Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

I did also order just the casings, in a 28 mm size, but they aren’t arriving prime.
Really want to try different sizes and styles.
There was a sausage my dad used to get, forget the type sadly,, cooked it up on Sunday breakfast. They were red coloured and finely ground inside, had a real snap to the casing and were easily 2” dia as cooked in the griddle. Came from a deli called Bittners up here.
I hope to rediscover those particular sausages in my learnings.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

I did also order just the casings, in a 28 mm size, but they aren’t arriving prime.
Really want to try different sizes and styles.
There was a sausage my dad used to get, forget the type sadly,, cooked it up on Sunday breakfast. They were red coloured and finely ground inside, had a real snap to the casing and were easily 2” dia as cooked in the griddle. Came from a deli called Bittners up here.
I hope to rediscover those particular sausages in my learnings.

The reason that 40 or so years ago I decided to learn how to make sausages, bacons and other such things was because of my father's reminiscing of the dry cured hams, bacons, sausages along with fresh breakfast sausages that he'd had growing up with on his grandfather's homestead/dad was born breech in 1930 on the homestead.

When dad would speak of them, he'd almost start drooling just thinking of how they tasted. The problem was that when he was growing up he HAD TO HELP--he didn't WANT TO HELP so he never learned how they were made, what the ingredients were etc.

I decided that once I'd learned some of the art that my kids would not only help but learn how it was done and I'm very proud to say that if I were to die tonight that all three of my kids could use my recipes and make stuffed sausages, fresh sausage patties, cured and smoked sausages, poultry, fish etc. They may struggle at first but they know the basics.

When I was in North Dakota last year Joel (Benz) took me out for breakfast to a very popular German restaurant and they had a rather unique sausage that I really enjoyed. What made it unique was that it was a sausage patties that weren't smoked but I'm dead sure it had sodium nitrite (Cure #1) in it as it was the same color of the leftovers from stuffing my cured sausage that I'd cook in a cast iron pan (that was always a Big treat when the kids helped make sausage).

Sodium nitrite isn't required in a fresh sausage due to the high heat used in cooking and the short time it's cooking so I'm thinking it was for a bit of visual presentation.

Mike, I do hope that you enjoy learning another age old art that's not only very rewarding once semi mastered---but tastes excellent!

Originally Posted by MikeB52

I did also order just the casings, in a 28 mm size, but they aren’t arriving prime.
Really want to try different sizes and styles.
There was a sausage my dad used to get, forget the type sadly,, cooked it up on Sunday breakfast. They were red coloured and finely ground inside, had a real snap to the casing and were easily 2” dia as cooked in the griddle. Came from a deli called Bittners up here.
I hope to rediscover those particular sausages in my learnings.

Bittners (and later Shopsy) was bought out by Maple Leaf foods in the late 1990’s. That was a time in Toronto when there were several very good delis in Toronto that also produced their own commercially available products. Sadly, they were taken over by the larger meat packing conglomerate.

It sounds like you are describing one of their salamis. My mom used to fry me up salami and eggs for Sunday breakfast. There was no alarm clock that could get me out of bed faster than the aroma coming out of the kitchen when she cooked that up.

Originally Posted by spazola

I have not been keeping up with the forum.

I like to age my smoked cheese at least 2 weeks before trying. The longer you wait the better it is, recently I opened one that I smoked last February. The vacuum seal and saran wrap both work well for storage.

The little stainless mesh smoke tubes work pretty well. https://www.amazon.com/MAZE-N-Pellet.../dp/B00CS6YFIC I have an fancy home made cold smoke generator that works of an aquarium air pump, but most of the time I use the smoke tube because of the simplicity of it.

I bought one of those smoke tubes today. I have a piece of stainless tubing that would work but how many bits and sharpening would I have to go through to drill all those holes? So I got lazy. I didn't shop around but those pellets can be expensive!

I have to look into the actual ingredients in the pellets. I am using apple and if they actually use apple wood I can see spending the extra money from heating type pellets

I decided to try to so some salt and after I proved that the tube worked I tossed in some cheese. It is now getting to be 2 hours and the tube is not 1/3rd used so six hours a tube should be easy.

I will pull the cheese before then but I am planning to fill the tube again before I go to bed to have at least 12 hours on the salt

Maybe fire up another tube in the morning if desired.

This soon after starting.

Originally Posted by 32t

I bought one of those smoke tubes today. I have a piece of stainless tubing that would work but how many bits and sharpening would I have to go through to drill all those holes? So I got lazy. I didn't shop around but those pellets can be expensive!

I have to look into the actual ingredients in the pellets. I am using apple and if they actually use apple wood I can see spending the extra money from heating type pellets

I decided to try to so some salt and after I proved that the tube worked I tossed in some cheese. It is now getting to be 2 hours and the tube is not 1/3rd used so six hours a tube should be easy.

I will pull the cheese before then but I am planning to fill the tube again before I go to bed to have at least 12 hours on the salt

Maybe fire up another tube in the morning if desired.

This soon after starting.

Tc turned me onto these pellets ($15 per 40# bag at Walmart):



I really like them. Unlike heating pellets which has things in them you don't want in your food, there's nothing but fine wood. I 'think' that the sawdust has some water added then pressed into the molds and then the water is removed by evaporation.

Take a few of those pellets and put them in water--they will fall apart and also swell like crazy.

What is in heating pellets that would be hazardous?

One of the things I found interesting about heating pellets is that the soft wood pellets heat just as well as the hardwood ones.

The reason that they stick together is not glue etc. but that they are pressed as hard that they stick together themselves. The reason that oak for example give out more heat than popple is that it is a denser wood. by making pellets that is not a difference because the soft wood is compressed just as dense.

I have to look into this further.

Originally Posted by 32t

What is in heating pellets that would be hazardous?

One of the things I found interesting about heating pellets is that the soft wood pellets heat just as well as the hardwood ones.

The reason that they stick together is not glue etc. but that they are pressed as hard that they stick together themselves. The reason that oak for example give out more heat than popple is that it is a denser wood. by making pellets that is not a difference because the soft wood is compressed just as dense.

I have to look into this further.

I guess after all those years of working in the retail food industry I'm always looking to be 'safe' rather than 'sorry.

The conditions that the heating pellets wouldn't need to be monitored anywhere near as closely as cooking pellets. The machines used to process the woods for food use would have to have food grade lubricants where heating pellets could use any old lube. While I've used fir and pine when camping, I'd also be worried about how the softwood tars and such would make the food taste.

Regular mineral oil can be used to sharpen knives with but would need to be thoroughly washed before contact with food. On the other hand the Kasco Oil that I use doesn't need to be washed off but I do wipe with a paper towel and rinse with hot water before going to the steel.

Just some thoughts---

Interesting thoughts but what has to make the pellets "food grade"?

Are there official rules?

Originally Posted by 32t

Interesting thoughts but what has to make the pellets "food grade"?

Are there official rules?

I found this:

https://www.pelletheat.org/

Interesting as on the first page they say:

Pellet fuel is made of renewable materials – generally recycled wood residues captured from other wood product manufacturing processes.

The site seems to be about heating pellets not cooking pellets.

For myself, I'll stick to the pellets for cooking as they aren't all that expensive and they are close by.

My cheese is done. The Treager pellets are more mild than the Cherry that I cut down on my land and know when and where the tree grew.

Apple pellets but as you see from the bag a hardwood blend. How much and what blend? Also Premium and Food Grade. I am not worrying that I am going to die from these but it is a bunch of BS from a business who's bottom line is making money.



The cheese has a very strong flavor and I am going to let most of it rest for a couple of weeks but as you can see I had to sample some. Not as dark as the cherry with a little bit of mesquite that I did the last batch with.