Home Made Sausage, Cured, and Smoked Meats

Mmmm. Livermush.

Got my pork liver ($0.99/lb!). It's about 0.75lbs in total.



Sliced it up to poach.



In the water, poaching. When it's done, drain some of the water and reserve at least one cup.



Nicely cooked. Note the resistance it gives and the juices that squeeze out. Don't overcook the liver or it'll be solid rubber.



Run it through a food processor or whatever purees food nicely. Get it in there quickly or it'll dry out. If it dries out too much to puree smoothly, add some of the reserved poaching liquid. As soon as it gets pureed it will take on the smell and texture of clay near a sanitation site. Note the smell, but don't be a wuss about it. This was from a living animal, and I'm sure the average human digestive tract smells much worse.



Add some corn meal (some people use hominy, I use the yellow polenta kind) and the spices: sage, black peppers, salt, and a little bit of good paprika. Make sure the spices are fragrant -- weak spices will make very bad livermush. Recall the sanitation smell that's now hopefully passed, add the pureed liver, and mix the cornmeal with the liver. I add a lot of pepper, but make sure there's a lot of sage in there. Livermush is basically a liver mousse with a lot of sage to season it. If there's not enough sage, then I hope everyone likes the minerally taste of liver.



When it's mixed thoroughly over low heat for a few minutes it should become a paste of sorts. If it's too wet, add more cornmeal directly to the liver mix.



Scrape it out onto one side of a large sheet of parchment paper. Don't use wax paper or foil because they're non-porous. This stuff needs to dry a bit to let the flavors intensify and meld.



Fold the parchment paper in half so one side covers the top of the livermush. Flatten it to desired thickness (I go for about 1/2") and wrap in paper towels to wick away extra moisture. Get it into the refrigerator. I keep mine for up to three weeks, but mine usually doesn't last that long.

It tastes best after a week or so in the refrigerator, but there's no need to wait that long before frying up and enjoying.

^^^^
yummmm. sounds a lot like scrapple.

Originally Posted by why

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Got some pork liver today. Gonna get to work on it.

Read your process. Sounds fantastic m8. How about some pics?

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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P, just curisous, not making a statement - working with a regular wood burning smoker, if you really choked off the Oxegen, you should be able to keep the temp below 165, no? that just makes it a matter of more work, right? I don't see myself ever getting a big electric smoker, or more than one, for that matter. I am thinking if it would ever work to try to make sausages. I love sausages, but now the science of it makes it a little daunting.
GT, I think I know what you're saying. The Cook Shack one has only two little openings, about the size of a nickel. One at the bottom to drain grease and one at the top to vent. The O2 flow is very low in there as it is. That's what makes it so good, no airflow. That way, you don't need the water pan, but you get the juiciest, moistest smoked meat I've ever tried. In fact, not just what I've tried, but when I brought brisket to a tailgate, I had two professional chefs commenting on how moist it was and that their smoked brisket never turned out this moist! If you choke off a regular smoker, like a charcoal burning, water pan one? Yeah, you might get that low temp and you're right, it should be same result with more effort. I'm going for the littlest effort possible Edit: Oh, doing initial grind for summer sausage this aft. Second grind, stuffing and smoking Sunday

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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GT, I think I know what you're saying. The Cook Shack one has only two little openings, about the size of a nickel. One at the bottom to drain grease and one at the top to vent. The O2 flow is very low in there as it is. That's what makes it so good, no airflow. That way, you don't need the water pan, but you get the juiciest, moistest smoked meat I've ever tried. In fact, not just what I've tried, but when I brought brisket to a tailgate, I had two professional chefs commenting on how moist it was and that their smoked brisket never turned out this moist!

If you choke off a regular smoker, like a charcoal burning, water pan one? Yeah, you might get that low temp and you're right, it should be same result with more effort. I'm going for the littlest effort possible

thanks. I am thinking that I might make one or two batches a year at most, and I have limited storage space, so I really can't justify a really big smoker, or certainly not 2. but the smoker I had, and the one I am thinking of getting, have a lot of room to play with ventilation. I bet with enough choke I could keep it pretty cold. worth trying.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Read your process. Sounds fantastic m8. How about some pics?

They should be there. Let me know if they don't appear.

Originally Posted by foodguy

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^^^^
yummmm. sounds a lot like scrapple.

Pretty much exactly what it is! Scrapple has more parts in it (hoof and head parts usually), but the butcher didn't have any heads by the time I got there or I'd make some head cheese too.

Just made myself a sandwich: fried livermush on toasted rye topped with a fried egg.



(Yes, I stack the egg when I eat it).

Nicely done why! Just got done the summer sausage grind. This will be interesting. 3# beef, 1.5# pork, .5# fatback and the major spice is 4tsp of Coleman's mustard.

Noice post why.

Best current thread on SF. Impressive stuff.

Originally Posted by why

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They should be there. Let me know if they don't appear.



Pretty much exactly what it is! Scrapple has more parts in it (hoof and head parts usually), but the butcher didn't have any heads by the time I got there or I'd make some head cheese too.

Just made myself a sandwich: fried livermush on toasted rye topped with a fried egg.

(Yes, I stack the egg when I eat it).

You're a man after my own heart.

Will be smoking the bacon I put down to cure last week. Here it is, all washed and dried off, and I'm sticking it in the fridge for a few hours to get a pellicle:



I'll edit in pics later today after it's smoked. Tomorrow, have the summer sausage to stuff and smoke, that I ground and put down to cure in the fridge.

http://schooloffires.com/classes

signing up for some classes

Originally Posted by globetrotter

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http://schooloffires.com/classes

signing up for some classes

Noice!

Vomit worthy thread.

Here is the cured pork belly all smoked and the skinned. I'm going to cut this up into lardons. Btw, I used cherry wood to smoke it and it tastes great. The juniper berries really came through.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Finally done. Several hours in the smoker, after a 10 hour hang at room temp. God, I hope my sodium nitrite does its job! Here they are about to get put into an ice bath for chilling. I also kept one out, lightly caramelized the outside, and tried out. Great texture, unctuous, nicely smokey and spicy. Got the natural casing just right. It snapped as my incisors bit though it, just like Ruhlman describes in his book. Natural casing ftw.

Originally Posted by why

Click to expand...

Mmmm. Livermush.

Got my pork liver ($0.99/lb!). It's about 0.75lbs in total.

Sliced it up to poach.

In the water, poaching. When it's done, drain some of the water and reserve at least one cup.

Nicely cooked. Note the resistance it gives and the juices that squeeze out. Don't overcook the liver or it'll be solid rubber.

Run it through a food processor or whatever purees food nicely. Get it in there quickly or it'll dry out. If it dries out too much to puree smoothly, add some of the reserved poaching liquid. As soon as it gets pureed it will take on the smell and texture of clay near a sanitation site. Note the smell, but don't be a wuss about it. This was from a living animal, and I'm sure the average human digestive tract smells much worse.

Add some corn meal (some people use hominy, I use the yellow polenta kind) and the spices: sage, black peppers, salt, and a little bit of good paprika. Make sure the spices are fragrant -- weak spices will make very bad livermush. Recall the sanitation smell that's now hopefully passed, add the pureed liver, and mix the cornmeal with the liver. I add a lot of pepper, but make sure there's a lot of sage in there. Livermush is basically a liver mousse with a lot of sage to season it. If there's not enough sage, then I hope everyone likes the minerally taste of liver.

When it's mixed thoroughly over low heat for a few minutes it should become a paste of sorts. If it's too wet, add more cornmeal directly to the liver mix.

Scrape it out onto one side of a large sheet of parchment paper. Don't use wax paper or foil because they're non-porous. This stuff needs to dry a bit to let the flavors intensify and meld.

Fold the parchment paper in half so one side covers the top of the livermush. Flatten it to desired thickness (I go for about 1/2") and wrap in paper towels to wick away extra moisture. Get it into the refrigerator. I keep mine for up to three weeks, but mine usually doesn't last that long.

It tastes best after a week or so in the refrigerator, but there's no need to wait that long before frying up and enjoying.

Great posts guys.

We should start having separate threads for great recipes/dinner pics.