BUSY (but Good) Sausage Weekend

[Kevin A]

On a wet, dreary weekend around here, what better time to do some stuffing & grinding?
I had twenty pounds of meat at my disposal (15 pork, 5 beef), so I asked my sons what kind of sausage they wanted. After tallying the results, we landed on three types:  Polish kielbasa (no surprises there), bologna and käsewurst (cheese sausage).

I decided to make ring bologna (versus one large chub) as I have a bunch of the ring casings that I've been waiting to use. Plus, the rings will cook much faster and hopefully finish about the same time as the other smoked sausages.

I'm pretty much following the same procedures and recipes I used in these threads

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=26463.0
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=25880.0
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=27582.0

...with some exceptions. I made the kielbasa without the larger 'cubes'  I've done in the past & instead chose a uniform grind. Also, I'm smoking the käsewurst this time, whereas last time they went right into the poacher bath.

I ground all the meat the night before, added all the spices and let the batches rest overnight.
The next morning, I re-ground the bologna mix using a fine plate (3mm). Big mistake! It took stinkin' FOREVER! The meat set up into a sticky paste which moved glacially through the grinder. It took nearly 45 minutes to regrind 10 pounds....Next time I re-grind BEFORE adding all the ingredients & letting it sit overnight.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Since I was making kielbasa, I figured "What goes great with kielbasa?" ANSWER: Sauerkraut! So I cut up 8 heads of cabbage & put up two gallon containers of the stuff. Should be ready in about 3 weeks. Hopefully, we'll still some kielbasa on hand at that point!


BACK to the sausage: For the bologna, I used nonedible collagen casing for rings (43MM x 18 in.)—which hold 1.25 pounds; plus a few casings for summer chubs (2.20 in. x 16 in.) (x4) = total of 10 pounds. Both from Butcher & Packer.

Stuffing:
My son & I got the smaller links done first (kielbasa & cheese wurst) using 32mm hog casings. My boys prefer I make Kielbasa in shorter (bun-size) lengths, instead of the traditional kielbasa rope-length


Then we moved onto the bologna rings & chubs...


And now onto the smoke. Using Cherry dust in the A-maze-n.
Loaded up with not much room to spare (time to build that smokehouse!).
I'm using toothpicks as spreaders between the links.
Just in with the temp at 120°


About 90 minutes into the smoke:


After nearly 3 hours, I pulled the smaller links & plunged them into a 165° water bath. They hit the IT in about 15 minutes.


After a quick ice bath, time to bloom while the bolognas get a bath...


The rings tooks about 20 minutes to hit temp, so they were iced & hung to bloom. The chubs took about the same time.
My custom 'dining room chair' bologna display rack...


SAMPLE TIME:
Very happy with the results! Both sausages were moist, smokey and had nice texture. The soft emmenthaler cheese is great!


The bologna is AWESOME!! If you've never had homemade bologna. you have to give it a try!
I cut into the chubs. The texture is FIRM (not mushy!), uniform, and has that great allspice/coriander/garlic flavor that works so well with the cherry smoke!


It was fun this weekend, but I'm pooped.....
Thanks for readin!

Kevin

[Sam3]

Nice Kevin. I'm almost out of Bologna myself, I have to stop telling people I make this stuff!  ;D

[cobra6223]

WOW they all look just great... really interested in the Kasewurst !! great job.

[watchdog56]

Very nice. Thanks for the pics.

[mikecorn.1]

Nice job. Great pics.


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[Smoker John]

Lots of hard work & great results looks great.

[ghost9mm]

As always Kevin a really great job and presentation...very well done...

[cobra6223]

Kevin
I really like the sauerkraut, however this probably isn't the right place to ask about it but I would really like to know more about the setup and making it, I live in a very small apartment and that looks like some thing that would fit just fine in the house. Thanks in advance.
  Tim

[pikeman_95]

As usual things sure look great. I shill have the bologna recipe on my mind. I like the stuff but just have been to busy to get a chance to do it. I have been smoking lots of fish lately though.

[JZ]

I sure love your posts. Great pics, info and recipes too. Awesome job as usual and thanks.

Have almost finished my first batch of your Thai chicken recipe and going to make more. Now I want to try your Bologna other recipes too. Keep up the great work.

[Keymaster]

Very nice job Kevin !!

[Mr Walleye]

Top notch as always Kevin!  8)

Man... I just love your pictures too!  ;)

I see your using the tooth pick trick. It really does solve the problem of the lack of color where the sausages touch while hanging in the smoker.

Mike

[Kevin A]

Top notch as always Kevin!  8)

Man... I just love your pictures too!  ;)

I see your using the tooth pick trick. It really does solve the problem of the lack of color where the sausages touch while hanging in the smoker.

Mike

Thanks, Mike. The toothpicks were a necessity as I discovered the sausage capacity limits of my X-Wide smoker... :o
Looks like the planning of my summer smokehouse project may happen sooner than later!

Kevin

[Tenpoint5]

Looks Great Kevin as always

[rajzer]

Good job Kevin.  I was inspired! I will be making about 10 lbs smoked Kielbasa and 5 or 6 lbs fresh Italian for Easter. My meat is thawing and I will be curing the meat tomorrow and grinding and smoking on Friday.