Home Made Sausage, Cured, and Smoked Meats - Page 46

Gracias, sir.

I would say it's a bad idea, depending on the smoker. I had trouble keeping my kettle to temp with just wind and chilly (not cold) weather. Rain would've been a nightmare. If it's a kettle I would wait for a dry day.

Starting another batch right now. Going to smoke half and keep the other fresh.

5lb shoulder
3T salt
2T black pepper
3T paprika
1t coriander
1t toasted fennel seeds (ground)
1t chilli powder
1t ground red pepper flakes
1t cayenne
1T minced garlic
heap of chopped fresh basil
a bit of chopped cilantro
~ 1/2 stick of butter

I think that's it. I sort of threw this together last night and let it marinade overnight.

And all done!

Where are you guys getting those quick-reload cases?

I got them from sausagemaker.com

I haven't tried any other ones, so I'm not sure how big of a pain the loose ones are, but with these I actually found it easier to pull them off and load them up by hand as opposed to using the plastic thing. Last time I did that, I ended up double casing some sausage, lol.

I made a patty from the left overs inside the hopper and it turned out kind of rubbery. Thinking not enough fat maybe? The shoulder did look a bit lean, that's why I added the butter (actually ended up throwing another half a stick in while grinding). KJT, where did you end up buying the back fat from?

I get fatback from a local butcher. Wagshall's if you're in DC.

Back fat group buy?
As far as the casings go, it could just be a user error. There are several casings on each dispenser so they ended up overlapping...
Thanks. I'm in Alexandria. Will try to see if I can find anything more local.

Sausage has been in the smoker for a few hours now, last time i went in to check the temp they were looking red as fawk, just like that one batch Piob posted. Will take some pics once they're done.

Here we go. Already gave a few links away.

http://theorganicbutcher.com/ It's in Mclean, so closer to you. Great meat and the staff is usually very knowledgable. Don't know if they have the fatback in stock usually, but give them a call and I'm certain they'll get some in for you.

^Hey, I was just in the Charlottesville outpost today. In fact, the chicken's in the oven as I type.

Simple country sausage for cassoulet

Pork butt and duck livers, garlic, a bit of thyme, and salt and pepper.

First batch:


Made the grind way too small. Very unhappy with how it turned out. I have no shame in admitting that it had the consistency of canned cat food. Decided to throw it out rather than serve it.

Second batch, much more coarse grind:


Feckin' delicious and texture was spot on.

Indeed, have done some other things too but didn't take pics. I just found a spot in our club that I'm trying to section off from any kind of traffic so I can make some dried chorizo. Ruhlman claims it only takes 18-20 days at the right temp and humidity.

And to be entirely honest, I'm more than a little surprised at how easy this has been. It's like you follow the guidelines about temp and ratios and whatnot, but other than that you can do whatever the fuck you want to.