Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
I purchased a meat grinder, a Gourmia brand, and it works great. I bought it as the half cow I purchased was made of some very tough meat. I can turn most of it into ground meat and sausage.
With that in mind, I have been itching to make homemade sausages for a long time. So I found a recipe for Kielbasa online that looked good and made the sausage. I modified the recipe a bit by adding a tsp. of mace to the mix. I used the stuffing horn that came with the grinder and prepared some hog casings, fitted them onto the horn.
The directions given with the grinder said to remove the cutting blade and proceed to stuff the casings. I left the plate on. What I found was that the plate inhibited the ability of the grinder to push the meat into the casings. I took the plate off, and the sausage meat flowed perfectly. The only difficult part was getting the casings washed, as you had to open one end to let water flush the casings, and threading them onto the horn. That was tedious.
Here's where it all becomes the typical Chief Longwind experiment. Kielbasa is a smoked sausage of pork and beef, seasoned simply with pink salt, kosher salt, black pepper, and garlic. I don't have a smoker. I do have a Webber Kettle charcoal grill that I have smoked many a meal with, and quite successfully. I've smoked fish, chicken, turkey, jerky, and pork with very good results. But at present, I'm in a wheelchair for another couple weeks, and can't easily move around outside. So, the sausage is supposed to be smoked at 155 degrees F. for 3 hours, then poached to bring the internal temp up to 165. What i am doing is cooking them on a rasied grate in the oven, at 170 for 3 hours (the lowest temp my oven will go). Tjis should get them completely cooked through.
Part 2: Mu son caught a mess of smelt two nights ago, and cleaned them. Some will be fried up, and some will be frozen. I asked him if he wanted to smoke some of them. He does, and plans on doing that today. I will give him the brine recipe, and tach him how to set up the Wenner for cold smoking. After the fish is smoked, using apple wood, I will put the kielbasa on the Webber with minimal charcoal, just enough to create smoke, and let cold smoke for 2 hours. I'm thinking that should give me the same results as smoking for three hours, then poaching the sausage to cook through. plus, as they wont have to be poached in wayer, none of the smoke particulates will wash off, and so I should get a more intense smoke flavor.
So what do you pit-masters think? Will it works? I'm betting it will, and am looking forward to the results. I will let you know how they turn out. And if they come out great, I will post the recipe.
Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
With that in mind, I have been itching to make homemade sausages for a long time. So I found a recipe for Kielbasa online that looked good and made the sausage. I modified the recipe a bit by adding a tsp. of mace to the mix. I used the stuffing horn that came with the grinder and prepared some hog casings, fitted them onto the horn.
The directions given with the grinder said to remove the cutting blade and proceed to stuff the casings. I left the plate on. What I found was that the plate inhibited the ability of the grinder to push the meat into the casings. I took the plate off, and the sausage meat flowed perfectly. The only difficult part was getting the casings washed, as you had to open one end to let water flush the casings, and threading them onto the horn. That was tedious.
Here's where it all becomes the typical Chief Longwind experiment. Kielbasa is a smoked sausage of pork and beef, seasoned simply with pink salt, kosher salt, black pepper, and garlic. I don't have a smoker. I do have a Webber Kettle charcoal grill that I have smoked many a meal with, and quite successfully. I've smoked fish, chicken, turkey, jerky, and pork with very good results. But at present, I'm in a wheelchair for another couple weeks, and can't easily move around outside. So, the sausage is supposed to be smoked at 155 degrees F. for 3 hours, then poached to bring the internal temp up to 165. What i am doing is cooking them on a rasied grate in the oven, at 170 for 3 hours (the lowest temp my oven will go). Tjis should get them completely cooked through.
Part 2: Mu son caught a mess of smelt two nights ago, and cleaned them. Some will be fried up, and some will be frozen. I asked him if he wanted to smoke some of them. He does, and plans on doing that today. I will give him the brine recipe, and tach him how to set up the Wenner for cold smoking. After the fish is smoked, using apple wood, I will put the kielbasa on the Webber with minimal charcoal, just enough to create smoke, and let cold smoke for 2 hours. I'm thinking that should give me the same results as smoking for three hours, then poaching the sausage to cook through. plus, as they wont have to be poached in wayer, none of the smoke particulates will wash off, and so I should get a more intense smoke flavor.
So what do you pit-masters think? Will it works? I'm betting it will, and am looking forward to the results. I will let you know how they turn out. And if they come out great, I will post the recipe.
Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North