After much ranting, wailing and gnashing of teeth I finally got the courage up to stuff sausages today. The mix is a smoked sausage mix from Oak Grove Smokehouse in Prairieville LA. These guys have been around for a while! I used 32mm smoked collagen casings. Was pretty happy with the first attempt. Only had one bonafide casing blowout. Did have the string used to tie the ends together to slip off twice under the pressure of the meat. I can live with that for the first attempt. Jan was a HUGE help on this. In my book, sausage stuffing is a two person job when you have zero experience at it. They are drying in the frig and will smoke tomorrow.
Pics are below. I would welcome any suggetions or criticism from what you see in the pics.
(http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr340/lnjrudolph/DSCN0521.jpg)
(http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr340/lnjrudolph/DSCN0522.jpg)
(http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr340/lnjrudolph/DSCN0523.jpg)
A huge thanks to NePaS, Tenpoint5 and STC for their advice.
Looks like you did a fine job! It is too late to tell you .....DON'T start making sausage. Once you start you can't stop. I agree that the first time is a 2 person job but once you get the hang of it you can do it all by your lonesome and crank the sausage out pretty fast. Kinda like milkin a cow. Once you get the hang of it you can one hand feed the casings and crank with the other hand.
Fantastic job!
Them look very good.
Like Jim said run away. But i think your stuck in sausagville now and you cant go back :o
I can hear Sonny now laughing.
A quick question. I am beginning to suspect that I may not have time to smoke these tomorrow due to a scheduled gig I was not aware of when I started today. Will it hurt anything if these stay in the frig tomorrow and smoke on Thursday?
Those look great KN You are on the way. You should have never started.
I can hear Sonny now laughing.
[/quote]
Speaking of Sonny has anyone seen him for a while??
You can wait a day or two to smoke em. I have actually stuffed one weekend and did not get to smoke till the next weekend, no problems. :)
Thanks Pens!
You will be OK! Only thing with collegen casings is that the casing my get a bit loose. I know when I put snack stix in the fridge overnight uncovered they lose moisture and the casings are lose after the smoke. Might want to cover them to keep some moisture in them.
You really did good! Waiting on $$$ shot!
Niiiiiiice.
Wish I could have been there to see this. ;D
It gets faster and easier with time. ;)
I would cover them sausages so the fridge dont suck out any moisture wile there waitin for the big day.
Well done my friend, ya did good, will be watchin for the finished money shot...
Looks good to me, I am sure its going to be awesome with all the experts helping your out. Cant wait to see the finished pics.
Looks good Kynola, I think you'll want to let them get to room temp or close before smoking as usual with most things we smoke. Looks like you got your knots good and tight ;) Can't wait to see some of that on a cracker with cheese ;D
Looks like it was you 100th time, not your first!
Great work, will be looking forward to the finish pics.
Quote from: pikeman_95 on December 06, 2011, 01:15:24 PM
Speaking of Sonny has anyone seen him for a while??
He's alive :o
Got a text today... Came home kinda sick from deer camp. Probably needs to recharge his CR TANK. ;)
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Dang, Larry!!! you really are RETIRED!!!!
Looks awesome to my (NOT RICK) eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Quote from: pikeman_95 on December 06, 2011, 01:15:24 PM
Speaking of Sonny has anyone seen him for a while??
I talked to Sonny today....he has been at deer camp, again!
Larry, sausage looks great. You and Jan did a great job!
I would try to smoke them within 24-48 hours after stuffing.
Question....what piece of equipment did you use to stuff them?
Larry & Jan
Ya did good. There is a secret yet but i wont say it here ;D
Muuaaahaahaa
Quote from: SouthernSmoked on December 06, 2011, 07:59:25 PM
Quote from: pikeman_95 on December 06, 2011, 01:15:24 PM
I would try to smoke them within 24-48 hours after stuffing.
Question....what piece of equipment did you use to stuff them?
Thanks Mark. Equipment? They make equipment to stuff those casings? Wow, that would have made it a lot easier. Jan and I stuffed those by hand. ;D Actually we used a LEM 5 lb stuffer.
Thanks for everyone's advice. The sausages have been covered with plastic wrap. The very first link we stuffed is a little limp as I was concerned about over stuffing. Once I figured out that the casing was a little stronger than I anticipated I realized we could stuff them tighter. The rest are nice and tight.
Again, thanks everyone for your advice and encouragement. I appreciate it.
Quote from: KyNola on December 06, 2011, 08:16:23 PM
Once I figured out that the casing was a little stronger than I anticipated I realized we could stuff them tighter.
Yeah, sometimes that
last 6 inches...
WHOOPS.
Wrong forum.
My bad.
Quote from: NePaSmoKer on December 06, 2011, 08:15:27 PM
Larry & Jan
Ya did good. There is a secret yet but i wont say it here ;D
Muuaaahaahaa
PM it to me then. I need all the help I can get such as.....when I bring them out of the smoker do I go into an ice bath to cool them down and then hang them to air dry? Help a Brother out here NePaS. :)
Hal, I knew I could depend on you to pick up on that. ;)
Those look great. But it is addictive. Some say easier to stuff when just done I do it both ways and see no difference at all. i do like to let meat sit in fridge one - 2 days before smoking to let spices mingle. A week won't hurt either just keep them in fridge.
Those look great!
They go in the smoker tomorrow. Hickory smoke will be calling them. After doing a bit of measuring I just learned a lesson. A 16 inch sausage is a bit long for the BDS. :o Will be removing the drip tray in the BDS so that some of them will hang OK.
(Note to self: 12 inch sausages fit much better if hanging in the BDS :P).
Today is the day! Went in the smoker about 30 minutes ago to dry for an hour and then will pour the hickory to them. First problem of the day is the links are long. Had to improvise a little but think it will be fine.
Oh yeah, it's also 32 degrees outside. Fortunately there is very little wind so we are all good. So far so good but it's early yet. Plenty of time for me to screw this up! ;D
There's gonna be snow falling on the smoker tonight!
Damn this is unnerving. I have no idea what I am doing but I'm sure it can't be right.
Quote from: KyNola on December 08, 2011, 10:20:24 AM
Damn this is unnerving. I have no idea what I am doing but I'm sure it can't be right.
its only been 4 hours, id say you got about 4 to go ^-^
Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk
You will be just fine. Them sausages are going to have a stall which is normal. Going to take at least 6 hrs and may take up to 12 hrs to finish in the smoker. Just make sure the cabinet temp don't get over 175.
Thanks guys but this was an epic failure. A huge huge epic failure. The "sausages" are now sleeping with the rest of the garbage in the garbage can.
STC can post the PM I sent to him about what I think happened. Frankly, I don't feel like it and yes I am STILL pissed!!! >:(
Gulp! Well for what it is worth.....I have chunked plenty of failures in the trash. Don't let it keep you down. I am sure that we can help you figure out what went wrong if we knew what happened.
Sorry to hear that KyNola!
If it helps, I've made me share of unrecoverable mistakes.
Lo Siento
SamuelG
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That sucks!
My last batch of sticks got split between two of my friends dogs! :-[
Just drive on and try again.
sNc
Larry
I Quote Farmer Fran............"Deeskeeoto!
http://www.hark.com/clips/xwsgxhxftt-we-live-to-play-another-day
Sorry your maiden voyage sucked Kynola but it sure looked good before you stopped takin pictures :) Stand right back up and go at it again Mister ;)
That really is to bad! It's frustrating I know. Practice makes perfect ya know! ;D
Daniel Powter had a great song that pretty much summed it up for me. The title is "Bad Day". I was going to post the Youtube link to it but it kept posting ads in front of it.
So to cap it all off, even Youtube wants to screw with me today. :)
Man that really sucks Larry.
Did ya take notes from the start?
That'll help keep this kinda crap (what ever it was) from happining again.
I sure hope you didnt toss them cause the bottom of them fried before the top was fully cooked.
Hey man everybody has made his share of crap. If you can divulge the problems you had some of the guys could help you out. I have worked through some rather funny problems. Well they seem funny now but at the time they hurt.
Don't stop trying.
As I learned with Ham and Bacon! "Nothing to fear but fear its self" It's not rocket science. Once you get it you wont have problems. And I can't think of a better site to learn. Be more explanatory and I;m sure some one will know how to problem and can help to fix it.
I feel really bad for KyNola but some of these posts sound like we are talking him off the ledge.
It's freaking sausage, for God's Sake. Nothing Life threatening.
Don't take this the wrong way but my attitude on things like this used to drive me nuts...after seeing three of my close friends lose their fights to cancer, I have a whole new outlook on life.
Throw the sausage out, document what you did and what caused it to go wrong and make adjustments. There are some great people on this site with great knowledge. Someone will be able to guide you in the right direction.
I make sausage a lot, only smoked recently.
Thanks everyone, especially Rckcrwlr. He put this all in perspective.
Here is a brief autopsy of what happened. First, there was operator error. The sausages were stuffed too long. I stupidly failed to measure the hanging distance in the Bradley. When I went to hang them it was obvious they were not going to fit without removing the drip tray, which I did. Even with the drip tray removed, they were very long. Second, additional operator error. I attempted these without the benefit of a PID even though I own a brand new one. Sooo, the temp swings came into play. Next, the IT readings were all over the place. I used 3 different digital probes, an ET 732, a thermopen and another instant read by Thermoworks. None of them ever read the same. I literally tested all 3 of them with the boiling water test during this fiasco as I thought they were giving false temps. They all tested spot on. Lastly, the pork meat mix itself. I had the pork ground at my local butcher's. Told him what I was doing and he told me he would take care of it for me. I'll bet you the fat content was somewhere around 35-40%. Everytime I would check the temp with a probe, liquid fat would pour out the hole. The casings were literally dripping with fat. Fat was running everywhere. I brought the sausages in based on faulty temp readings(from the hot liquid fat inside the sausage I am sure). I went to ice bath them and noticed how limp they were. I broke one open and immediately knew they were not done. They were all covered in fat and none were done. That's when I threw them all in the trash and went about cleaning up the mess. I had left the door of the Bradley open in order to cool it down. When I went out to button it all up I noticed the tray that the water pan sits on was fat covered. I scraped a 1/8 inch layer of congealed fat off of the tray. There was fat underneath the water bowl!
Conclusion: 1. Operator stupidity. 2. Smoke/cook temp not controlled tightly enough. 3. Improper mix of lean and fat in the mix.
There you have it my friends.
Been there done it all!
I now Know that I can make a 37 inch link and hang it over my Bell bar. The bar is elevated using 1x2 pieces of wood. You will never forget this lesson.
I tried to do sausage without a PID and it don't work so pretty good. Another lesson that you will never forget.
As for the mix....Well I only will use Pork Butt that I grind myself. When you get fat dripping you have your cabinet temp way too high. Smoking sausage the cabinet temp should never get above 175. Even if you had the 35% fat you should not have fatted out like you did if the cabinet temp were in the 170 area.
Like my Daddy always told me. I can buy you books and send you to school and you won't learn a Darn thing. The things that cost you money you will always learn from. Man oh Man ain't that the truth. When my mistakes cost me money I tend to never repeat them.
That would have had me wanting to pull my hair out,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and I have a bunch. ;D
But You could have finished them in the oven or by poaching.
I made sausage for a couple years without a PID and after the smoke finish by poaching.
I know I know I wasnt there but.........they have this thing called a phone. ;D
Allot of sausage is made with 30 to 40% fat,,,,,me I like 20%
Ha Ha Ha LOL! You did all that? Well me too! I did some kielbasa that turned out so dry it crumbled and taste? Had none. Sorry if my last post sounded like any thing bad. Its like they said no biggie. But it Pisses me off also. I done great in the smoker WITH A PID but when I decided to try a water bath I didn't have it where I wanted so I had to keep playing with it. Got low then way to high and so on. You would have rolled on the floor laughing so hard. When I seen they were fatting out and water was soaking in and swelling them I wasn't sure what to do. Well by then it was to late. But I didn't know it! So I filled the sink with cold water and proceeded to try and put these swollen casings have way across the kitchen to the sink. Every time I picked one up it would burst and send water squirting clear across the kitchen. Well here I am with the last one one in my hand grease on walls,ceilings and floors. Then I slip both legs and Kielbasa goes in the air just as the wife comes home. She was laughing so hard at me with legs in the air and hot grease squirting everywhere she didn't even get mad. Well I don't know if it was embarrassing,hurt or just plain mad but it took 4 hours to clean that kitchen of grease. And when done I even started thinking of not trying any more. But two days later I thought it out and and made some great stuff! So just keep plugging. The battle just makes the product that much better when you succeed. Oh I never told this before but thought you may have needed it. So lets keep this between us HUH?
Viper...That has me rolling on the floor. Yes Sir I know first hand about shooting grease. 1st time I poached sausage I saw liquid inside the casings. (did not stuff them tight and had fat out too) I stuck my thermo pin in and it was like I drilled a gusher. I shot hot liquid grease from one end of the kitchen to the other. I was not so lucky in the wife department. She did not think that was funny at all. Go figure.
Kynola sorry about the bad luck, but as everyone else can a test to, we all had it(bad Luck) My first attempt was summer sausage, they were to long and the bottom fatted out before the top cooked, i poached to try and correct well that didn't work. So instead of worrying about pooping the bed, I invited some buddies over to watch a good ole hockey game, threw the meat on the table and said basically nuthin. :o Well the meat heads at it all, might have been beer induced thou. ??? The meat was grainy like course salt, tasted basically really not that good, texture was brutal but they ate it. One even stated "wow you made this crap" he ate it anyways, I had a taste , decided against anymore.
I just retried again and the sausage got better, now I have people asking if I am making any type of sausage. Tomorrow will be hotdogs by 0U812.
I guess the morale of the story, don't throw it out, feed it to your friends with some beer, they may grumble a little but they'll eat it cause there your friends, and they won't mind being honest guinea pigs. ;)
I have no clue about sausage making, but I'm sure you will get it nailed soon. Cant wait to see the next attempt!
Micman - Laughing my a$$ off.....
Well this just goes to show, once and for all, that any effort, of any type, whatsoever, should always be suppressed.
So....
1) Stay on the couch and soak in every episode of "FILL-IN-THE-BLANK-STUPID-TV-SHOW", and don't TRY to do anything.
2) If you even think about doing anything, try to think about NOT doing anything.
3) Should an IDEA come your way, just drop and roll, duck and cover.
[meanwhile, back at Reality Ranch...]
PROUD TO KNOW YA BROTHER!
Awrighten.
Quote from: hal4uk on December 09, 2011, 05:27:19 PM
[meanwhile, back at Reality Ranch...]
PROUD TO KNOW YA BROTHER!
Awrighten.
That's a Kentucky brother right there!
Thanks Hal.
Sorry I blew up the opportunity for another LPGA tourney in your backyard. Ask them folks if I promise to never come back again if they will continue the tourney. Otherwise, I coming with an air horn AND a vuvzuela. Heck, we only got "shushed" once, fed a "shushing" judge, I brought 200 lbs of meat to feed the masses AND I wore one of those collared golf shirts to the Club and didn't even pee off the Club's deck, as much as I wanted to. ;)
OK now that you have the practice run out of the way. You now know how things should work. When we doing the for real batch?
My friend, the sun is still going to come up tomorrow, thanks for your efforts and I thank you for posting your problems so I (and I know others) can learn.
We wait with anticipation for you next project, we all know it will turn out superb!!