup - beef stock

I used pickled jalapeños instead of fresh because I have seen a lot of inconsistency in the fresh jalapeños from my local grocery (in regard to heat levels). (I DO have fresh jalapeños in the fridge for other purposes...)

I diced the cheddar in roughly 1/4" pieces. I was disappointed in my lack of precision...


I chopped the jalapeños a bit more roughly...


I mixed the meat, jalapeños and beef stock in my stand mixer until is was nicely sticky. The test patty was just the right amount of heat for my wife and myself. I mixed the cheese in by hand.

Due to my problems on Wednesday with the sheep casings, I stuffed this batch in hog casings.

Along with the Southwestern-style sausage (next), I put it in a sous vide bath (not in bags!) at 150* F for two hours. Then I smoked it at 150* F for three hours. (Edited to note: I forgot to reload the biscuits, and only got two hours of smoke!) I ran the smoker (sans smoke) for about two more hours, still at 150*F. (I was out at my local brewery.) Then I put it in an ice bath for 30 minutes or so and hung them to bloom for an hour or so. Then in the fridge on a sheet pan, single layer, overnight.

The smoke was inconsistent. I think I'll need to rotate the sausages during the smoke for more consistency.


Here is the finished product. Even though I never got the heat above 150, the cheese DID melt. Not a big deal for either presentation or flavor, in my opinion. The additional two hours in the smoker (without smoke) did dry them out a bit more than I would like (I believe). That's what I get for smoking on Thursday evening - the time of my weekly brewery pilgrimage...


I am very happy with the flavor, but it could use a bit more smoke. (Edited to note: for good reason - I ran out of biscuits during the smoke and only got two hours of smoke.) The casings are a bit tougher than normal, but still within acceptable boundaries.

Next: Southwestern-style sausage!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: crazymoon
Soutwestern-style Sausage

As with the others, I wanted a light smoke - just an accent to compliment the flavors in the sausage.

With this one, I wanted to include some of the flavors typical in Southwestern food.


For 2.5 pounds of meat (already seasoned with SPOG):

120 g - corn

120 g - roasted red peppers, finely diced

30 g - garlic, minced

15 g - cumin powder

5 g - chipotle powder

5 g - ancho chile powder

5 g - coriander

5 g - oregano (dried)

1/4 cup - beef stock

The corn was not included in the picture because that was a last minute addition - just to add some color. 

I decided that the corn kernels were too big, so I cut them in half. One at a time. (Yes, I have a problem...)


I used the stand mixer to get it all nice and sticky (and well-mixed, of course). I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight. Just before stuffing, I popped it in the freezer for half an hour.


Set up and ready to stuff into hog casings! (For KitchenAid owners, this shows how I bring the work space up to the level of the stuffing tube - a stock pot and a sheet tray.)


Another tip for KitchenAid users: it can be a real challenge stuffing sausage by yourself using the KitchenAid. The meat mixture is very sticky, even if it is very cold, and you need to use the tamper to push it down the mixer throat. I always struggled with where to put the tamper while grabbing the next bit of meat. With a bowl like the one above, I couldn't put it in the bowl, so I had to just put it on the counter which made it more difficult to grab in a fashion befitting the assembly line-like speed that I needed. I suddenly realized that I needed something to hold it upright so it was closer to where my hand was when I needed to grab it. My solution is a 32 ounce insulated mug. This really improved the process flow.


Here we are with the sausages (Southwestern plus jalapeño/cheddar in the smoker after I got home from my local nano-brewery. They had two hours of smoke, even though I had planned on three - I forgot to put in sufficient biscuits before leaving. Sigh. I kept the temperature at 150* F the whole time so that they wouldn't cool down too much before I got home. That might've dried them out a bit too much.


I put them in an ice bath and then hung them to bloom. (Not too long - it was getting pretty late.) The SW on the left and the jalapeño/cheddar on the right.


This little guy was my transition sausage between the two batches. As you can see, it has both jalapeños and red bell pepper/corn.


After sitting in the fridge overnight (on a sheet tray, single layer, uncovered), we're ready to vacuum seal them and pop them in the freezer. As I mentioned in the previous post, the smoke color is inconsistent. Perhaps I need to rotate the sausages during the smoke period.


I cut the little guy at the bottom open for testing purposes (and to show y'all):


Very good flavor - exactly what I was targeting. With the exception that the smoke was a bit lighter than intended. Such is life.

Next: breakfast sausage!
 
Last edited:
Just a quick update. We are tailgating prior to the Virginia Tech football spring game. This was a big reason for making this variety is sausages, so I figured I'd share some of the spread.

Here are the four sausages for snacking:


Here is the breakfast sausage (with some of my andouille as well):

 
Yes, I'm using the KitchenAid for both grinding and stuffing. I definitely have a new stuffer on my Christmas list...

The casings didn't dissolve per se, but became so delicate that when I tried to pull the links out of the bag, they would break apart. I had to handle them very carefully.
I think your results would be better if you smoked them first and finished with sous vide. The smokeing will firm up the casting.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky