Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

Originally Posted by cudarunner

ThermoWorks is discontinuing their Purple ThermoPens. Limited Supplies

https://www.thermoworks.com/?trk_msg...k4-closeout-cs

I bought one of them when they had a sale on refurbished ones for half price. It works great. They don't have these sales often but when they do it's a true bargain.

Chicken thighs and skin with a ton of onion and garlic and white and cayenne pepper. Poached and grilled for a bit.

A Barbie sized 1400g batch

Your stuffer was a little over half full.

Or was that closer to half empty?

Originally Posted by 32t

Your stuffer was a little over half full.

Or was that closer to half empty?

I am always an optimist when it comes to my sausage.

Originally Posted by spazola

Chicken thighs and skin with a ton of onion and garlic and white and cayenne pepper. Poached and grilled for a bit.

A Barbie sized 1400g batch

I worked with a female meat cutter (Andria) who had escaped from East Germany when she was 18 because as she always said "I didn't want to be a Communist". I hated working with her as she was such a bitch. However after she retired occasionally we'd meet at different events and whoa was she a changed woman--pleasant, polite, courteous, charming

Anyway after she had retired she called me and asked if I had a sausage stuffer she could borrow as a friend from Germany was coming to visit and he was going to make Bratwurst and would need a stuffer. I told her that I'd gladly loan her the stuffer on these two conditions:

1. I got his recipe
2. I got a small sample

She readily agreed so I asked if he needed my hand grinder, casings etc and she said no as she had a grinder and he was bringing everything else he'd need from Germany.

Within an hour or so her husband showed up and I showed him how to assemble the stuffer and gave him the run down on how to break it down and clean it well.

About a week later the husband returned the stuffer and thanked me very much and handed me a bag that had the samples and a note from Andria. The note said she was so grateful for the use of the stuffer and that she was very sorry she couldn't give me the recipe as her friend brought a mix------a mix he couldn't find in Germany, he had to travel to Austria to find and purchase it.

The note also included how to cook the Brats and that was to place them in a pot with cold water and turn the heat onto medium and wait till the water simmered and then to brown them in a bit of oil OR place them on a grill.

I checked the internal temp after the water simmered and it was 162 degs or a bit above so I removed them and quickly dried them off and browned them.

I found them very close to tasting like mine so I made a batch and gave her some to cook and try.

The only dings she gave me was that I hadn't ground the meat and fat fine enough and that I might have not had quite enough fat as they were drier than she preferred (lesson learned), other than that she said it was a very good sausage.

My best friend came to town a couple of years ago and we got together with a mutual very good friend and his wife for a BBQ and I made the Brats along with roasted red pepper slivers and sauteed onion slivers to top them with and cooked the brats like Andria had told me--big hit! With one exception.

I'd purchased some Sausage Rolls (sometimes called Stadium Rolls) as unlike hoagie rolls, they have a bit of a cavity for the sausage, peppers, onions etc to fit into. However I was the only one out of the group that used the rolls, everyone else wanted to save room for more sausage.

Oh well---

sounds like how to do potato sausage.

Originally Posted by 32t

sounds like how to do potato sausage.

I've only made one batch of potato sausage and I didn't even sample it. I made it for a customer who's wife was from Sweden and she longed for that sausage so I made him a batch from the recipe I had from the book I learned from and gave it to him in a Ziploc bag filled with water so the potatoes didn't turn brown.

He said she really enjoyed it---but I didn't see him again--

The best recipe I have heard is 1/2 Pork, 1/2 beef, and 1/2 potatoes.

Originally Posted by 32t

The best recipe I have heard is 1/2 Pork, 1/2 beef, and 1/2 potatoes.

This is the recipe I used:

Makes 5 Lbs

1 small onion cut up
1 Tablespoon plain salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup non-fat dry milk
1 cup ice cold water
6 potatoes peeled and cut up (approx 6 cups)
1 1/2 lbs lean boneless beef
1 lb lean boneless pork

Grinding and mixing

Grind the meat, potatoes and onion through a 3/8" plate and place in a mixer. Add all the other ingredients with the water and mix well.

Then regrind through a 3/16" plate. Stuff into 35-38 mm hog casings.

This sausage is a very perishable product, it keeps best frozen.

The idea of keeping the finished product in water was my idea.