Making Sausage First time

[ghosttown]

Just picked up a 15lbs pork shoulder and planning on making sausages tonight. I have some questions as this will be my first time.

1) Do you grin some skin at all for flavor?
2) Once all grinned, what spices would work best?
3) Do I had any liquid to the meat so it does not dry out?
4) How many sausages could you make with a 15lbs shoulder?

Thanks

[Orion]

You need to narrow down your goal for us. Fresh Sausage? Cured and smoked? Type?

My suggestion would be to decide exactly what type of sausage you want to make and go from there.

You might also want to set a little more time aside for this undertaking, especially your first time. It can take longer than you think and it sucks to be finishing at 2 in the morning. I always do mine on the weekend and get an early start in the day. The time required is entirely dependant on the type you are making.

[Orion]

To make good sausage you have to have a good recipe and work forward from there. You pick the recipe and we will help you.
I would not grind any of the skin. Some people take the skin and roast it to make it crunchy. Personally, I don't use the skin for anything.

[ghosttown]

I wont be smoking the sausage today, the goal is to stuff them and then freeze and then when ready I will smoke them on the smoker over the weekend. That is the thing I don't know what I really want, maybe Italian Sausage?

[Orion]

Go with Mr. Walleyes Keilbasa recipe if you want to make cured and smoked. That is the recipe I used for my first time and it turned out well.

On the other hand, fresh hot Italian sausage is easier to make and is really good. I will look for the link to the recipe I used for Fresh Hot Italian. It turned out amazing.

I always bump up the chili flakes in the recipes as I like it hot and spicy.

[Orion]

This guy knows what he's doing and his recipe works very well. No curing or smoking on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ9qTxE7qK8&index=76&list=UUhYkChDd_S3gw9UwOZWOtrA

[ghosttown]

just had a look awesome video thank you

[ghosttown]

Thanks for all the help they turned out amazing



I want to smoke about 15 of them this Sunday but I don't have alot of time, I read its better to smoke them at lower temp like 190 for 4-5hrs. Is it possible to smoke them at 240 until internal temp is 165?

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[tskeeter]

Ghost, smoking at a high temperature will melt the fat out of the sausage and giving the sausage a dry, grainy texture.

My practice is to smoke my sausage at about 140F, then put it in a 170F hot water bath to finish the cooking.  Because liquids transfer heat faster then air, the hot water bath reduces the cooking time and because you aren't using as high a temp as you might with a smoker, you reduce the risk of melting the fat out of the sausage.  My target IT is 152F or so.

After the hot water bath, I use an ice water bath to cool the sausage down to less tha 100F.  Let the sausage dry at room temp for about an hour, and then freeze.  Or, if you are going to use in the next two or three days, refrigerate the sausage.

[ghosttown]

Okay thank you, when I made them I vacuum sealed them and put them in the freezer, can I simply pull them out defrost them in the fridge for few days and then do the smoking process you mentioned above and freeze them back?

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[GusRobin]

Did you use any Cure in your recipe?

[Orion]

I was about to ask the same thing GR.

[ghosttown]

Nope

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[Orion]

You need to know that when smoking sausage it is imperative to use cure in your recipe. I did detail this in my previous post. I suspect you have made the "Fresh Italian Sausage" I posted in the video above? This sausage is not safe for smoking. During smoking  the sausage spends hours in the danger zone for temperatures and you can have SERIOUS problems if it does not have cure in it.

Your sausage looks really good. Well done! If you want a smoky flavour for this type of sausage just use a little liquid smoke on it while you cook it.

mediatly

[Orion]

Fresh sausage (sausage without cure) can be cooked and eaten immediately or refrigerated for a day or two and then cooked or lastly frozen immediately and then thawed later to be cooked and eaten. It is not safe to smoke it because without cure the casings and the warm environment are the perfect conditions for bacteria to grow. Could be the last sausage you ever eat if you try to smoke it without cure.