Smoked Pork And Beef Jalapeno Cheese Sausage
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My wife and I made about twenty pounds of link sausage Saturday from pork and brisket I bought this summer that needed to go. Usually I go 50/50 but after trimming the brisket I was pork heavy and ended up with six pounds of beef and twelve pounds of pork. We split the meat equally and made half cheese and jalapen'o and the other half without the cheese and peppers. We stuffed the mixture into natural pork casings and smoked it over oak firewood for a little over two hours. I try to keep the smoker under 200 degrees for an hour and a half or so then add a little bit of coals to bring it up until I hit 160 degrees internal temperature of the meat then pull the sausages out and chill them down to stop cooking. I have a fan in the chimney of the smoker I can speed up to drop the temperature or slow it down to increase it also. Yesterday wasn't a real good day to smoke, it was windy and misting rain off and on and about eighty degrees but as they say it is what it is.
Grinding Method
I have a small grinder (#8) so I cube the meat pretty small
I mix the spice with the meat after cubing and at this time dissolve the cure in water and mix it in as well
Refrigerate this for about two hours then place in the freezer until the meat is firm but not frozen
Grind the meat with the fine plate and mix until it has a smooth texture then put it in the stuffer
If you add cheese and peppers mix them in at this time
Ingredients
Domestic pork and beef 50/50
Domestic pork and venison 60/40
Wild pork and venison 60/40 and add pork fat or beef tallow if necessary
Dobesh sausage seasoning mix .64oz./lb of meat
Pink cure 1 (one) level teaspoon per five pounds of meat
One ounce of cold water per pound of meatJalapen'os and Cheese for roughly ten pounds of meat ( more or less depending on your taste)
One cup of finely chopped fresh jalapen'os
Twelve ounces of small cubed cheddar cheese (you can use grated also)
Add the cheese and peppers before stuffing unless you stuff with the grinder then send them throughThey sell a high temperature cheese but I buy square cheddar cheese snack sticks and they seem to melt at a higher temperature and are easy to cube
Canned jalapeno are good if fresh aren't available
I have tried blending my own spices but Allied Kenco Sales in Houston has a whole line of sausage seasonings that really are good. I have used several different ones and so far no losers. I don't know if this link will work. I have a couple of pictures I will post later.
http://www.alliedkenco.com/643.aspx?page=2
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That is definitely not something I should read before going to lunch.... to a buffet... in a small vehicle.... with a weight limit...
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@martino1
You need to visit The Salt Lick in Driftwood Texas outside of Austin Texas. All you can eat ribs, sausage and brisket with sides. You keep eating it and they keep bringing it. It's not cheap but pretty darn good for mass produced BBQ. You can buy a single plate also but I couldn't resist all you can eat.
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Some pictures of the sausage making.
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What kind of knot do you use on those cases? We always have a hard time tying them shut, we never hang them by the string because they usually fall apart.
We use collagen casings that come with one side tied shut already.
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@rhyno
This might be hard to explain but I will try. You see the little balls of meat at the ends of the links? When I start a link out of the stuffer I pull a little extra casing out and then double it back over and trap a little bit of meat in the casing then wrap the string around both layers and knot it. That forms a little ball and your string won't slip off the end. We also used to make one long link then cut the casing and pinch a slug of meat out then do the double over casing trick and make a little ball so it won't slip. Then you end up with a bowl full of meat mixture you either throw back in the stuffer or make patties or a loaf. I have seen sausage loafs smoked for a couple of hours just like a meat loaf. Natural casings will twist and you can hang them also but you need to tie each end. Once they are smoked you can cut them and they wont fall apart. I just twist the chicken sausage and cut them at the twist but I cook them on a grill, no smoking and they don't squirt out the end. You are right they are hard to tie because the string just slips off. I use a cotton butcher string and when you tie a granny knot in it that's it. You have hell untying it. I have never used the collagen type so I'm not sure about them. Some of these natural casings are tough for some reason. It has a lot to do with the temperature you smoke at and how long you smoke. I got a batch of casings that had been frozen, that was a train wreck. If they didn't bust when you were stuffing they were tough as bicycle inner tubes. I bought the casings for this batch at a processor and they were fresh packed in salt and a whole lot better. You can soak them with a little vinegar or lemon juice and it will make them softer too but I never have, just warm water.
