SAUSAGE PHOTO GALLERY (Without Original Recipes)

lrdeer · Post by **lrdeer** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 00:50

I recently joined this forum and would like to share my sausage making story. I have been a keen sausage maker for over 20 years, I use Venison as my primary ingredient as I always have a good supply, yes, that may not be the traditional method but I can assure you the end product is just amazing. I recently built myself a smokehouse, the sausages I have made are just exceptional, full of flavour with a gentle smoky flavour. I have made Polisk Kabanosy, Bologna, Andouille (using my smoked chillies), German sausage, Jadgwurst, Pepperoni and Jerky. My recipes come from Rytek Kutas, Len Poli and the Marianaski family, all are exceptional recipes that really work. I plan to make another 8-10 sausages over the next few months. These are all cooked sausages, they may not be traditional as they are not dry cured, but, they are still a wonderful sausage. I use American Oak or Hickory to smoke, I have also smoked spices and Chillies. I hope you all enjoy viewing my story as much as I have had sharing it with you.

uwanna61 · Post by **uwanna61** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 01:55

Irdeer

Wow I`m impressed! Nice job on the smoke house. Is the red brick box on the right of picture #1 your heat source? I have always wanted to build something like this you have given me a few ideas with the pictures! Are there shelves for the dried meat screens to sit on? Thanks for posting! Good day mate...

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 02:27

Very nice craftsmanship on both yous sausage and your smokehouse. What species of wood was used for the lumber?

lrdeer · Post by **lrdeer** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 03:04

Thanks guys for your comments. The timber I used on the smokehouse is Cypress Pine, it is excellent in withstanding outdoor weather, I did give the outside a couple of coats of acrylic timber sealer, it has no smell so does not effect the finished meat product, it is raw timber inside that now smells strongly of smoke. The small brick box on the right was the original firebox, the problem I had was maintaining an accurate and constant temperature, it worked well and drew perfectly up thru the chimney, it would get to a nice temperature but die down quickly, when I added wood it would increase the temperature significantly and become very sooty even though I was using very dry wood. I decided that I would make the firebox into a herb garden and buy a two burner gas stainless steel unit, it is perfect, I can maintain an accurate temperature within a few degrees and it burns clean. The gas unit sits in below the smokehouse within the brick base, I have baffels sitting across the top of the base to evenly distribute heat and smoke, I can maintain an even temperature within the smoker, I have 2 thermometers that measure the internal temp. of the sausage and also the temp. of the smoker. The smoke is generated by putting damp sawdust in a stainless smoker box and placing just over the edge of the flame, I can maintain an even smoke for around 3-4 hours depending on the amount of sawdust used, it smokes away like an old steam train. I hang the sausage on 5/8" and 3/4" Oak rods that have small brass cup hooks, I can smoke up to 80lbs+ of sausage at a time.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 03:24

I didn't think that deer were indiginous to Australia so I had to google Australian deer. It seems to be a thriving industry. They have even started raising north american elk but no eastern white tails yet.

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 04:07

Wow! Love the smokehouse!
Thanks for sharing those pics!

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 04:28

Hi Lyndon, Good to hear from you mate. It looks like you not only find the time to make good sausage, but you also have made the best lookin` smoker in the western hemisphere. Sometimes I think the world is in too big of a rush for us to just sit back once in a while and enjoy smellin' the rain in the forest and seeing the mushrooms poppin' out beneath the quakies. What do you think is the matter with those folks who don`t make their own sausage? Your sausages and jerky are exquisite! The photos are terrific. Keep up the good work mate!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 00:28

I found this great site that has many wonderful recipes. Had to try the andouille recipe.

Spices line up:

This recipe called for an ingredient pre-mix before the grind. It also specified for half the pork to be cut into 1/4" cubes & the balance to be coarse-ground. Heres the load mixed with the spices:

Stuffed in 32mm pork casings:

Air-dry while I get the smoker ready:

Still using the weber WSM, I suspended the links from the top grate over a water pan & kept the temp at around 135-140° for the first hour or so. I used pecan wood for the smoke. One hour in:

I kept them smoking for about 3.5-4 hours until in IT reached 154°. I then plunged them into an ice bath & hung 'em to dry/bloom for about an hour:

Final shot:

Tasty sausage with a nice kick! This is one recipe I'll keep.

I see gumbo in my future....

-NCK

Dave Zac · Post by **Dave Zac** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 00:31

Spectacular. I love the look of the chunked pork. Very nice job.

Dave

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 01:31

Hey NorCal,
You are having WAY too much fun with your new hobby!

Who's going to eat all that sausage?

Just teasing of course... now get back to stuffin'!

Oh, one more thing... don't be afraid to pin prick the air bubbles right after they are stuffed. The needle holes will seal themselves up after the air is let out.
Hmmm.... you'd better send up several hundred pounds of that andouille to DaveZac and me for... uhh... "testing".

You're gettin' pretty good at this stuff. How about venturing into a "semi-dry cured" sausage? Perhaps some landjager. Keep up the good work - you'll be a pro in no time at all.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 02:12

Chuckwagon wrote:Hey NorCal,
Who's going to eat all that sausage?

3 near-full grown sons....with big appetites!

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 16:30

This is my first attempt at smoking 'cured' sausage-'polish kielbasa'- after spending the past few weekends creating piles of 'fresh' sausages for the troops. This is no small feat as the standard was set by my wife's polish grandmother year's ago. Her 'polska wędzona kiełbasa' is what I'll try to replicate. Although the recipe is pretty basic (salt, pepper, garlic, marjoram), there are expectations to be met!

First, as Grandma Gluzkowsky did, I cubed a portion of the lean into 1/2" cubes (about 3.5lbs):

I added a third of the total cure to the cubes & refrigerated this overnight:

This morning, I ground the rest of the pork (about 7.5lbs) through a 4.5mm plate:

Like I said, the recipe is pretty straight-forward. Ingredients ready:

Both meats loaded (cubed & ground)- about 11 lbs total-into my new custom meat-mixer:

All spices, garlic & water added:

Lid snapped on, power drill attached & ready to go. I sat on a chair with my feet on the board on both sides of the bucket:

This is the result after only 30-40 seconds of mixing (raising & plunging the drill as one does in mixing mortar, thinset, etc). Very thorough & well-mixed. Pretty amazing for 10+ pounds!

ON TO THE STUFFING:
Nice morning to be outside, so got the kirby cannon set up for action. The lazy susan comes in very handy for long ropes.

11+pounds loaded!

Phase One Done: I've now two large plate-loads of fresh kielbasa. Next step is to prep the smoker. These will sit in the fridge overnight.

The next morning I took the kielbasa from the fridge & hung them up to air-dry & come to room temp while I got the smoker prepped.
Simple wood dowel between chairs:

Since my new electric smoker hasn't yet arrived, I put to use my old weber smokey mountain (WSM) to do the smoking. This unit tends to run hot (200°) so I needed a plan of attack...

I discovered that I can keep the temp in the 135-160° range by adding about a dozen briquettes. I also placed an old pizza stone above the coals to help absorb & distribute the heat:

Since I'm using only a few coals, hickory wood chunks wouldn't be ideal, so I opted for the smaller chips:

Ideally I wanted to hang the kielbasa but decided to use a 3-tier rack arrangement. The three racks are approximately 3" apart:

Once the WSM's temp got up to about 135,° on went the kielbasa....

I heavily smoked the kielbasas for just under 90 minutes, keeping the temp around 155-160° for the last 30 minutes or so.

Smoke rollin'.......

Time to pull 'em off....

After the smoke, my plan was to hot-water bath the load in this bad boy: a 1950 Westinghouse turkey roaster...

Kept the kielbasas in their hot tub at around 160° for about 30 minutes until the IT reached 155°

Dropped them into an ice bath to quick-cool 'em down & then hang dry to bloom:

Final shot:

Overall I thought the end results do justice to what my wife (& family's) expectations are for 'good' kielbasa-garlicky, smokey with a touch of saltiness, plump & firm, with a good 'snap' when you bite into them. They certainly taste better than anything you find at the local grocery store.

Good fun! I've already had requests to make more!

-NCK

Kevin

Dave Zac · Post by **Dave Zac** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 16:55

Looks good Kevin. More importantly it tastes good!

Only comment for my desires. I would like to see a more course sausage with chinks of fat still in tact. Nice going though

atcNick · Post by **atcNick** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 18:17

Awesome write up!! Love the pictures! I never was able to get my WSM temps low enough, I like the pizza stone idea! Love the custom mixer, did you notice any problems with smearing or over mixing? In the photo it looks emulsified.

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 18:52

Hi Nick-
Keeping the WSM low enough was no small task! It took constant attention and careful adjustment of the number of briquettes & wood to keep it in the desired range. It worked well on these kielbasas, but posed more of a challenge on the brats I smoked. I'm looking forward to my new electric smoker that'll require less baby-sitting. WSM is still great for hot, long brisket, pork butt or rib smokes-not so ideal for sausages.

Re: the mixer- I was happy with the result (considering it was my first time using this mixer): well-mixed but not getting quite to the 'smeared' stage. Only took about 30-40 seconds. Keeping everything well-chilled helped.
Next time, I'll do a shorter mix with 6-10 second 'bursts' & be done.

Kevin

SAUSAGE PHOTO GALLERY (Without Original Recipes)

Smoking sausage in my smokehouse

Andouille Sausage

Kielbasa- Many photos