First Time Sausage Making

[Skip]

Made my first homemade sausage today. 4# of Brats on the Left and 4# Mild Sausage on the right. My wife helped me with the process. We had a good time. We will make a few adjustments and do it again soon!

[BRic]

They look awesome

[klflowers]

Very nice, Skip. You may have posted this elsewhere, but what did you use to grind it? And stuff it?

[Skip]

Kitchen Aid Mixer.

[CaptainMike]

Add a little pecan smoke to that!

[Skip]

Is there a safe way to do that on a grill without totally cooking them?

[CaptainMike]

I'm not sure about that, I was referring to the great smoke that pecan pellets impart to meat. I had a big box of them show up at my house last December and I really enjoyed them. Used the last of them a couple of weeks ago.

[Catmandu]

You could cold smoke them. But why not cook them to 150, then package and freeze? Then, just give them a good heat up later in whatever method you choose.

[Mudkat]

Great job! (Between you and me. They look a little under cooked.) 😀

[Donw]

Great looking sausages. Sausage making is just plain fun in my book, and you get to enjoy your efforts for months. I might have a different opinion if I was making 2 or 3 hundred pounds at a time like some members.

[RonB]

Great job!

[Richard Chrz]

Skip, looks awesome. I am hoping to do this very soon. ANy links and tips you can offer me. and recipes you have used so far. That would be fantastic. Thank you in advance. (Where in Mn are you again?) I am in La Crosse Wi.

[Skip]

Hello Richard. I live about 2.5 Hours west of you in Blue Earth MN. I'm afraid that I too am just starting down the sausage making path and don't have a lot of advice for for you. My seasonings and Natural Hog and Sheep casings were ordered from PS Seasonings in Wisconsin upon the advice of Backroadmeats . So far we have used #117 Breakfast Sausage Seasoning and #642 Sheboygan Bratwurst Seasoning. That is a good website that gives you a way to scale to a smaller amount of sausage. I've also made a little mild ring sausage using salt, pepper, and mustard seasoning---but that needs a lot of work yet. I will give you a couple links to sites I used. Good luck and keep us posted on your sausage journey.

https://www.psseasoning.com/

http://www.lets-make-sausage.com/smoking-sausage.html

I just got this book. It suppose to be a good read with lots of information.

[Backroadmeats]

Ohh Sheboygan.. my favorite!! Try some maple syrup and high temp cheddar cheese in it.. I use the Sheboygan a for breakfast sausage we eat at least a hundred pounds a year!!

[Richard Chrz]

Thank you Skip for the links. I can't wait to check them out. I have seen that book a bunch of times in my news feed as I do a few searches. Guess, I need to pull the trigger and just jump in and enjoy the process

[Skip]

@Backroadsmeats I have the HiTemp cheese, I just didn't venture that far yet. Thanks for your inspiration!

[TripleB]

Wow, for your first time (or 10th time) those look great. Very impressive.

[Richard Chrz]

TripleB agreed. Those do not look like 1st time brats to me!

[FireMan]

The way I see it Barry, if Skip can do it we can do it. One of my buddies has a sausage thingie & we wuz lamenting not being able to get any decent kielbasa around here. We are now going to try it. I’ll let you know how it goes. 👍👍👍 🕶

[Mr. Bones]

Lookin forward very much to this Ride!
Might be th birth of an Empire...
Th "Give A Rip Sausage Co." sounds purty catchy!

[Richard Chrz]

The way I see it Barry, if Skip can do it we can do it. One of my buddies has a sausage thingie & we wuz lamenting not being able to get any decent kielbasa around here. We are now going to try it. I’ll let you know how it goes. 👍👍👍 🕶

Post up when done! I always say, if someone else can do it successfully, that means I can show you 10 ways to screw it up.

[Skip]

Does anyone here put any Prague Powder #1 Cure in their fresh sausage? I wondered if it would add some red color in the sausage. Also if I would put some "cure" in the sausage does it need to be in there for any length of time or can we grill and eat the sausage right away?

[Skip]

Thank you for your help @Backroadsmeats. I'm a little skeptical with some of the
details but willing to listen and learn.

[Backroadmeats]

Skip ok I read my post and it is confusing.. I do not put cure in my fresh sausage. Adding cure to fresh sausage will give it a Pinker color when cooked and a slightly different texture. If you add cure to your fresh sausage you can eat it right away. I always have some frying in a pan to test before I even stuff it!!

[Backroadmeats]

Now for the second part of my post when I use cure in my sausage I smoke it at 140 for an hour 160 for an hour then 180 until internal temp of 160. As soon as I pull it out if the smoker I put in ice water to stop the cooking and tighten the casings (they get all wrinkly otherwise) sorry for the confusion hope that clarified some of my post. Sorry

[barelfly]

BackroadmeatsSkip thanks for this thread. My friend I made charcuterie with earlier I. The year are going at our next batch and will be doing some smoked sausage of some sort. Looking at a jalapeño flavored sausage. Reading this and the links provided helped tremendously.

yet another reason for membership to The Pit!

[mountainsmoker]

I use a sourse called the SausageMaker.com. They have af bunch of premixed sausages recipes and mix your own.