Smoked Bratwurst instructions needed

[Saber 4]

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?

[redcrew71]

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.

[Saber 4]

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





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



The fresh links on a tray with parchment paper going into the freezer.



And just so I can't be accused of seeing unicorns, here's a shot of the only remaining brat patty left after dinner

[ragweed]

Very nice looking sausage, Robert!

[Saber 4]

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.

[Tenpoint5]

Racks are fine. Rotate top to bottom front to back every hour

[KyNola]

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.

[devo]

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.

[Saber 4]

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.

[Saber 4]

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


And this is the first bunch out of the ice bath


Of course I had to taste one and see if I had survived with no fat out



And finally here they are on racks in the closet resting before vacuum sealing them


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

[Tenpoint5]

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.

[Saber 4]

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.

[devo]

The ones you have on the racks look very good.
Sometimes my dog eats very good from my sausage making  ;D

[pz]

Those look great, Saber

[Saber 4]

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