Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

Tonight, a 10 lb pork shoulder, rind off.
After 10 hrs at 250

And after mopping it up and taking it up to 325.

Nice smoke ring, could have been deeper but my smoke chunks are chips really. But still fall off the bone.

Tasty on a bun with coleslaw on top..

Coleslaw on a bun, that's definitely the way to go, looks delicious Mike.

Mike why do you remove the cap? that would help with getting some more smoke in it. also when it comes to smoke i have found if you want heavy smoke you have to get it done in the first 4 hours, so i always go 200 degrees for the first 4 hours then i kick her up to 225-235 for the next 12 or 14 hours, wrap the last 2 hours in the foil, also you right chips tend to burn up too fast as compared to good size chunks Tc

I've found that if the surface of the meat has dried a bit that the smoke 'sticks' to the meat better.

I'm sure that your unit would benefit from larger chunks instead of the 'chips' that are required for use in my smoker. I always pre-soak my chips so that they smolder longer. This might help for your use as well.

I ALWAYS have my smoker per-heated--Always.

When I make jerky I have my top vent open (I don't have a bottom vent) for about 2 hours and that seems to dry the surface enough for the smoke to stick (I use a wet marinade so I have to leave it on so that those flavors stay).

When I do ribs /either Pork or Beef, I pat them dry really well before applying my seasonings.

It's been a long time since I did pulled pork but I did dry the surface well before rubbing in my spices/I also left the fat cap on as it helps keep things nice and moist. It can be discarded before pulling the meat apart.

With all this said---damn that looks good enough to eat! Nice Job!

I had the choice of skin on or off when the boss tossed it to me Friday.
Assumed the skin acted like a barrier to the smoke and knew I was going to be too low a temp to make crackling so thought, skin off. The fat was all still there though for moisture.
As rubbed and ready to go in the Q this morning at 9am.

Thanks for the tip about the skin helping to draw in the smoke Tc..

I'm sorry Mike, i thought you meant the fat cap ,, ya i don't ever buy them with the skin. my mistake.. also another thing i do, that got us in the competition, is injection, wether its apple juice with some spices from the rub, or my favorite is the Tony Chacharris Cajun butter.

Ribs for my wife. About an hour to go.

Nothing in the smoker today, but I'll have Breakfast Sausage for quite awhile.

I had around 6 and 1/2 to 6 and 3/4's pounds of boneless pork already cut up and frozen. While it seems to be frowned upon I've always ground my pork twice. Once through 1/2 or 3/8" die then mixed the meat well and then re-ground through the 3/8 or 1/4 or 1/8" die. I find that I get a better distribution of the fat that way.

Today it was through the 3/8", mixed well then re-ground through the 1/8". Trust m the meat was very cold on the second grind!

Anyway, the meat was in what I call the 'Perfect Cold' still slightly frozen. I'd had the snout, auger, dies and the knife in the refrigerator and once I was set up I slapped the cold pack around the snout and away I went.

Sorry for no pics of the grinding as I wanted to get that done while all was still very cold. But here's some pics after stuffing and getting the sausage ready for storage.





This is the first time I've ever used 'Fresh Collagen Casings'. Just like their Heavy Duty Cousins that I've used for making meat sticks they don't require soaking in water. I was able to fit a 3/8 stuffing tube down the opening and I thought I had plenty. I used all but about an inch of the compressed casing.

I did have one 'Blow Out' and I saw it coming but I couldn't stop turning quickly enough. So I tied it off, cleaned the meat from the broken casing and put it back in the stuffer. I figured out my mistake, the meat was being pushed into the casing so quickly and uniformly that I didn't pay attention to how far down on the stuffing tube/horn the casing was so my finger pressure was off.

Lesson well learned.

I got 99 three inch long sausage links that weigh right at 1 ounce. One ounce and a half sausage link and two 2 ounce patties which will be supper tonight. I did forget to clean out the grinder and mix the coarser ground bits in with the final grind so there was a bit more waste than there should have been maybe 1/4 -1/3 of a Lb.

The links are on parchment paper on baking trays in the freezer. I have a timer set at one hour to give them a little Shake Rattle & Roll so they don't stick together. I'll repeat until they are almost frozen solid then vacuum pack them, date them and then put them into the freezer.

I'll post the recipe (which I cut in half for this batch) here:

https://straightrazorpalace.com/plat...ecipe-box.html

Thanks for looking :

For the sake of less redundancy in posting I offer the below..
https://straightrazorpalace.com/plat...ml#post1819985

Originally Posted by MikeB52

For the sake of less redundancy in posting I offer the below..
https://straightrazorpalace.com/plat...ml#post1819985

I'd just seen that and was going to compliment you on it. Job well done.

I do have a question. Just as we know that 'Bonnet' is British for the hood of a car what are 'Pork Button Bones' ? From the picture they look what I'd call 'Country Style Spare Ribs'.