Brawtwurst....Cabela's Kit

[coyote]

Hey Jaeger,Olds,or any smokin' Guru,
             I'm hoping you know about brawts..I have a Cabela's kit for the seasonings and casings , should I cold smoke or hot smoke and actually cook the sausages before freezing ? I'll be doing this during deer season with venison.
Each kit is for 30lbs.
                                                           Here for the learning,
                                                                                 Coyote

[MRH]

Coyote,

I made some venison brats a couple years ago, before I got my Bradley.  I didn't smoke them but I know when we cooked them you didn't want to overcook them any!!! They were much better when they weren't overcooked, We had mixed them with half pork and I think that the difference was not rendering out any of the fat when you cooked them.  Sorry no help about the smoking method just thought you might want a heads up  on the temps.

Mark

[Smudge]

If I was going to be doing 30 lbs I would do 15 lbs fresh, and 15 smoked. The fresh simply need to be stuffed and frozen, clearly marked on the packaging as "uncooked".

The smoked half...it is critically important to never exceed 160 degrees in the smoker or else the pork fat will begin to render out, leaving dry shriveled sausages. Since you need to reach 153 degrees internal, one can imagine this cooking process is going to take a long time. Be prepared for that, and an internal probe is invaluable for this project. (Every time you open the door to check the progress a large setback occurs.)

Finally, you didn't ask for this but I made brats last year. I was disappointed with the results because it tasted like I was eating smoked pig intestines, rubbery and all. I quickly got tired of that taste so after boiling them I peeled off the skins before placing them in the bun. Absolutely the best tasting brats I have ever had, with the perfect balance of smoke flavoring. You may want to keep that in mind.

[coyote]

Thanks Guys , You just can't beat teamwork. Bow season is three weeks out
and hopefuly I'll be able to post some good results. Thanks again for the heads up
on temps and skins.

[jaeger]

Coyote,
I haven't tried Cabelas seasonings, so I can't vouch for them, but I would give it a try. I'm assuming that the kit has cure with it. A bratwurst with cure is intended to be smoked. A bratwurst kit without  cure does not require smoking. If you are making smoked brats, I would fully cook/smoke them and then freeze. If you are making fresh brats, I would just stuff them out and then freeze them. You can cook/smoke/grill these your favorite way when you pull the packages out of the freezer.
One thing you will want to be careful with is to not have the meat to lean. The deer is so lean, a lot of people don't realize how much fat they will need to mix with the deer.
I would suggest that you try a couple test batches before you start grinding all of your deer.
Just fyi, when we cut our deer, I always save  some 5 #
packages of whole muscle choice pieces to use later for jerky. Ground jerky is great also!

Good luck hunting!

[coyote]

Jaeger,
     Thanks for the insight. Last season we made summer sausage. All was pretty
good but some were better than others. I used Cabela's and my buddy used
Hi-mountain. Cabela's called for 20% beef fat and Hi-mountain called for 20% pork.
The pork mix ended up on the dry side. the beef fat seemed to work out better...
Except a couple batches  ended up with a lot of grease between the sausage
and casing.....that's when I found out by reading the forum that I rendered the
fat by letting the temp. get away from me...........Live-share-and learn !I can't wait to try the brawts Thanks again