# HOT Links!



## couger78 (Feb 26, 2012)

This weekend I thought I'd make small batch of sausages for my son & me. We're the only ones in our household of five who like spicy hot foods. So per his request I made a five-pound batch of spicy hot links.

All the ingredients lined up...








I used 3 pounds of pork butt and two pounds of beef chuck roast. Two grinds.

The first—a medium grind (4.5mm):







After mixing in all the ingredients, I put the batch through a fine grind (3.0mm). Then I used 34mm natural pork casings.

Made 14 good size (6-7") links...







Got 'em hung in a pre-heated smoker (140°) with no smoke for the first hour:







After two & a half hours of heavy smoke. Combo of hickory & cherry sawdust:







Plunge the batch into a hot bath (165°) to bring them up to an IT of 160° Took only about 20 minutes:







Quick-cooling in an ice bath afterwards:







Bloom time:







Taste time: Whoa! *HOT*!!...which is what we were going for!

Slight anise-taste goes well with the vinegary 'pepperiness' of the tabasco. *BIG* afterburn....

My son gave them a big thumbs up! Definitely need a cool beverage alongside these bad boys!







Thanks for looking!

-Kevin


----------



## viper1 (Feb 26, 2012)

Looks Great!


----------



## tigerregis (Feb 26, 2012)

Nice work. Pays to heed your kids desires.


----------



## roller (Feb 26, 2012)

Perfect !


----------



## desertlites (Feb 26, 2012)

Very Nice!! not only the looks are great but sounds like the taste is there also. thanks for the pics.


----------



## scarbelly (Feb 26, 2012)

Man can you send some of those down here


----------



## sprky (Feb 27, 2012)

Man I'd love too have some of them. Mind sharing the recipe


----------



## boykjo (Feb 27, 2012)

Holy hot tamale....................... Those look great...................
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Joe


----------



## chef jimmyj (Feb 27, 2012)

Nice Job Kevin, I would like a little more detail too...JJ


----------



## africanmeat (Feb 27, 2012)

Wow Kevin it looks great from you spices and the Tabasco sauce i sow it will be hot took me Time to find out what is nfdm but i found it 

thanks for this great post i will copy and paste to my book .


----------



## sam3 (Feb 27, 2012)

Excellent job again Kevin! Pictures are outstanding!


----------



## DanMcG (Feb 27, 2012)

Another work of art Kevin! My recipe is very similar to yours and we love it here too. I use fennel instead of anise, but might try it your way next time.


----------



## couger78 (Feb 27, 2012)

Here's the ingredients list & _an adaptation_ of Len Poli's Hot Links recipe (he has several).

Metric listed below first as I prefer weight versus volume for accuracy.

*Hot Links*

Pork Butt    1590g (3.0 lbs)

Beef Chuck 908g (2.0 lbs)

Kosher salt 44g

Non-Fat dry milk 40g  (1/2 cup)

_*I pulverized the NFDM in my spice grinder. makes it a very fine powder._

Sweet Paprika 15g  (2.5 TBL)

Smoked Paprika 15g (2.5 TBL)

_(if you REALLY want to make these burn, use 30g of *Hot Paprika* in place of the sweet & smoked)_

Cayenne pepper 30g (4 TBL)

Onion powder 16g (2 TBL)

Mustard powder 14g (2 TBL)

Garlic powder 9.0g (1 TBL)

Brown sugar 20g (2 TBL)

Black pepper 6.0g (1 TBL)

Anise* 6.0g (1 TBL)

_(very prominent flavor, use less if desired)_

Coriander, ground 4.0g (2 tsp)

Allspice 3.0g (1.5 tsp)

Cure#1 6g (one level tsp)

Red Tabasco Sauce 60 ml (4.0 TBL)

Ice water 8 fl oz (1/2 cup)

- Pork & beef partially frozen. Cut into pieces that fit your grinder's feed chute.

First grind: Both meats through a medium plate (4.5mm). Dissolve cure in the ice water, along with the anise, coriander, allspice & black pepper.

Pour mixture into meat. Add the remainder of ingredients and mix well until a sticky meat paste results (about 10 minutes of hand-mixing). Regrind again through a FINE plate (3.0).

Stuff into 32-34mm casings. Twist off 4-6 inch lengths. Hang to dry while the smoker is being prepared. Pre-heat smoker to 130-140° and hang sausages in smoker. No smoke for the first hour. Add heavy smoke for the next 2-2.5 hours, increasing temps gradually over the same time up to 160°. Quit smoke. Raise temp in smoker up to 170° & continue to cook links until an IT of 160° *OR* pul the links _after the smoke_ and put them in a *hot water bath* (165°) until the IT of 160° is reached (less than 30 minutes). Cool off in ice bath (the hot links, NOT you!). Pull links & hang to bloom. Refrigerate.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For my tastes, I found these to be plenty hot, but some folks REALLY take it to the next level. The hot paprika would certainly do that and/or using ghost pepper or habenero hot sauce in place of tabasco would accomplish this as well.

-Kevin


----------



## smokinhusker (Feb 27, 2012)

Look good but hot!


----------



## ironhorse07 (Feb 27, 2012)

Looks Good!


----------



## jrod62 (Feb 27, 2012)

I love HOT LINKS !! 
Copy to my evernotes.  move this to top of the "to do list "


----------



## frosty (Feb 27, 2012)

Wow, impressive, but delicious!  Thanks for the wonderful "ho-to" and Q-view.


----------



## markk (Feb 28, 2012)

Great looking sausage and thanks for posting your recipe. I am planning my first smoked sausage venture soon, will keep your recipe in mind

Thanks again,

Mark


----------



## big casino (Feb 28, 2012)

looks good!


----------



## couger78 (Feb 28, 2012)

SmokinHusker said:


> Look good but hot!


They are both.......


----------



## ronrude (Feb 28, 2012)

Beautiful Sausage.  This is definitely on my to do list.  Thanks for sharing the recipe.


----------



## sprky (Feb 28, 2012)

Thanks for sharing the recipe It's on my to do list I LOVE hot links


----------



## bama bbq (Feb 28, 2012)

Back in the day, I remember my dad and I eating hot links in TX.  These look better than I remember.  Nice.


----------



## thoseguys26 (Feb 28, 2012)

Thanks a lot! I will try these for sure! I some sharp cheddar maybe and some more black pepper! Can't Wait, Thanks!!!


----------



## smokinclt (Feb 19, 2013)

These look so good. I have been looking to make something like this. A friend used to make them he was from LA and called them Louisiana Red Hots. I will have to give these a go and Thanks for the recipe!

Doug


----------



## jtupper (Jul 15, 2013)

Made these today.  I changed it up a little bit leaving out the anise and allspice and cutting back on the heat  little bit.  I used 10g of cayenne and 3TBL  of pepper sauce.  Taste is good but didn't realize I had forgotten the salt. Oops. Also I tasted right out of the smoker and they were a bit crumbly. I'm awaiting to see what they taste like after the water bath and bloom. Hopefully lunch tomorrow will be quite delectable! 












20130715_214227.jpg



__ jtupper
__ Jul 15, 2013


----------



## jmo bbq (Sep 20, 2013)

Hey Kevin! I have everything for this recipe except the Cure. I have tender quick and was wondering if I could substitute, if so how much? Do I need it at all? I have my meat all prepped.


----------



## magnus (Aug 29, 2015)

The links look great!  Thank you for the recipe and explaining the process with pics. This is very informative.


----------



## dward51 (Aug 29, 2015)

JMO BBQ said:


> Hey Kevin! I have everything for this recipe except the Cure. I have tender quick and was wondering if I could substitute, if so how much? Do I need it at all? I have my meat all prepped.


Use 1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 level teaspoons) per pound of ground meat and fat. *If replacing Morton Tender Quick for cure #1 in a recipe, do not add the salt that the recipe calls for.*
 

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?736-Curing-Salts

Well crud....  After I saved the post I realized this was an old thread. Oh well, info updated.


----------



## nunantal (Sep 1, 2015)

After the  2.5 hours of smoking is when you put them in the 165 bath is that correct?  

Thanks,


----------



## dward51 (Sep 1, 2015)

Yep, smoke them then into the water bath to finish the cooking gently.  Then plunge into ice water and set out to bloom (air dry).  ***NOTE only do this with sausage that uses cure, a sausage without cure or "fresh" sausage needs to be grilled/cooked and served.  Couger's recipe does use cure (cure #1).


----------



## okie362 (Sep 2, 2015)

dward51 said:


> Yep, smoke them then into the water bath to finish the cooking gently.  Then plunge into ice water and set out to bloom (air dry).  ***NOTE only do this with sausage that uses cure, a sausage without cure or "fresh" sausage needs to be grilled/cooked and served.  Couger's recipe does use cure (cure #1).


Third ingredient from the bottom.  Also depicted in the picture.


----------



## worktogthr (Sep 2, 2015)

Looks great!  I may be trying these this weekend.  Think it would be good with all pork since thats what I have on hand?


----------



## couger78 (Sep 2, 2015)

worktogthr said:


> Looks great!  I may be trying these this weekend.  Think it would be good with all pork since thats what I have on hand?


100% pork hot links would be just fine....just not as_ 'beefy'_ tasting!


----------



## worktogthr (Sep 15, 2015)

Couger78 said:


> 100% pork hot links would be just fine....just not as _'beefy'_ tasting! :icon_wink:



Thanks for the reply... I know this is delayed but I finally got around to making these.  In the smoker now.  I am probably going to be in a time crunch and have never employed the water bath method.  Can I achieve this with a slow cooker filled with water and set to its lowest setting? I can obviously monitor the  temp of the water but just wondering if you'd ever tried this?  Thanks


----------



## dreadylock (Jan 20, 2016)

they look delicious (thats what the wife (and me )said while looking at pics) nice job 

thanks for this nice recipe ?my wife wanted to know about kosher salt amount

we will be trying these this weekend


----------



## fuzzy0026 (Apr 13, 2016)

I'm curious if this recipe could be used for making sticks?  I wouldn't see why not, just thought I would ask.


----------

