Homemade Sausage Making

In preparation for hunting season I wanted to empty the freezers. I had 110+ pounds of wild and beef trim. I also had 30 pounds lean pork shoulder and I used up 18 pounds of pork belly trim. As I was in a heat wave I thawed everything in my outside walk in cooler with it turned off. My plan was 25 pounds weisswurst, 25 pounds smoked paprika jalapeno chili cheese smokies, 30 pounds garlic sausage and 18 pounds jalapeno cheese salami. The left over extra meat will just be burger. I've been going since 5 this morning. Weisswurst is done and cooling in the cooler. Salami is almost up to Final temp in the pellet grill, and the smokies and garlic are in my new offset smoker I just built. Having a peach and Raddler break now. The cutter, mixer and tubs are all washed up. Still need to go finish grinding the left over for burger then wash that up. Sausage will be out of the smoker in a few hours then into the poaching tank then the cooler. I will fire up the walk in to cool everything down over night then package everything tomorrow. Pics later tonight or tomorrow. My gas tank is starting to get a little on the empty side!

Just finished poaching and cooling the smokies, garlic is done and in the cooler. 13 hours, I'm pooped. Not sure if I'll get a nice colour on everything as I didn't have the roof vent on the offset smoker open much and everything had a pretty good sweat on it. First time using so I'll know for next time. Sure generates a ton of smoke and sits steady at 165.

Ended up with 4 different sausages and 40 pounds of Burger! The old silent cutter worked great today too.

Ended up with a fair bit more trim that I thought in the end. Still had a fair bit left over so ended up with 40 pounds of nice burger as well.

Wow that's a long day!

The offset smoker really generated a lot of smoke. I used birch and oak and the smoke flavor is a little over powering strong. Will need to try charcoal and just a few blocks of hickory maybe.

Oak can give you a stong flavour if smoked for a long time. Polish sausage makers are careful in using it and it's best to apply it lightly and not go over 2 -3 hours. How long did you smoke the sausages? Did you use regular cheese in the salami or high temp? How did it turn out?

I smoked it for 2 1/2 hours. The fire was basically smouldering to keep it at 165f. I think I should have had the chimney damper open more to let out moisture and also some smoke. Just used regular cheese and cubed it up. It turned out awesome. I use a hi mountain jalapeño salami mix. It's the only actual mix I use. I love the flavor. I make it specifically for my dad as he loves it for lunch on crackers.