Sausage Making

[Salty]

these days

I hear ya bud. A lot of health rules now. But I think common sence somehow used to take care of us quite well..

Here's a sory but no recommendations here folks. But I remember as a kid meeting this old batchelor bush rat that had a smoke house that doubled as an open air meat locker. Screened from flys of course. He was a Hungarian if I remember right. Anyway he gave my dad and I some sausage he made. It was hanging right beside some rude looking uncured ducks and geese that weren't quite ready yet he explained because they hadn't fallen off the hooks yet.

Anyways, that sausage was about the best I've ever had. I bet his finished smoked duck and goose would have been awsome too.

 

[Doug]

Interesting to hear you are using collagen casings, Rich! A buddy of mine has been using them for a few years and they do make a nicer fresh sausage for sure. He buys his from Halford Hide and Leather:

http://www.halfordhide.com/

But I have not gotten a round tuit yet this year. My "sausages" are in about half a dozen fifteen pound bags of venison trimmings in the freezer waiting to come out some time for processing.

BTW who is that old guy with the walrus moustache in your kitchen?

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Doug

 

[Big Guy]

I find it the opposite . I like natural sheep casings for fresh sausage and use the collagen for smoked. I find the collagen a little rubbery for fresh sausage IMHO

 

[RR]

Merry Christmas to you to Doug.
I Just use the collagen for smoked ie- Pepperoni and Beer Stick. Usually for sausage I completely cook in the smoker.The exception is the bacon sausage.
Yesterday it got away on me and completely cooked in the smokehouse.I went out to check the internal temp on the sausage(electronic thermometer in photos below) and had 65 lbs of sausage ready.
On the plus side if you boil them now the casing smooths out and the sausage is still juicy and tender .
Bacon Sausage
15lbs sow belly
15lbs Venison or Beef
Make up a wet bacon cure. Place Venison and Pork in it.Keep below 40 degrees F. but not freezing.
Overhaul every second day
When cure has gone all the way through meat Grind 15 lbs uncured pork and 15 lbs uncured venison with the cured meat.
to 60 lbs meat add
4 Tablespoon White Pepper
2 Tablespoon ground Ginger
1 Tablespoon Cayenne
4 Tablespoon of Paprika
2 cups Brown Sugar
More salt is optional (fry a little burger to test for salt)

This makes an excellent breakfast sausage.
Rich

 

[redlaker1]

Just finished our deer sausage run for this falls harvest.
it came out to around 750lbs total..
we use a cabelas 1hp grinder and a cabelas tower stuffer. works pretty good.

this year we mixed it in bins with a heavy duty drill and a mortar/paint mixer

 

[RR]

$28 Grinder

Last week Princess Auto had #32 grinders for sale for $28.

So I got one as a backup unit and then decided to improve my setup.
Material List
1 Grinder (have end of shaft turned to pulley size)
10 or 12" pulley (got 1 from a farm shop with a stripped set screw hole)
I installed a heli coil to repair it.
1-4 1/2 " pulley
2- 1 1/2" pulleys
2 bearing blocks and bearings
6" shaft
1-1/4 hp motor
1-light switch,box&cover
4-Casters from an old swivel chair
1-4x8 3/4" G1S plywood
20"x6' Arberite left over from house renos


Front view

With Tub

Motor and Jackshaft view inside cabinet

Rear view with other side of jackshaft and big pulley on grinder.
Note shield around belt and pulleys.I will add a door later.

Mumptias replacement Inspecting finished jorolleyes:

Rich
​

​

 

[savagefan]

Great set-up, the kitty wasn't the maiden voyage I hope.

 

[dusty61]

That`s just s**thead the cat inspecting it all too make sure it passes
The smoker I built 10 or more years ago. It is your standard 4 ft X 4 ft X 8 ft construction. RR and I tried one year to smoke with an external wood stove and it didn`t work as good as we wanted. A couple years ago I relocated it to his place and he perfected the process. The fringe benefits are great as I get a tax of everything that comes out of it

Garnet

 

[RR]

That`s just s**thead the cat inspecting it all too make sure it passes
The smoker I built 10 or more years ago. It is your standard 4 ft X 4 ft X 8 ft construction. RR and I tried one year to smoke with an external wood stove and it didn`t work as good as we wanted. A couple years ago I relocated it to his place and he perfected the process. The fringe benefits are great as I get a tax of everything that comes out of it

Garnet[/quote
Be nice to Mumptia's replacement.
She may be Sh-it Head the cat to you but for some reason my wife calls her by another nameI will post some pictures of the outside of the smoke house now that it's fixed up a little.

Rich

 

[the keepa]

Here are some pictures of the one that I built . I plan on replacing the laminated "hopper" with a stainless steel pan with a chute going directly inside the grinder "tower".The drawer is to keep extra cutter blades and different sized hole grinder plates .
It all comes apart very easily (without unbolting anything) for cleaning and sterilizing .
It sure does grind fast and very easy compared to hand grinding .
I picked up the motor , grinder and pulley at a garage sale for 25 dollars, threw everything else away and made my own stand .

 

[RR]

Keepa

That is a nice setup.Compact,the drawer is a nice touch,Commercial grinder _ good find.I am especially taken with the hopper funnel/workspace/cover idea.

Rich

 

[RR]

This year I wanted a couple of small batches to try out recipes .So I make 2lb batches and cook/smoke them on the barbecue.I had to cut down a wind damaged manitoba maple(box elder) so I have lots of smoking wood.Andouille sausage

 

[Doug]

That one looks tasty, Rich!

IIRC the original recipe for that calls for it to be stuffed into a pig's stomach or similar????

Doug

 

[RR]

Mixed the pics up
The kids were home for xmas and the andouille turned out too hot for them.So this one is a spicy ham and damn it is good.Andouille was made in 2" casing and then smoked with sugar cane and pecan wood.Mine gets brown sugar and maple.
Hope your xmas was merry.

 

[the keepa]

I found a sausage stuffer funnel that fits my home-made meat grinder, so me and the Missus whipped up a small experimental batch of breakfast sausage last weekend . We really enjoyed it although it was a bit bland and a bit mushy . Next batch will have more sage and a bit of garlic powder added .....also I will only run the 50% Venison and 50% pork butt once through the grinder because when using the grinder as a stuffer it actually grinds the mixture again....even when using a large-holed plate .....
Therefore the last batch was actually ground three times.
This past summer I built/finished building an Ugly Drum Smoker (Google is your friend)... this weekend I'm gonna try smoke cooking a couple racks of calf moose ribs....gotta search this thread for a good venison rub....yours looks delicious RR .

 

[angrygopher]

Here's my mom's recipe for fresh deer sausage, she combined a couple of recipes from the Western Producer and I think maybe the Star Phoenix back in the day. It took a few years but what came out it was this recipe which has served us very well over the last 3 decades...

Ingredients
30 lbs ground meat (generally speaking we've used 20 lbs venison and 10 lbs pork)
1/2 cup Morton's Tender Quick
3 tbsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c pickling salt
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp sage
1 1/2 tsp allspice
2 cup skim milk powder (optional)
Mustard seed (optional)

Method
Add spices to meat trim to be ground
Mix well together so that the spices have coated the meat
Let stand 8-12 hours or overnight
Grind meat with a coarse plate once, regrind with coarse plate if a finer texture is desired.
Mix ground meat and add COLD water to the mixture to help with mixing.
Let the mixed ground meat stand in a fridge / cooler @ 33*F - 38*F for at least 12 hours before stuffing.
If smoking, hang stuffed sausages in fridge/cooler so the casings dry, potentially overnight.
Smoke choices are entirely up to taste, we prefer alder or mesquite but hickory, maple & apple are also popular.
Smoke for 2-3 hours.

Cooking,
Mom's Sausage can be fried or bbq'd. We prefer to cook the sausage by covering it with water in a frying pan and allowing the water to boil off. It tastes great off the barbie too, just a tad drier, our best luck has been using a lower heat setting and judicious amounts of patience!