Tim's Andouille

[wyogoob]

There are 100's of recipes for Andouille, say ahn-dwee or an-doo-ee. They're all good.  There's fresh, there's smoked, there's semi-cured and then there's Andouille that's made to only be used as "seasoning" like in the recipe below.  This Creole-style Andouille is only for gumbos, stews, beans, and jambalayas; and not meant to be eaten alone. Traditionally, Andouille was made from fatty pork scraps, or salt pork, ground coarse and seasoned with huge amounts of garlic and black pepper, stuffed in hog intestines and then heavily smoked with sugar cane and/or pecan wood.

Tim's Andouille

5 lbs - pork butt (front shoulder)
½ lbs - pork fat
3 level tbsp - Morton's Tenderquick
2 tbsp - brown sugar
1 tbsp - cayenne
2 tbsp - garlic powder
¼ cup - black pepper, cracked
½ tbsp - thyme
½ tbsp - Bay leaf, ground
1 cup - ice water

Meat should be cut into 1" pieces or ran thru a grinder plate with very large holes.
Keep the meat frosty.
Mix all ingredients with meat.
Grind thru a 1/4" or 3/16" plate.
Stuff into 24" long, 18mm to 24mm, collagen or sheep casings.
Store in 40° fridge for 48 hrs.
Place in pre-heated smoker and cold smoke at 130° with pieces of sugar cane laid on a bed of pecan chips for 4 to 6 hours. Gradually raise temp to 165° and continue to apply a heavy smoke until the internal temp of sausage is 152°, about 2 hours.



Try to keep the fat content around 33%. And it's OK to use a little wild game, no more than 33% of the total weight. Personally I like my Andouille 100% pork.   
   
The finished sausage should have a very dark color. Cut the smoked sausage into 3" lengths. Place in ½ pound bags, enough for a nice pot of gumbo. Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or 12 months in the freezer.

It's impossible not to try a slice of this great-looking and great-smelling sausage fresh out of the smoker. Go ahead, but a warning; it will knock your socks off from the over-powering black pepper and garlic flavors. But cut up in bite-size pieces and cooked slowly in a gumbo its strong flavors are diminished and infused into the dish.

[NePaSmoKer]

So your putting in 9 tsp of MTQ to a 5 pound batch?

1 Tablespoon [US] = 3 teaspoons [US]

To much MTQ in this recipe.

Just sayin

[wyogoob]

So your putting in 9 tsp of MTQ to a 5 pound batch?

1 Tablespoon [US] = 3 teaspoons [US]

To much MTQ in this recipe.

Just sayin

It's 5 1/2 lbs

As noted in the post the sausage is used as a seasoning, "not to be eaten by itself."  I've used this recipe since about 1970.  I'm sure the rate of MTQ was taken out of the Morton Guide to Meat Curing a guide published in the late 60s.  Since those days Morton has cut their MTQ rate in half, as you well know. I have also reduced my rate of MTQ use since, but prefer to keep this recipe the same.

Thanks

[greg0527]

Looks great

[Mr Walleye]

Wyogoob

The Andouille looks excellent!  8)

The TQ is really just slightly higher then required by .75 tsp.

3 TBS = 9 tsp.

TQ used in sausage should be 1.5 tsp per 1 lb.

5.5 x 1.5 = 8.25 tsp.

Mike