Southwestern Sausage

Brent Dowell

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Reno NV
No, Not chorizo, but it does have some cumin, garlic, red pepper flakes, ancho chille powder.

Lean pork sirloin was on sale, so I used that instead of a butt, and added in the required amount of pork back fat.

Also put in a bit of 'binder' and made sure to mix it up good.

Fried up some of the leftovers that didn't make it into the casings, and I'm thinking a big pot of pintos, with some of these sliced and fried in rounds will make a nice hearty winter meal...

I love my LEM 5 pound stuffer...

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I'm obviously a masochist as I torment myself looking at Brent's servings. I gotta stop doing that....... but I can't.

Brent you sure know how to prepare food & how to eat!
 
Looks great Brent, does the Lem 5 lb stuffer come with a 1/2" tip. That's the size I need to make the 17 mm. caseings for snack sticks. (slim jims)

Nope, I had to order that one special.

Good call on making up some snack sticks though!

Heck that's one of the reasons I got the smoker was to use it for doing up some of those as well...
 
I wonder if this is the one?
http://www.lemproducts.com/product/4552/sausage-stuffers
I sure would like to try this. Brent...is this tough to do? Do you also need a grinder? Where do you get the casings? I'm guessing you could also smoke these.

Yep that's the one. I went for the LEM because it had metal gears.

This particular fresh sausage too about 1.5 hours to make. I've got a kitchen aid mixer with a grinder attachment on it that I use for grinding the meat.

I ordered the cases from Amazon I think. Pretty cheap and readily available and store for a pretty darn long time.

That was about 4# of sausage, 3.5 of pork and .5 of backfat.

I tried using the kitchenaid to stuff the sausage, but it was a 4 handed job. No control.

With the LEM, It's super easy, just crank and adjust the speed to control how fast the sausage come out.

Used some of it to make a breakfast strata casserole this morning. Pretty darn good tasting.


Recipe

5' medium hog casings
3.5 pounds lean pork
.5 pounds pork fat
1 tbs + 2 tsp Kosher sault
1 tbs fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ancho chile powder
4 clove of garlic finely chipped.

1 Prepare the casings
2 Cut meat into 1" cubes, freeze for about 30 minutes
3 Grind meat and fat with fine disc
4 combine meat and seasonings
5 freeze for 30 minutes
6 grind again (fine disk)
7 stuff and twist, refrigerate overnight to let flavors meld. Use within 2-3 days or freeze

Previous sausages I made tended to be a little 'mealy' or loose, and I did not like the texture. So I added a couple of tbsp of 'binder' and 1/2 cup of water right before I stuffed them. It's basically just a soy product that helps the sausage bind together and hold moisture. I also made sure to really mix it up before stuffing until the meat mixture gets nice and sticky.

Really couldn't be much easier, except for the cleanup.
 
Thanks Brent. I really like the fact that you can opt out or reduce the amount of nitrates you use to make your own sausage. When you use pork butt do you do anything special to it other than cube it and grind it? It sounds like it has about the right amount of fat without having to add any more.
 
Thanks Brent. I really like the fact that you can opt out or reduce the amount of nitrates you use to make your own sausage. When you use pork butt do you do anything special to it other than cube it and grind it? It sounds like it has about the right amount of fat without having to add any more.

Most of the sausage making books talk about not even bothering to try and make lowfat sausage. Even using pork butt, they recommend adding additional pork fat. It's pretty easy to find. Heck, they usually have some out for sale at the save mart I go to, and if not, if I ask the butcher, they will generally give you some for very little cost.

Most fresh sausages don't have/need 'curing' since they are meant to be consumed quickly or frozen. Next up on my list will be some kielbasa.

What I like about making sausage is pretty much the same that I like for making my own hamburger. I can see the piece of meat that goes into. Better meat = better flavor!

Once I get good at sausage making, I'm looking forward to doing some experimentation with things like chicken/turkey sausage and the like.
 
Jim I believe you asked about using bacon as fat in the sausage and I checked over on the other forum and the pros over their said they do it all the time and the results are great. They said if you are using nitrates/ites (which i know you don't but I am putting it here in case someone reading this does) use only the amount recommended for the base meat weight without the weight of the bacon.
 
Did someone say Snackin Sticks?

Nothing fancy, just the premade seasoning pack from Cabelas for Jalapeno snacking sticks. It includes the casing.

I'll let them sit in the fridge overnight, then put them in the smoker tomorrow.

Had some chuck roast in the freezer that was starting to get on a bit and just a tad freezer burned. Putting it to better use.

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ted you can grind and stuff from the same machine if its grinder.. just get the stuffing attachment..

Maybe get a foot controller for it though. I found it kind of hard to try and fill the grinder and handle the sausage as it filled the casing at the same time. Even with two people it was a little tough to manage, as you have to be working pretty close in tandem, and if you need to stop in the middle, well, forget about it.

Using the canister type with a crank makes it an easy 1 person job. Much easier to control the speed and the amount of sausage going into the casing.
 
I think I got a grinder attachment for the kitchen aid, but don't know where it is. Brent makes a good point about the crank making it an easy one man job.....which it usually is:) I will ask Santa for a LEM.
 
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