Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Texas White-tail Sausage

riv3rbanks

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Joined
Oct 30, 2017
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163
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Deep in the Heart of Texas
Got to put my new processing equipment to work this winter. I found a few sausage and meat stick recipes that I wanted to try out with some venison I got during bow season. I mixed it with pork butt and some beef tallow trimmings for proper fat ratios. I choose between 75-80% lean and 20-25% fat. In total, I was making 30 lbs of sausage and sticks. Jalapeno cheddar sausage, Texas hot gut sausage, and Kabonoshy meat sticks. This ended up being more than I should've taken on for the first time, but I had some time on my hands with the holidays and got it done.

The grinding process was super easy with my new MEAT! 1hp grinder. I only sent the meat through the coarse plate once and the grinder did it super fast and easily. I kept the meat and grinder parts very cold during the whole process. This was definitely a needed upgrade as I was running a cheaper smaller grinder for the past few years and this process always took forever. Since I was making 3 different recipes and seasoning the meat prior to grinding, I did need to do some cleanup in between grinds. In the future, I will stick with one recipe or do all the grinding and season after the grind.

Next came the mixing and stuffing process. I mix by hand. I used to do this barehanded, but have upgraded to insulated gloves. Gloves allow me to mix long enough to get the proper protein extraction. After mixing a made a small patty to ensure the meat had the flavor I was looking for. I have a 5lb manual crank stuffer and I secure it using some adjustable clamps. 5lb is big enough for me in most cases, but when making this much sausage, I wish I had a 15lb stuffer. Having a manual crank stuffer is much easier as a 1-person method rather than attempting to do this with your grinder. I felt I had much more control over the flow of the meat into the casings.

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As for the casings, I still have some learning to do. I used hog casings from PS Seasonings and Oversea casing. I followed the instructions on soaking but kept finding ways to bust my sausage links. I would say I got 1 out of 5 casings to go the whole length. I either need to buy better casings or lower my expectations. For the meat sticks, I went with 19mm collagen casings from LEM. I didn't have many issues with these except getting them on my stuffing tube. I might try a smaller diameter tube the next time.

The whole grind and stuff process with the multiple cleanups in between and the chilling of meat took up pretty much a whole day. Once all the links and sticks were stuffed, into the beer fridge they went to dry and let the meat really absorb the seasonings. If you have a way to hang them in the fridge that would be ideal, but I had limited space and just used cookie sheets lined with paper towels.

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The following day I fired up the smokers to cold smoke everything. I was able to do a cold smoke since I included pink salt. Since it was a cool day, I let the sausage hang for a few hours outside. I cold-smoked them at 150-160. Since I had so much I used my stick burner and my camp chef pellet grill. For this type of low temp smoking, I much prefer the stick burner. The pellet grill fire kept burning out and I would have to shut it down and start it up again. I also like more smoke and the stick burner is also best for this. Smoked them until an internal temp of about 150. Took roughly 4 hours.

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After the smoke process was finished, into an ice bath everything went to stop the cooking process and firm up the casings. This also provided an opportunity to clean the grill marks from the sausage with a rag. Once chilled I put everything back into the fridge to rest overnight. The next day I vacuum-sealed everything for later use. We had some on Christmas day. Everything turned out tasting great. My favorite is the jap cheddar links (Recipe below).

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Knowing how the sausage is made is definitely important to me. I feel much better knowing that high-quality meat and ingredients are going into my food.
 
Nice work, sometimes it is a lot of work. I used Chud's Jalapeno cheddar recipe this year also and loved it. I'm intrigued by the name and have to look up Texas Hot Gut. That's a new one for me. Enjoy the rewards of your labor. Cheers
 
Looks great! I always get a tish worried when i do my meat mixed with pork and i cook mine to 160 even though they say 145 is cooked all the way. We are doing our on Feb 4th ill post some pics i think we have almost 500lbs to do.
 
Congratulations ! Yeppers doing your own processing is nice. We do moose in these parts. We use grinder to stuff lamb intestines. Been buying the wet ones instead of dry. Get from the grocery store in town. Pork fat. With bear pork shoulders.
Same process as you except I think this is a hot smoke. Cold smoke stays below 140. For salmon anyhows.
To twist sausages. Squeeze the length with fingers left a couple times, right a couple times on next one.. Lay out on butcher paper to dry skin.
Wrapping. Hard to vacuum wrap a moose. We found using produce bags to put meat in. Buy at grocery store. Then butcher paper double wrap. No bleeding stays nice n clean. Date n label.
It's a family affair around here. For us doing up a moose can be an all day process, feels great! 2 moose it can get to be a chore, cold beers n whiskey help.
Around here if you bring your meat in to get processed it gets mixed with everyone else's. Not my bag as most extensive care is taken in the field. I know what I have. Blessed to have the opportunity, n be taught by a butcher. And pass along the skill to our family. Our kids have been doing this their entire life's. And enough room to do it. Although my beautiful wife still brings up the moose hanging in our bedroom. Hey her daddy did the same.
I also enjoy knowing that our family is eating hormone n steroid free meat. Hunting is pretty cool too.
Sounds n looks like you have this handled. Will be watching for more
 
Looks great! I always get a tish worried when i do my meat mixed with pork and i cook mine to 160 even though they say 145 is cooked all the way. We are doing our on Feb 4th ill post some pics i think we have almost 500lbs to do.
I had a similar thought process, but knowing that it is domestic pork vs wild I feel a little safer. Good luck with your process. I can't imagine how long 500 lbs would take. Looking forward to the pics.
 
Congratulations ! Yeppers doing your own processing is nice. We do moose in these parts. We use grinder to stuff lamb intestines. Been buying the wet ones instead of dry. Get from the grocery store in town. Pork fat. With bear pork shoulders.
Same process as you except I think this is a hot smoke. Cold smoke stays below 140. For salmon anyhows.
To twist sausages. Squeeze the length with fingers left a couple times, right a couple times on next one.. Lay out on butcher paper to dry skin.
Wrapping. Hard to vacuum wrap a moose. We found using produce bags to put meat in. Buy at grocery store. Then butcher paper double wrap. No bleeding stays nice n clean. Date n label.
It's a family affair around here. For us doing up a moose can be an all day process, feels great! 2 moose it can get to be a chore, cold beers n whiskey help.
Around here if you bring your meat in to get processed it gets mixed with everyone else's. Not my bag as most extensive care is taken in the field. I know what I have. Blessed to have the opportunity, n be taught by a butcher. And pass along the skill to our family. Our kids have been doing this their entire life's. And enough room to do it. Although my beautiful wife still brings up the moose hanging in our bedroom. Hey her daddy did the same.
I also enjoy knowing that our family is eating hormone n steroid free meat. Hunting is pretty cool too.
Sounds n looks like you have this handled. Will be watching for more
You're right about the cold smoke. I will call it a warm smoke. I like the produce bags idea for wrapping meat. Before my vac sealer, I used plastic wrap followed by freezer paper. Worked nice, but I prefer the vac sealer. cold beer n whiskey definitely helps. Thanks for the tips!
 
Nice work, sometimes it is a lot of work. I used Chud's Jalapeno cheddar recipe this year also and loved it. I'm intrigued by the name and have to look up Texas Hot Gut. That's a new one for me. Enjoy the rewards of your labor. Cheers
I really enjoy Chud's recipes. He has one for the Hot gut too. He just calls it Texas-style sausage.

IMG_3311.jpg
 
I had a similar thought process, but knowing that it is domestic pork vs wild I feel a little safer. Good luck with your process. I can't imagine how long 500 lbs would take. Looking forward to the pics.
will take us one day to grind and stuff, possibly 2 days to smoke or one real long day. It is always a fun weekend!
 
I always get a tish worried when i do my meat mixed with pork and i cook mine to 160 even though they say 145 is cooked all the way.
Don't be. I always use pork butt (or whatever pork is on sale) when I make my snack sticks and only cook to 160*. I'm still mostly fine. I don't think my issues are from undercooked snack sticks anyway. lol
 
Man that looks good. I butchered a pig last night that a buddy raised. Just need to get some seasonings and casings to try some of this stuff out.
 
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