My first Hot Italian Sausage w/ Q-view

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SmokinAl

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Jun 22, 2009
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Central Florida (Sebring)
I have been wanting to make homemade sausage for a long time. A few weeks ago Nepas gave me a recipe for Hot Italian sausage. Judy & I finally got around to making it this morning. All I can say is it really is so much better than what you buy at the store. I know all you guys already know that, but being a sausage newbie it just blew me away, how good it was. Here's his recipe he gave us:

Fresh hot Italian for 5 lbs

3 1/2 lbs lean meat...80/20 GB

1 1/2 lbs pork but, ground thru med plate. 

2 Tbs salt

1 Tbs paprika....or more to taste

1 Tbs crushed red chili pepper, or more to taste

1 Tbs cayenne

1 1/2 Tbs whole fennel seed

1 Tbs whole anise seed

1/2 tsp white pepper or more to taste

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 Tbs white sugar

3/4 cup water

 We changed a few things. First we used equal parts beef & pork. We bought a pork butt & a chuck roast, and since we like a lot of heat we doubled the Red pepper flakes & cayenne pepper. The rest we had to adjust a little because we had 6.5 lbs. of meat after it was ground. We used the meat grinder on our Kitchen aide mixer & we didn't realize it but the grinder housing was cracked in 2 places. Now I have an excuse to get a new meat grinder. We already bought a LEM 5 lb. vertical stuffer. So with the new grinder we will be set for a while. 

Here's the spices:

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The chuck & the butt both weighed around 3.5 lbs.

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Unwrapped you can see they both look pretty good!

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Next into the grinder.

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Next we mix in the seasoning. Nice color, starting to look like hot Italian sausage now!

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Next we fry test it. It is perfect, we didn't add anything.

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OK now we stuff them.

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Next into links.

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It's about 10:00 AM so into the fridge for a couple of hours, then it's lunch time.

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While Judy's cooking the sausage. (She boiled it in beer for 15 minutes then put it on the grill for another 15 min.) I'm going to vacuum pack the rest of these for the freezer.

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OK there done. We put a piece of provolone cheese on the bun, then the sausage, then a pile of peppers & onions. It was AWESOME!!! 

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Thanks for looking and special thanks to all of you that helped me get to this point. I PM'd nepas a few times during my sausage experiment & he was with me all the way. I guess now I will have to tackle real sausage making. Curing & smoking. Not for a while though, my freezer & fridge are full.
 
Great lookin sausage for a first timer Al, you guys done good!!
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 The links look good too!

I've never seen an Italian recipe with beef in it, but I'll have to put it on the list cause ya never know till ya try it.
 
Great lookin sausage for a first timer Al, you guys done good!!
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 The links look good too!

I've never seen an Italian recipe with beef in it, but I'll have to put it on the list cause ya never know till ya try it.


I never did either & Judy said it should be all pork, & I even PM'd nepas to ask him & he said he thought the beef added a better flavor, and since nepas is the sausage king I thought I should try his recipe as is. I don't know how all pork would taste & I may have to try it in the future just to see, but this was really good, better than good!
 
Looks fantastic Al

Now your hooked. Sausage making is so diverse from other smoking because you can make it so many ways.

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OK Al....you beat me to sausage making, I've been slackin'. That is one fine looking batch of snausage for the first time. That Lem looks like the way to go. Just read the reviews on the Bass Pro site....pretty much A+ for ease of use. Already copied your tweaked recipe to my SMF folder of things to do....which is getting longer. By the way, that hero pic made me homesick....one of my favorites was sausage & peppers, right up there with a meatball one.
 
Looks great Al!

Making your own sausage is like making Q...

Once you get the hang of it, commercial stuff just don't get it.

Wait til ya start smoking it...awesome!!

I have recently purchased about 30 pounds of butt and will be back at it soon.

  Craig
 
Great Job Al!

When I make sausage, I'll grind up a whole case of pork shoulder, usually 60# and split it up into Breakfast Sausage, Hot Italian Sausage and Mild Italian Sausage.  Rather than stuff in casings, we stuff into 1# bags.

Keep Stuffing!

Todd
 
Amazing. I have to tell you Al, for the short time that I've been here, I've really enjoyed your posts. Your lox post was very cool also. I've copied both recipes down so I can try that later on. Thank Al.
 
Whoa, Al you are on a roll. They look great for your first time and pictures are very good as well. You are having to much fun! 
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Ok Al.... tell the truth.... you have been making sausage  for many years and been fooling us all this time,,, looks like your making sausage just like the pro's......... awesome looking sausage. It can turn into another passion............. keep up the good work and we will be waiting for your next batch...........
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and the next and the next and the next and the next etc.
 
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Thanks a lot guys for your kind words. It really was fun to try something new like this & we are looking forward to our next sausage project.
 
Holy Shoot !!!!

I nearly missed this thread!!!!!

That looks Great Al !!!!!----And those sammies look perfect !!!!

I'll take two exactly like that !

Hint Al----The reason your freezer is full, is because you're too far from PA!

Bear
 
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