Homemade Sausage Making

Inspired by a recipe I found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/adam ... index.html, I decided to modify it somewhat and make the following:
URL for original recipe: (www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/adam-gertle ... index.html)

Ingredients:

Beef, chuck, finely ground____________________________________________2268g
Ice cold water_______________________________________________10%____226g
Kosher salt__________________________________________________1.79%_39.4g
Dextrose____________________________________________________0.66%_15.0g
Pickling spices, finely ground in spice grinder________________________0.71%__16.1g
Brown sugar_________________________________________________0.81%__18.4g
Cure #1_____________________________________________________0.265%_6.0g
Garlic, dry, granulated__________________________________________0.48%__11.0g
Coriander, ground_____________________________________________0.418%__9.5g
Black pepper, medium grind______________________________________0.52%__11.8g
Juniper berries, finely ground_____________________________________0.09%___2.0g
Non-fat dry milk powder_________________________________________3.4%___76.7g
Sodium erythorbate____________________________________________0.055%__1.2g
Meat binder phosphates (I use triple phosphates from Butcher-Packer)____0.50%___11.3g
Swiss cheese, diced,____________________________________________20%___454g

Note: I used Sodium erythorbate because I didn't want to wait for the cure to work overnight. You may omit this if you can keep the mix overnight and smoke the next day.

Swiss cheese, 1 pound, diced to about 5.5mm:



Stuffed into removable cellulose casings:



I smoked these for 3 hours using pecan pellets in my Amazing smoker device while keeping the smoker at or below 60°F. They then went into a hot water bath at 155°F until the IMT hit 150 (took about 45 minutes). After peeling the cellulose casing off:



I decided to follow the recipe for the onion/caraway rye buns in the above mentioned link:



Quickly pan fried and on the bun, tastes really great:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/adam ... index.html

Looks grand, Rudy!!

Man, that is one great looking job! The sausage, the buns, it all looks perfect. I'm going to try that recipe for the buns, thanks for posting. RAY

Thanks. The buns did turn out really good and I'm a terrible baker (except when it comes to making pizza).

Great looking sausage.

One heck of a nice job Rudy. They look terrific.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

After tracking down the bun recipe and printing it out the first thing I realized is that I don't own a standard mixer with a dough hook. I'd buy one but we just don't do enough baking to warrant such a purchase, and I've already exceeded the limits of the butler pantry for all my sausage making gear. Time to check youtube for some bread-making videos, I'm sure a satsfactory job can be accomplished the old fashioned way. RAY

Ray, I have been making my bread for at least 55 years. The easiest method I have found measures all of the flour into a large bowl digs a hole in the flour and pours in the liquid and adds the yeast. That sits and sogs for ten minutes or so then it get mixed until all of the flour is wetted by all of the liquid. Then that is allowed to sit for twenty minutes and it is mixed by hand for three or four minutes in the same manner that you mix sausage. Dust the dough with a little flour and push it around to make a ball sorta. pour a bit of fat around the dough maybe a generous tablespoonful and push the dough around until it is coated. Cover it with plastic and leave it until it is spilling over the sides. pictures here: http://s1112.photobucket.com/user/nanss ... 8986715231

Thanks Ross, that looks easy enough to follow even for me. I'd imagine a clump of finished dough shaped roughly into the size of a playing card would bake out to just about a perfect sandwich roll. Trial and error will solve that, and I've already got everything I need right here from when using my bread machine. RAY

Chuckwagon wrote:One heck of a nice job Rudy. They look terrific.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Thanks CW, it means a lot hearing this from you. One of my taste testers said it reminded him of kielbasa mixed with pastrami. He said he loved it.

Ray,
I wouldn't have a stand mixer were it not for my love for making pizza. I have since found that I can make a decent dough using my KitchenAid food processor. If you have one, I'm sure the bun recipe would work well in that. Otherwise, I would listen to Ross, he's our baking guru.

Ray if you need a pizza peel it is just a very large wooden spatula with a long handle. I made mine from a yellow poplar 1x12 about 30 inches long. Dress it to about 3/8 thick and with a hand plane or belt sander taper the paddle to a 1/8th inch edge.

Sausage looks fantastic Ray. I love that Swiss oozing out. I have never tried cheese I'm my sausage. Looks like the time has come.

Dave,
Cheese in sausage is great. Give it a go.

Just a few notes: I quit using the overpriced "high temp" stuff because you don't need it. Just keep the temps to 160°F or less and anything except soft cheeses will stay put and not melt out. I like to finish mine in hot water bath kept at 155°F until IMT hits 150 and never had problems. Also, I use one of those dicing devices to cube up the cheese, here's the one I use: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HI ... e=&seller=

Hey Rudy - those look beautiful! Question...did you use hi-temp cheese, or just cheese cheese?

Jeff