I have 20lbs of pork cubed and 4lbs of pork fat trimmings to add as needed because the wife thought the first batch was a little to lean with just butts. My plan is to use up the last of the Hi Mtn Bratwurst kit by doing 10lbs of fresh and 10lbs of smoked. Where I need help is with the smoked batch I can follow the instructions for mixing the cure and seasonings and do the grind and stuff with my new Weston stuffer, not sure which sized tube to use with the hog casings, I used the stick size last time and that was a mistake so I guess I'll go up a size.
I've read different things about putting in the fridge vs. straight to the smoker, ramping up temps slowly, then into a water bath vs. finishing in Bradley. I want to twist into links again before smoking.
Can one of you sausage guru's please give me a step by step, play by play on what I need to do after the stuffing is done to be successful?
Thanks, Robert
The HI Mtn instructions include some drying times and temp ramps that don't seem to jive with what I've seen here.
What times and temps should I use to smoke the brats?
What is the best way to do a water bath to finish?
As far as your stuffer horn or tube use the biggest one that the casings will fit over without a fight ;) Makes for a faster stuffing job.
Now here is a recipe and some guide lines for smoking brats. You don't have to follow the recipe but it will give you an idea for smoking them.
For smoked Brats I personally wouldn't do a hot water bath but its up to you.
If you hot water bath them I would take them out at around 130 IT Place in your hot water bath set at 165 degrees. You need to watch them close. Take them out at 150 IT.
7 lbs. pork butt (nearly frozen)
2 lbs. beef chuck (nearly frozen)
1 lb pork backfat (frozen solid)
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tblspn. very coarsely ground black pepper
1-3/4 cups soy protein concentrate
2 large eggs (cold)
1 cup heavy cream (cold)
1-1/2 tblspns. rubbed sage
½ tspn. ground nutmeg
½ tspn. dried thyme
½ tblspn. ginger
4 tblspns. kosher salt
3 tblspns. sugar
1 pint flat lager (not pilsner) beer
"Fresh"-Type Beer Brats
Cut the meat with fat into inch cubes then grind it through a 3/8" plate. Stir all the dry ingredients with the cream for even distribution in the meat. Whip the eggs and add them to the beer. Finally, blend all the ingredients together with the meat and mix the sausage until the actomyosin forms a "meat paste". Place the meat into the freezer twenty minutes while you clean up your equipment. Finish by stuffing the sausage into 36 m.m. hog casings. This recipe is for "fresh" sausage and must be refrigerated and eaten within three days, or frozen.
Cured-Cooked-Smoked Beer Brats
If you wish to cure and smoke the brats, simply add 2 level tspns. cure #1 to the liquid in the recipe for even distribution throughout the meat. Stuff the sausage into casings and hang them on smokesticks to dry half an hour. Preheat your smoker to 120˚F. (49˚C.) and then cook them slowly over a period of several hours, introducing smoke and raising the temperature 10 degrees every hour until the smoker temp reaches 165˚F. (74˚C.). When the internal meat temperature reaches 150˚F. (66˚C.), place the sausages in icewater until their temperature drops to room temperature. Refrigerate the brats and use them on the grill at your leisure
Thanks Devo,
I'm good with the times and temp and will skip the water bath as you suggest. I'm reading that I don't need to refrigerate overnight like the HI Mountain instructions call for, just the half hour or so to dry out the casings.
Is there a particular sausage link that you put your probe in (near the top, bottom or middle) or do you keep using an instant read on different links? I'm assuming I don't want a bunch of holes in the sausage
I hang mine instead of putting them on a rack so I instant read the bottom one and move them around as needed.
I usually pick one in about the middle when they are hanging. then as I'm rotating the sausages I will spot check a few to see how things are going, then adjust or rotate so everything is getting done about the same time. You can water bath but I would suggest waiting until you get a little more used to how that all works with the bigger sausages like summer sausage.
Thanks guy's, I'm going to try to cut some rods so I don't have to use the racks and may have to do all the sausage making tomorrow, as I bit off more than I can chew for this weekend and I still have 13 pounds of belly to trim and start the cure on as well as finishing the pulled pork I have FTC'd from overnight's smoke. I will definitely skip the water bath for now, I wasn't really looking forward to trying it now.
While your cutting the rods. Make you a U out of 1x4 that will sit on the upper rack holder. Then you can notch it so the rods can sit without rolling. This will raise the rods up and thus give you more room to hang your sausage.
Quote from: Tenpoint5 on October 06, 2013, 03:39:17 PM
While your cutting the rods. Make you a U out of 1x4 that will sit on the upper rack holder. Then you can notch it so the rods can sit without rolling. This will raise the rods up and thus give you more room to hang your sausage.
Thanks, that will be easier than notching the dowels to have a flat site, stronger too.
I like to use this method for parboiling my fresh sausage then freeze in foodsaver bags. Could be done in a large pot to accommodate your poundage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPwv8UzVZCE
Good method for parboiling the sausage. Thanks for sharing it.
Quote from: Keymaster on October 07, 2013, 06:55:42 AM
I like to use this method for parboiling my fresh sausage then freeze in foodsaver bags. Could be done in a large pot to accommodate your poundage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPwv8UzVZCE
That's a good method, thanks for sharing, have you ever done it with smoked sausage coming out of the smoker to finish them?
Quote from: Saber 4 on October 06, 2013, 05:12:59 PM
Quote from: Tenpoint5 on October 06, 2013, 03:39:17 PM
While your cutting the rods. Make you a U out of 1x4 that will sit on the upper rack holder. Then you can notch it so the rods can sit without rolling. This will raise the rods up and thus give you more room to hang your sausage.
Thanks, that will be easier than notching the dowels to have a flat site, stronger too.
I must have had my head in my 4th point of contact, I just came across the Bradley sausage hooks that I picked up on clearance for 3 bucks :-[
Quotemust have had my head in my 4th point of contact, I just came across the Bradley sausage hooks that I picked up on clearance for 3 bucks
Don't worry we all been there ;D ;D ;D
Quote from: Saber 4 on October 07, 2013, 07:45:23 AM
Quote from: Keymaster on October 07, 2013, 06:55:42 AM
I like to use this method for parboiling my fresh sausage then freeze in foodsaver bags. Could be done in a large pot to accommodate your poundage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPwv8UzVZCE
That's a good method, thanks for sharing, have you ever done it with smoked sausage coming out of the smoker to finish them?
Quote from: Saber 4 on October 06, 2013, 05:12:59 PM
Quote from: Tenpoint5 on October 06, 2013, 03:39:17 PM
While your cutting the rods. Make you a U out of 1x4 that will sit on the upper rack holder. Then you can notch it so the rods can sit without rolling. This will raise the rods up and thus give you more room to hang your sausage.
Thanks, that will be easier than notching the dowels to have a flat site, stronger too.
I must have had my head in my 4th point of contact, I just came across the Bradley sausage hooks that I picked up on clearance for 3 bucks :-[
I have never tried it on smoked sausage but I think it would work fine. I forgot to mention I get the water to a real rolling boil not just bubbles and I go 8 minutes after removing the pot from the heat.
For brats I first brown them for 4-5 minutes on the grill and then put them in a crock pot with apple juice (beer, if you prefer), sweet onion, red pepper and a green pepper for 6 hours. My wife took some of them to work for lunch the other day and now one of her co-workers says she wants to marry me.
Quote from: TedEbear on October 07, 2013, 08:59:57 AM
For brats I first brown them for 4-5 minutes on the grill and then put them in a crock pot with apple juice (beer, if you prefer), sweet onion, red pepper and a green pepper for 6 hours. My wife took some of them to work for lunch the other day and now one of her co-workers says she wants to marry me.
I get that from my wife's friends for cooking and fixing stuff for them. lol
Ok, now I've got all the meat seasoned and ground 12 pounds with cure for smoking and 12 pounds fresh in the fridge. Got the grinder and kitchen cleaned for phase two, going to eat a quick lunch and get the new stuffer ready to go and stuff the sausages. I may put the smoke bound sausage into the fridge overnight because it will probably be to hot to control the temps.
Do I need to bring the ground sausage to room temp to stuff or just stuff right our of the fridge?
I've now used up all of the Hi Mountain brat seasonings but because it's made to do up to 25lbs of fresh or cured brats I have one unopened bag of cure, it's yellow not pink and the instructions call for 2 tsp per lb of meat. Would you guys keep it and use it on other stuff or just chunk it in the trash to be safe?
Quote from: Saber 4 on October 06, 2013, 05:12:59 PM
Quote from: Tenpoint5 on October 06, 2013, 03:39:17 PM
While your cutting the rods. Make you a U out of 1x4 that will sit on the upper rack holder. Then you can notch it so the rods can sit without rolling. This will raise the rods up and thus give you more room to hang your sausage.
Thanks, that will be easier than notching the dowels to have a flat site, stronger too.
I prefer wooden dowls...easier on the hanging...if you use 1 by 4 round the corner off.....that size still seems to big. all u need is a 1 inch dowl...Just flat spot them on each end with the course side of a bench grinder.
works great.
for the brats...no you dont want to do a bath unless you want to fully cook them through. Time and temp...just smoke them for a couple of hours from raw to get a bit of smoke then into a ice bath...dont leave them in the danger zone too long.
Thanks for all the input everyone, I spent a long day getting everything done today that I could on the brats. I do love the new Weston 11lb stuffer it sure makes life easier. I got 12 lbs of links ready and in the fridge to smoke before sunup in the morning so I can control the temps better and 9 lbs of fresh links in the freezer so I can vacuum seal them in the morning and 3 lbs of fresh brats not stuffed in vacuum bags in the freezer for making patties.
Here's my first sausage stuffed in the Weston and all the brats for the smoker
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131007-00641_zpse96fd802.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131007-00641_zpse96fd802.jpg.html)
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131007-00642_zps1edf5480.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131007-00642_zps1edf5480.jpg.html)
And here it is all twisted into links ready to go into the fridge overnight per the instructions that came with the kit and it was to hot to smoke them today anyway
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131007-00643_zpsee016b9c.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131007-00643_zpsee016b9c.jpg.html)
The fresh links on a tray with parchment paper going into the freezer.
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131007-00644_zpsf053ff42.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131007-00644_zpsf053ff42.jpg.html)
And just so I can't be accused of seeing unicorns, here's a shot of the only remaining brat patty left after dinner
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131007-00645_zpsa961ef0a.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131007-00645_zpsa961ef0a.jpg.html)
Very nice looking sausage, Robert!
They are in the Bradley on racks because I didn't make my links short enough to get them all in the there hanging. Hopefully all goes well, it's 50 degrees outside and with just the element set at 120 the empty cabinet hit 155 in less than 10 minutes, dropped back to 107 when I opened the door to load the brats so we'll just have to monitor closely. Especially when I kick on the SG in an hour.
Racks are fine. Rotate top to bottom front to back every hour
Robert, the curing mix from Hi Mtn is yellow rather than pink. Don't ask me why. I would toss it. The 2 tsps. per lb of meat would give me some concern as Cure #1 is 1 tsp per 5 lbs of meat. That's just me.
Others will come along with better advice. Take their advice.
Hi Mountain cure Measurements are way different than pink cure #1
1lb. of ground meat you would use 2 1/2 teaspoons of their jerky cure (darker colored) or if using the cream colored cure it is 2 teaspoons. Never like their cures as I found them to saltly.
Including Chris that makes 3 votes against, which is good to hear because that's what my gut told me to do. I only asked because I didn't want to throw it away and have everyone tell me they keep it and use it.
Sausage is 4 hours in, has had 2 hours of hickory and looking for the 152 IT before the ice bath. Fingers crossed for no fat out.
Ok, their done and without the help from here and Chris/TenPoint5's text message suicide line I don't think I would have survived my first smoked sausage. After I read so much about "Fat Out's" I had my self so worried that every little drip of grease had me convinced I was headed to dry nasty sausage land. But I held firm and stuck to the plan and had what I would call a success.
Here they are at final IT of 151-154, ready for the ice bath
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131008-00650_zps2cfcb275.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131008-00650_zps2cfcb275.jpg.html)
And this is the first bunch out of the ice bath
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131008-00651_zpsc8e9db80.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131008-00651_zpsc8e9db80.jpg.html)
Of course I had to taste one and see if I had survived with no fat out
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131008-00652_zps158d2a4f.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131008-00652_zps158d2a4f.jpg.html)
And finally here they are on racks in the closet resting before vacuum sealing them
(http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/w599/Robert_Shulter/IMG-20131008-00653_zpsc5f9dbab.jpg) (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/Robert_Shulter/media/IMG-20131008-00653_zpsc5f9dbab.jpg.html)
They had 2 hours of hickory and unless it get's smokier as it rests I think I'm going to need more smoke next time, I can't seem to get enough for the wife. I do think I am going to work on setting up a water bath for next time and I may start budgeting for a PID Controller. Thanks again Chris and everyone who has chimed in to help me with my over analyzed sausage project
No problem. Like I said I dont mind helping you as long as you help the next guy. That is once you get a few sausage cooks under your belt. That way you can screw up one batch just like everyone has. I dont care what they say they have messed up atleast one batch.
Quote from: Tenpoint5 on October 08, 2013, 04:12:15 PM
No problem. Like I said I dont mind helping you as long as you help the next guy. That is once you get a few sausage cooks under your belt. That way you can screw up one batch just like everyone has. I dont care what they say they have messed up atleast one batch.
You didn't see the first fresh brats I made in the grinder/stuffer, after today I have to consider those a flop.
The ones you have on the racks look very good.
Sometimes my dog eats very good from my sausage making ;D
Those look great, Saber
Quote from: devo on October 08, 2013, 07:43:39 PM
The ones you have on the racks look very good.
Sometimes my dog eats very good from my sausage making ;D
My old dog gets to eat good whether the sausage is good or bad, or whether anything I cook is good or bad. I just can't say no to those 14 year old basset eyes staring at me from the kitchen floor. lol they sure have us trained