smoking sausages

[slatts]

Hi All

Thought i'd try to smoke some sausages today.

Set the smoker up to 250f but the wife had made us some homemade wedges which was going to be ready to early so chucked them on at 225f.

I ended up taking the heat up to 300f to finish them off, internal temp of 68c - 154f, think they ended up at 73c internal.

They was only Asda own pork sausages as I didn't want to ruin anything good and also thought i'd be able to taste the smoke more on a plain sausage.

Anyway the results, I liked them but the wife didn't and she loves sausages

The wife said they was like frankfurters, I like franks aswell, they had a smoke ring but she was right they did turn a bit like frankfurters. Is this right or is it just down to cheap sausages and would decent sausages be any different.

Cheers all

[YetiDave]

Go for the good stuff! Any sausages with visible fat in there are a winner. Smoke will improve cheap sausages but work wonders for good sausages. Maybe now is time to try your hand at making them? I developed a pork sausage with Kampot pepper, juniper and marjoram that is freakin' incredible when smoked. Ground as course as my grinder will go and high in fat content so those things burst when you bite into them. I think it's time I made more

[aris]

If you are going to smoke them, you need to use sausages without any rusk. British type sausages tend to have a fair bit of rusk in them which isn't a bad think but doesn't suit smoking IMHO. Google for 'bigwheels hotlinks' recipe - very nice sausage smoked. There are a few versions of the recipe knocking about - go for one which has beer in it

[CyderPig]

Ditto Aris.
Cheap bangers always end up tasting like Franks when smoked IMHO.
I make Chorizo, Where Aris uses beer I use Red Wine.
These are the Dogs Do Das when smoked.
A good commercial sausage to smoke is the Porky Whites brand.
Cheers
Si

[aris]

Wine with chorizo goes very well. The hotlinks recipe I mentioned is an American style sausage which is pretty much designed to be smoked.

Check out these pics:

http://www.mycookingspace.com/recipes/B ... links.html

[CyderPig]

Cheers Aris
Nice recipe.
I will post a recipe for Chaurice Sausage when I can dig it out.
Si

[slatts]

Thanks All

Great info as per usual.

After xmas i'll look into getting the kit for sausage making, I did read a post on here a while ago about it and had a look at the sausage making forum.

The wife is still disgusted with the frank tasting sausages I did yesterday, things can only improve from now I suppose.

Thanks again and hopefully i'll get to try some American smoked sausages in a couple of weeks as im off to Florida for 2 weeks

[YetiDave]

I don't use rusk, but I do use breadcrumbs (10% of the weight of the meat) for filler, to improve texture and hold some of the fat. I tried Bigwheels hot links and thought they were a bit too dense and salty

[Simple-BBQ]

We make our own sausages and use coarse ground pork shoulder. I've not smoked them but I like the idea. A smoked Chorizo would be good. I've had them with smoked paprika in. Anyone got thoughts on that?

Look out for the offers on pork shoulder steaks as these can be close to Smithfield prices when you take the BOGOF or multi-buy option.

The shoulder has the perfect meat to fat ratio for sausages. We'll make up 4-5 kgs in a session from a whole shoulder. Normally the same flavour but sometimes we mix up a few different flavours. Natural casings are the way to go. I can send you a link to where I buy mine if want it. Collagen casings just don't cut it in my opinion, natural casings are easy to come by, store and use.

Finally, we use breadcrumbs on recommendation of Ray Smith, the butcher who used to be at River Cottage. I remember him say something about rusk reacting badly with the water in the sausage from memory. Fermentation or giving off some CO2 perhaps? There was a method of soaking the rusk overnight first but I don't recall exactly, preferring the simple option of not doing it at all.

[aris]

I don't use rusk, but I do use breadcrumbs (10% of the weight of the meat) for filler, to improve texture and hold some of the fat. I tried Bigwheels hot links and thought they were a bit too dense and salty

Bread, oats, rusk - all the same thing. Britain is really the only country that routinely adds these to their sausages. I believe it comes from more austere times when meat was a commodity which needed to be stretched further.

Most continental sausages have none of these.

Typically I add 1% salt by weight for sausage. 2% is palatable, but on the salty side. That is the beauty of making your Own sausage - you can tweak the recipe.

Too dense a sausage can be due to too little fat, or all the fat rendering out. Try and use coarse ground fat, and make sure your fat and meat is very cold 2-3C when mincing. I cut my meat into chunks, and put it in the freezer for an hour to crisp up (but not freeze) as mincing brings the temperature up just by the friction of the process.