Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

I don't know if it is all eaten by now. That is an older picture but shows what a section of gut looks like when we are done with it. That is pretty much all the meat that the vintage stuffer we have holds.

The stuffer was given to my familly by an old farmer neighbor in the 1960's. It was passed to my brother who gave it to my son who stores it at my house. I am not going to complain and the reason probably here is that I have the good grinder to go with it!

Well you know the old saying:
"Everyone wants to eat the sausage but no one wants to see how its made."

Although I would imagine making your own is probably not as much that way. My dad used to tell me if you ever saw a packed meat plant at work you'd never eat it.

I once knew a guy that as a young lad, he worked on the cream corn dock at a veggie canning plant. He could not even stand to see someone else eat cream corn.

Originally Posted by RezDog

I once knew a guy that as a young lad, he worked on the cream corn dock at a veggie canning plant. He could not even stand to see someone else eat cream corn.

We had a Green Giant processing plant in the small town I lived in. I know that of the women who worked the lines during harvest said that they couldn't eat asparagus or peas for a couple of months.

How's it made????

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Well you know the old saying:
"Everyone wants to eat the sausage but no one wants to see how its made."

Although I would imagine making your own is probably not as much that way. My dad used to tell me if you ever saw a packed meat plant at work you'd never eat it.

When I was a lad I went to a Boarding School in Norfolk UK.

My form had a field trip to the local abattoir. It was pig day and we watched as they grabbed the pigs, put the electric headphones on them hung them by a foot etc etc. Coincidentally when we go back to school it was liver and bacon for dinner.

No one wanted it so I ate so much I could hardy move. I have a stomach like a trash can and it takes more than seeing how pork's made to put me off. As long as it doesn't have more legs than a cow I'll eat it

My daughter stopped eating sausages when i explained that there was no such thing as sausage tree, I got in a lot of wife trouble for that one let me tell ya.

We processed 16000 pigs per day at the meat plant I worked at. Ohhh a fair bit o bacon there..

Originally Posted by STF

When I was a lad I went to a Boarding School in Norfolk UK.

My form had a field trip to the local abattoir. It was pig day and we watched as they grabbed the pigs, put the electric headphones on them hung them by a foot etc etc. Coincidentally when we go back to school it was liver and bacon for dinner.

No one wanted it so I ate so much I could hardy move. I have a stomach like a trash can and it takes more than seeing how pork's made to put me off. As long as it doesn't have more legs than a cow I'll eat it

My daughter stopped eating sausages when i explained that there was no such thing as sausage tree, I got in a lot of wife trouble for that one let me tell ya.

Yeah the processing the meat part doesn't bother me. It's all of the "byproducts" that would put me off about packed meat. That's what my dad was talking about. All of the things that they use and the things that they do in the process of it will kill your appetite. We raised animals for food when I was growing up, plus I've always been a hunter so I don't mind killing something, skinning or gutting it. I'm just not real fond of eating lips and assholes. Don't get me wrong. I like organ meat but there are certain things I'm not real fond of. Kidneys is one. Brains and eyeballs are another one. Chitterlings, I'm not real fond of either or tripe, basically anything in the digestive tract. Yes I know that sausages are in, "natural casings," but I don't have to see it and try not to think about it too much. Some things you're better off to just eat and not put too much thought into it. I figure if it all hits the fan I'll eat that stuff. As long as I have Publix I will leave that for dog food. I will say though that I think we've become too separated from the food chain that we rely on. It's all sort of abstract to a lot of people, most maybe. I've often said that I think everyone who eats meat ought to kill something that they eat at least once in their life. It makes you understand better what it is that you're eating and that something that was once walking around is now dead and lying on a plate. Maybe they might think more about wasting food.

Well a weeks gone by and I got up early and rinsed the pork sides and dried them. Then I put them out in the smoker for about an hour and then applied smoke for a little over 2 hours. Then I brought the smoker up to around 185 and then waited till the internal temp was 140 F.

So here's the finished product--



I'll let it cool a bit then put the bacon in the frig till tomorrow morning then I'll slice it and package it up.

Well it's all sliced up and packaged and put in the frig and the freezer. I lost about 1/4 of a lbs as I squared it up and that was all fat. Don't worry there'll be enough to go around.

I also gave around 1/2 of a lb to my neighbor so I did alright. It was just over 9 lbs when I started.









I've got the slicer all broke down, I just need to finish wiping it down.

Thanks for looking