Homemade Sausage Making

We have very nice weather today, so I tested my new venturi type smoker. It works nice, produces lots of smoke, and lots of creosote too. Much more creosote than my Bradley smoker does. This time I used bigger air pump.
I like it, so thanks for the idea, and everybody else who put pictures up to look at.

Hey Joe, I don't even see any snow on the ground back there in Wisconsin! Your mechanics looks terrific. What kind of wood are you using? Fruitwood will give you lots of residue. Have you got some good ol' hickory?

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Yes Sir Mr. C.W.

Looks like we have similar taste, because I'm going to use my favorite, hickory for the next batch of farmers/Hungarian/dry sausage I'm going to make soon.
Today I used hickory chips and chunks mixed, both burned very good, with fairly high pressure of air.
But in the near future, I want to try hickory, and aple mixed about half and half.
These are the the wood chips and chunks I got for testing.

The creosote was liquid when warm, so I wiped off most of it, before it hardened.

I'm going to make lots of pictures, and post them.

I got into a discussion today about wood varieties for meat smoking. Fruit wood is too wide a class to be a useful term. Apple and pear are completely different from peach, cherry, and plum. Almonds are nuts but the come from a tree very closely related to the peach. Citrus fruit is completely different from the apple/pear, peach/cherry group. Hickory and pecan are related but quite different than the walnuts. Beech is a nut bearing tree but we rarely hear of anyone using it. Mulberry is a fruit wood but very different than apples or peaches or citrus and some people recommend corn cobs. Maple and alder , aspen and willow and of course all of the oaks.

In Hungary, beech wood chips are one of the most favored one for smoking sausages.

Some samples of sausages, because some people making this Debreceni (Debrezeni ?) sausage.

https://www.google.com/search?q=debrece ... B450%3B313

I will make an effort to collect some beech wood. Thank you.

Thanks for the picture link, Gulyás. Looks like I need to grind the meat for my Debreceni finer.
The sausages in the picture do not look smoked. Is it more typical to use the fresh version in Hungary?

I remember seeing wet sawdust was used for smoking, they hung the sausages/meat in the chimney.
I think dry wood is better, when wet, lots of steam is mixed with smoke, and that makes the meat wet too.

I also think that thin blue smoke for longer time is best. Let it mix with fresh air in between.

Gulyás wrote:In Hungary, beech wood chips are one of the most favored one for smoking sausages.

Ditto for Poland. Beech and alder are the two of the more popular woods used for smoking.

Hi Mr. Ducko,

Lately they are nothing but cheaters, and they use liquid smoke, and cook it in water.
But than again, that's the reason we are here, to make GOOD sausages.

I think 6 mm, 1/4" is a good choice for grinding.

And an other proof, that they are smart people Mr Redzed.

Oak is an other good one. Little harsher.

Gulyás wrote:And an other proof, that they are smart people Mr Redzed.

Thank you! And as goes the old adage "it takes one to know one!"

Beech trees are abundant in Maryland. I won't have difficulty finding a supply.

redzed wrote:

Gulyás wrote:In Hungary, beech wood chips are one of the most favored one for smoking sausages.

Ditto for Poland. Beech and alder are the two of the more popular woods used for smoking.

So Chris, on the coast Alder is the weed tree that grows in clear cuts - have you used Alder in smoking sausage? I'm curious because here in the interior Birch is the weed tree that takes root in clear cuts and I'm going to try that although I've never seen it mentioned.

Funny that oak was mentioned in this thread because I've been wondering about that. We are heading to Texas next week where there are more than 30 species of oak but Duk never mentions it as a smoking wood.

Definitely no shortage of alder around here. And no, I don't use it to smoke sausage, but always to smoke salmon. Lately I have been using cherry and hickory in pellet form as well as a commercial product of shavings identified simply as "hardwood". A little over a year ago I cut down two plum trees and a peach and will whittle some of it for smoking, (if I ever find the time). As far as birch, I have never used it. I have read that some have found it to give off a bitter after taste, but apparently it can be used as long as you debark it. Let us know how you make out with it.