Turnin' out sausage

   Hello All!

  I know that we've got some pretty good sausage makers here, as well as some very good cooks with discerning palates.  While I normally cook, bake, cure & Smoke...my brother usually makes the sausage.  I have got no complaints at all because 1) I certainly don't need another thing to do and 2)He's really become quite good at it. 

   He has really nailed down his Italian sausage as well as a couple of others.  I normally stay out of the sausage making, as he's doing fine, only giving my opinion on taste...and things to try.  Some things that have brought about some nice subtle different and complexity are keeping some spices whole, while crushing a percentage with a mortar and pestle...this does give a nice variance to the flavors that you get in the sausage.  Another one, on the subject of spices, is to take a small percentage of the overall spices used and lightly toast them.  Again, this leads to just small variance in flavor complexity without adding to the number of ingredients.  I think my brother gets a kick out of the next one, he says that it is my answer to everything.  For that little bit of liquid that you need to add, use a shellfish, fish, or crawfish stock.  I put anchovy paste in so many things that are red it isn't funny.  Not much, just a bit.  Then, in everything else I'll commonly use a shellfish or fish stock...it often adds that element that brings all the flavors together in dishes, and it works beautifully in sausage.  I know that he has learned many things during his time making sausage, but he tells me and I think I only half listen or half understand...as I am not a sausage maker.

    Saying all that...we are both inexperienced in the totality of sausage making.  Take this latest venture for instance, making andouille.  We're trying to go for something on the lines of Jacobs, Wayne Jacobs, or in that style.  It's just a very simple sausage seasoned with garlic, salt, cayenne...then smoked.  While he has made the smaller ground andouille, heavier spiced and in small casing...this andouille is quite a different animal.

   This first batch we just cut it into cubes and stuffed it in beef middle collagen casings.  I know that my brother complained about the collagen casings.  He normally uses regular natural casing for his smaller sausages, but we are unsure about what size to get for the large andouille.  We're going to see how this first batch turns out, as we just cubed it and stuffed it (rather than grind).  For stuffing these large casings, we're going to have to get some larger funnels to do the job as well. 

   This first batch are air drying and I'll probably smoke them tomorrow.  All in all, they're looking fine so far...but this is just round one into making a larger sausage.  Smoking wood preference would be pecan wood, but I don't have any.  I'm going to go with white oak for the smoke. 

   If anyone has any advice on the sausage or the parts...I'd love to hear your opinions.  Oh, there's some venison sticks in the pic below as well.  Thanks for listening!

  



    

Not just cajun and creole dishes, Ron. Andouille goes well with a whole slew of dishes. You may remember, for instance, that I used it in the barley & sausage soup.

HistoricFoodie wrote: Not just cajun and creole dishes, Ron. Andouille goes well with a whole slew of dishes. You may remember, for instance, that I used it in the barley & sausage soup.   You can easily sub it in any recipe calling for Italian sausage as well.

    Absolutely Brook!   and I did notice that in your soup recipe...yum!


   Thanks for the kind words Tas and Margi! 

 All finished!

    First off, the venison sticks turned out really nice.  My brother mixed up half of them with a spice blend that he used in some HotLinks of his.  There was very minimal pork used in this mixture and it worked out quite well.  So half of them were just a salt and smoke mixture.  These were really good, they showcased the venison and smoke nicely.  I could actually see making these featuring White Oak, Hickory and a Cherry Blend.  The more I cook, the less ingredients I want to use...just find the proper methods.

    For the Andouille sausage we used about a 1" chunk rather than a grind.  We are planning on getting a 10mm grinding plate for the next batch of andouille.  Going with a large grind will fix a few problems we ran into with stuffing the sausage and the casings.  None of the problems were huge, and taste was very good beside...but the grind would fix a few things that need to be fixed. 

    The flavors were actually really good.  Maybe we could have gone with a little more cayenne, but it wasn't needed.  We had prepared this sausage for smoking within a four hour time period.  We had discussed before hand preparing it for a longer and lower method of smoking, but after tasting the product I wouldn't change anything with the methods.  It turned out a wonderful balance of pork flavor and Smoke and just a little bit of spice.  Flavor wise, this was pretty much right where I was hoping to be...in the style of Jacob's, Wayne Jacobs, Cochon type "Craft" Andouille.  By "craft" Andouille I mean something that is done as a traditional Southern Andouille Sausage rather than a Northern finer grind heavily spiced andouille that is often served on a sausage or hotdog bun.  Don't get me wrong, I love a heavily spiced finer ground andouille on a bun...but this is a little different animal.

   We've got a few things to fix for sure...but I think this was pretty successful.

    Now we just need to get some crawfish!  *coming soon* Crawfish and Andouille boil!

   Some more pictures were added to the original post...

   Take care all,
Dan

   

HistoricFoodie wrote:  on getting a 100mm grinding plate   Dan, do you have a source for plates? I've been trying to find a larger one, to no avail.

   Hi Brook!  As you can probably guess, I'm not looking to get a 100mm grinding plate...a 10mm will do just fine.

    Have a look at Weston Supply site.

So, guys, is there a way to determine the grinder # size I need?

Ron, I think you misunderstood my need.

Okay. Just did what I should have done in the first place and remember that google is my friend.

Ron, our posts must have crossed.