Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

Compared to what Roy paid lastime for his belly’s seems these work out to twice as much per pound, and was a custom cut my butcher had to perform himself unless I want to buy a half pig myself next time.
Will see how they turn out before deciding that equation, but into the dry rub to start the 2 week cure clock.

My butcher knot skills came back, as the bacon rolls were formed.

Barely fit in my biggest vac bags, but should keep things in contact and cleaner in the fridge.

This was a lean lil piggy so we shall see, in a couple weeks.

Will roll these and massage em daily.
See ya in a couple weeks!

Next to try the dry age bags and store that strip loin a month and a half as well.
Cheers gents.

The umai dry age bags were pretty easy to handle. I read lots of issues with seals but didn’t experience any problem.
Beautiful cut of beef, with intricate marbling.

Key was keep the sealing area folded back and away from the meat.


Doesn’t make as tight a seal as a normal vac bag, but it’s not intended to. It allows o2 exchange but blocks odor and bacteria from exchanging.

Now no touch till end of April, sorry buddy!

Corned Beef you say---

I picked up a couple of flats on sale this last week to fix a belated St. Patrick's day dinner on Sunday but my kids couldn't come over as they had things going on. So I decided to play a bit with it.

I removed the beef from the packages and trimmed the fat off. I used about 10 ounces of the fat. I rinsed both the fat and the meat off well and then patted them dry and put them in the freezer to firm up. I then put them through the grinder with a 12 mm plate and then a 4.5 mm plate.

I didn't add any water as I felt it was moist enough. I mixed them well until I had good protein extraction then I put them in the stuffer. I used some 29-32 hog casings. They stuffed well and I made sure to not stuff them too tight.

There was a bit left in the throat of the stuffer so I fried that up. Nothing surprising there, I imagine a bit of mustard and some sauerkraut on a bun would be really nice.

Here's where I was on unknown territory. I decided to blanch the sausages to cook them. I've watched Duncan do it and every once in awhile he'll have one burst and I didn't want that.

So I brought the water up to 175 and put the links in. That brought the temperature down but I got it back up to around 180. Once the water was back up to 180 I cooked them for a half an hour and tested them. They were 167-170 degs.

Anyway here's the pics. Sorry but there's none while grinding or stuffing:

In the pot:



Here they are, out of the pot and cooled under running water:



I've got them separated and in the freezer. Right at 3 lbs worth not counting what was fried from the stuffer-----------

Now when the kids come over I can thaw and brown them up and serve them on some buns with all of the trimmings.

So a corn beef sausage Roy?
Turned out pretty plump and tasty looking!

Originally Posted by MikeB52

So a corn beef sausage Roy?
Turned out pretty plump and tasty looking!

Yuppers, it's very tasty and it'll be a breeze to warm it up. I guess I could use the hot water again I might play with some oil in a pan--

Picked up a 4.5 lb copa muscle to try a go at capicola in those umai bags.
Will be doing an equilibrium dry rub for a week before it goes into the dry age sack.
Just waiting On my new aging kit, as well as some #2 cure as I only have #1 on hand.
Pics to follow. I love capicola, be it sweet, or hot. 35$ for the cut of neck meat from the pig, which didn’t feel too bad compared to the fancy bacon.
Cheers.

Copa turned to capicola, well started the process.


Equilibrium rub used, and can see the lil dry spot from where I dumped the remnants back in with the pork.

Look at that mix of goodness.
Got some chili flakes, cayenne, garlic, smoked paprika, nutmeg, juniper berries, pepper, salt, sugar, and Prague#2, all ground course like.
Hoping for a sweet/heat sort of finish on this piece.
10-14 days in the vac bag, then into the umai till she loses 35% of her weight.
Could be a couple months away, but I can wait..
Cheers.

Yea, curing and smoking various meats can be quite additive--

We are down to our last two packs of that first bacon I made, so the timing on the new batch is working out well.
2 weeks tomorrow in the brine and that should be enough to pull them out and get them finished on the traeger.
Slicing on Sunday!
Looking forward to the taste test..

Long slow cook on the traeger but I figured I’d leave them out there till completion.

So all told, 10 hrs on the grill. Three hours at 160 for smoking with hickory, then I bumped it up to 175 till I hit 135 core temp.

Look at that beautiful mahogany smokey shade.

By staying below 185 I kept almost all that yummy fat from starting to sweat and render out.

Into the fridge to cool and tomorrow is the slicing and tasting part!