Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Catfish! I would never leave, Roy! You'd have to kick me out!

Yes we have 'catfish' here in the Pacific Northwest, but they aren't anywhere near the size of what I've seen in videos taken down south.

It's been years since I went catfish 'fish'n'. I still remember the first time I made the mistake of grabbing one and had my hand stinging for hours.

My mom and dad didn't care for catfish so we didn't ever have it for supper, but dad's older sister did like it, but she's keep them alive for several days in a galvanized washtub with running water. I 'think' she used to put cornmeal in with them--something about getting the muddy taste out of them.

We can work out the details when you get here--

Originally Posted by cudarunner

We can work out the details when you get here--

Yes! Lets!

Remember the King of the Hill episode where they got over their head in deep-frying?

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Remember the King of the Hill episode where they got over their head in deep-frying?

Sorry, but I've never seen 'King of the Hill' nor have I ever seen a single episode of 'Seinfeld' and many others. I'm not much of a TV Guy.

I used to work out on the road for Safeway doing new stores, remodels, resets etc and one of the regulars was Ron and Ron was a Huge 'Simpsons Fan'. On one job the motel offered a couple of free drinks and TV in the bar for us and the Simpsons came on and Ron was really into it--I then used the remote to change the channel and he freaked! He found the remote, turned the TV back to the Simpsons and went back to watching. Once again I switched channels and Ron grabbed the remote, got the station back to the Simpsons, handed the remote to the barmaid and told her not to let me have it and went back to his show.

It didn't take long for the barmaid to lay the remote down and------------------this time Ron stormed off saying he was going to finish his show in his room.

I don't think he ever really ever forgave me---

Oh well. I certainly don't want to be associated with him. I must digress!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Oh well. I certainly don't want to be associated with him. I must digress!

Ron was actually a lot of fun! I can tell you many stories one on one. It would take too long here.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Yes we have 'catfish' here in the Pacific Northwest, but they aren't anywhere near the size of what I've seen in videos taken down south...

You mean like this one?

120 lbs

My youngest brother will be coming for a visit in early May and he knows a guy who is from Louisiana and he's served my brother some things like Jambalaya and my brother really liked them HOWEVER the guy won't give out his recipes saying that they are 'Family' and so he can't share them.

Personally, I'm glad to share any family recipes, etc. Anyway, I have a recipe for Jambalaya that I haven't fixed in years but thought that I'd make a batch for my brother to try.

Of course it uses Andouille Sausage. In the past I'd buy some at the store but this time around I thought I'd have a go with making some from scratch. I've had a recipe for years that I found online and the poster swore that he was Cajun and the recipe had been in his family for years so I made a 1/2 batch.

I failed to take Before Pics, but here's some afterwards.

I usually 'Shower' smoked sausage when it comes out of the smoker until it's below a 90 deg F internal temp as it prevents wrinkling and seems to mellow the smoke flavor a bit. So here's my small batch after 15 minutes on my clothesline with a sprinkler going:



After drying them off and separating them:



Internal texture:



The author of the recipe cautioned against using too much cayeenne as it the sausage was too hot then the product it was used in would be too hot so I went with the lower recommended amounts. I found the sausage 'Spicy' but not hot.

Thanks for looking

I like my jambalaya, after years in La. I had some really good stuff, but cooking for myself out in the field the last few years, I got some Zatarans mix, added, spices on my own, diced onions jalapeños, and bell peppers, then sone andouille or smoked sausage and a can of chicken from Costco. Every one who had it swore it was some home cooked stuff. That Ztztarans is good stuff, also their dirty rice is good too, with jimmy deans hot sausage.

Now I ain’t saying that it’s better than some of those ole coon asses fixings. But it was never turned down

Found this new take on “organizing” your smoking activity.

First and foremost, I'm aware that I am committing Blasphemy here.

With that said, many know, I like to 'play' and this is what I was playing with last night.

Instead of cutting the ends out or cutting the sides of jalapenos to remove the seeds and core and then stuff with cheeses, and make Armadillo Eggs, I decided to chop up the peppers along with some sweet onion and mix them in with some cream cheese and some of my home smoked mozzarella that was finely shredded and then I refrigerated the mixture and once nice and cold I rolled balls and then placed them between two flattened Italian sausage patties.

1/2 lb cream cheese
2 oz shredded smoked mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion
3/4 cup finely chopped jalapenos

16 oz Italian sausage

I used 1/4 cup of the cheese mixture and each sausage patty was 1/3 of a cup. I should have used 2 pounds of sausage as I have left over cheese mixture but not enough sausage to make more eggs.

Anyway here's the eggs, they weighed about 6-7 ounces each:

Raw



Cooked on my Traeger at 250 degs and finished with some BBQ sauce:



The insides:



One was part of supper along with some corn on the cob and some french fries.

The second was warmed up by placing it in a Ziploc bag and allowed to sit in 160 deg water for about 20 minutes for breakfast. I found it just as good as right off the barbie.

The third is part of my playing as it's in the freezer to see if they can be made ahead, frozen and then reheated to the same quality as before freezing.