Brats and stuff

So I got my grinder and love it. Have a freezer full of deer and a cow elk hunt in a few weeks. I am expecting to get a cow and with the amount of meat we will get it is a lot for my wife and I. I want to try and make other things, mainly brats and some of those sausage sticks. I am not a breakfast sausage person.

I would like as much info as possible on how to make brats or sausage, down to the small details. As you can imagine I would hate to waste any meat so I am reacing out to learn and not throw away meat from an animal that I killed. Any online resources like videos or web pages would be great.

Some questions I have are how to get the pork fat, what to look for? Do I need a mixer? Can I use previously ground meat that is frozen? I may not be able to make it all right so should I freeze ground meat or whole meat to thaw and grind later and then use in sausage products? Best casing? Any good all in one kits that have spice blends ect.? To make summer sausage or those snack sticks do I need a smoker?

Please school me and dont leave anything out.

The art of making sausage is too much for me to go into here.

But to answer some of your questions: I've never had an issue with using previously frozen ground meat. It's not preferred, but it won't be terrible. I'd freeze the meat and then thaw and grind as needed. Which leads to the next thing: keep your meat, grinder, work bowl, and utensils as cold as possible. I freeze til it just stiffens. Also freeze the grinder parts and work bowl until use. Cold fat and meat mix better and stay together. Mixing warm (45f+) meat results in a crumbly dry sausage. You can get pork fat from most butcher departments. I also mix 60-70% venison with pork shoulder, which is ~30% fat. I have 25lb capacity lug that I mix by hand in.

You can get some good supplies from sausagemaker dot com. I use a book from a chef/food writer Dennis Ruhlman called Charcuterie. He discusses a lot of the background and history of good sausage and how to make it at home.

I also get a lot of information from a couple of forums: wedlinydomowe.pl/en/index.php and Smokingmeatforums.

I haven't made them but to make true snack sticks, you do need a smoker, I think. But you can make a basic one pretty simply. True summer sausage is fermented, but you can make it without fermenting.

The flip side is that while it's tricky to make great sausage like true fermented and dry cured meats, it's not hard to make good sausage.

Good luck!

Another question on the pork. I see some recipes call for x pounds of pork bellies/fat. Above you said you can get pork fat but you use ground shoulder. I cannot imagine using x pounds of fat is the same as using x pounds of shoulder. How do you make the decision to use so much fat or shoulder? If you were following a recipe that said use so much pork bellies/fat what would you actually use?

I get pork fat from the butcher at the supermarket, just ask at the meat counter, they'll probably take your number and call when they have your desired quantity.
Modern markets don't cut meat, just trim so it takes awhile to accumulate 20#. I mix pork fat 30% to lean game meat, ie: 3# pork fat, 7# venison= 10# sausage.
Mix and process in easy to work increments say 20-25#, and like FR noted keep everything cold, just above freezing, makes the grinder work much better, the grinder gets hot thru use, feeding it cold meat helps keep it cool.
Enjoy!

You can estimate. A pork shoulder is about 30% fat and a belly is a bit more (45-55%). An 8lb shoulder x 30% = ~2.5lbs fat. A few friends and I butcher hogs in the fall and I collect as much fat as I can and freeze for later use. Pork fat freezes well.

As for how much, it also depends on what I'm making. The final fat content (~15-30%) for brats or polish is what you want to aim for. If it's not exact it doesn't matter much. You want to pay more attention to your seasoning (especially salt) amounts. Do everything by weight if possible. Also fry up a bit of sausage before you stuff casings. If it's too lean, add some bacon or fat, too fatty add more venison.

I don't stress about fat. A good sausage has to have some, but just not too much. And if you're using elk or venison you don't have to worry about the too much fat side of the equation.

I like using pork shoulders mostly because they're cheap and I don't like overly fatty sausage.

Also this is a great comprehensive site with recipes, techniques, and background.

http://www.meatsandsausages.com/

I'll chime in as well, I've spent the last 4 years getting it a little more right each year. I think I finally found my formula last year, so hopefully I can speed up your learning curve.

I've never made snack sticks, but I've made summer sausage. I've found the 3" diameter mahogany casings to not be very permeable, so I'm not sure how much my smoker even helps flavor those. Bottom line, I think you'd be okay just baking those in the oven. I'd set it at 200 deg and pull as soon as it reaches 155 deg IT. Brats and links definitely need to go in a smoker.

Personally, I would make some bulk sausage and summer sausage to start out. It gets a little more complicated with link sausage and you need more gear. In particular, I found the smoking part to be the most finnicky. (If you buy a smoker, get a good one that can smoke at lower temperatures!!) But if you want to dive in, my recommendation is definitely get a meat mixer and sausage stuffer. The stuffer attachments for grinders are terrible and will take forever. I use natural hog/sheep casings (intestines). I order the pre-tubed ones from sausage maker, they are on amazon too. I might try collagen casings this year, I've heard some good things about those except they break apart more easily.

I like to keep my meat as lean as possible (otherwise what's the point of killing a lean game animal). I use 6% fat in burger and 15% in sausage links. It's definitely on the leaner side so you have to be careful not to overcook as it will dry out. If you're going to smoke anything let me know, I can share a few tips on that to help you avoid overcooking. Smoking meat forums is a great site on this as well, lots of veterans over there.

For seasonings - I've used the mixes from sausagemaker and they're pretty good, but a touch bland. I'm going homemade from now on. I used a few recipes from this book last year and they've all been great. http://www.amazon.com/Home-Sausage-Making-Techniques-Enjoying/dp/158017471X I'm sure there are other recipes out there as well. The maple breakfast sausage was incredible.

Hope that helps. I have more tips I can share, but that's a decent start. Sausage making is definitely an art form, lots you can learn!!

Lots of great recipes and a well written sausage tutorial on the web site Hunter, Angler, Gardener Cook. A wide variety of flavors and types of sausages that I think you'll like.

When I butcher my deer and elk I set aside the meat that will go to the grinder and cut it into 1 inch cubes then wrap them up in 5 lb packages. This does a couple things. First I can easily do small batches of grinding into either burger, suasage or brats; also the meat is already cut small enough that all I have to do it pull it from the freezer and let thaw for a few hours (mostly frozen but workable, as has been said frozen meat is easier to grind and mix). I use pork fat that I either buy from grocery stores, local butchers or local farmers.

Burger is the easiest: I mix 10% by weight fat into the meat (ex: 18 lbs meat +2 lbs fat) Grind the meat, then the fat, then mix together and run through the grinder one more time.

Sausage: Just like the burger but with 20% fat. Mix the seasonings when mixing the meat and fat.

Brats: I just started doing brats last year and so far have had nothing but success. I start out just like I'm doing burger or sausage by grinding the meat and fat through my larger cutting plate. Then I mix the meat and fat (20%) and seasonings together and grind it together this time through the small cutting plate. Then if I have anything else to add I mix it in at this point (usually chopped jalepenos or cheese).

I use natural hog casings to stuff the bratwurst. Again using the grinder with the sausage stuffing attachment I take the meat mixture and run it into the casings. Don't stuff the casing as tight as it will go because later when you twist it into links it will fill out the remaining capacity of the casing without breaking. If the casing is too full it could break when you try to form links. At this point you can either smoke them or just freeze them. I froze mine last year but this year I will smoke some to see how it turns out.

I watched youtube videos and searched many websites before attemtping my first batch. I didn't follow any one process exactly as written, instead I cross referenced 4 or 5 and pieced together my process from what seemed like the most common steps from each source.

Thanks for the idea of freezing 5lb bags for later grinding. Being my first attempt I was worried about how to take it one small batch at a time. Glad to know I can freeze and make small batches as needed. That will waste less meat should I make mistakes.

Vids, I didnt know you could make sausage in the oven without a smoker. I may buy a smoker later but a batch in the oven sounds like it is worth trying. Why do you say brats need to be smoked? You are the first person I have heard say that and most recipes I have found did not say to smoke.

You can always make fresh brats and then grill them later, I prefer to smoke all of mine so they are pre-cooked and I can just warm them up on the grill when I want to eat them. I was just trying to clarify that I found the summer sausage could easily be baked and taste about the same, but I wouldn't try that with brats as the smoke adds a lot of flavor to them.

What I had found was the 3" mahogany casings for summer sausage don't allow much smoke in anyways, so I just smoke them for a couple of hours and then bring up to temp in the oven. I'm not sure the smoke adds any flavor when using less porous casings.

FYI if you make pounds and pounds of brats or sausage and freeze raw; the pork fat you added will oxidize after about 6 months. This changes the taste and texture of the fat. The quality of the product will not be the same from day one to 6+ months later.

I would be willing to chat with you over the phone sometime if you would like. I'm not a professional but I make around 250 pounds of sausage and brats a year for my family and extended family. PM sent.

Vids said:

In particular, I found the smoking part to be the most finnicky. (If you buy a smoker, get a good one that can smoke at lower temperatures!!)

Click to expand...

Ant suggestions on a budget friendly smoker? What is the advantage/disadvantage to electric vs. propane.

Eileen Clark has an excellent sausage making book out. Looking forward to using it this winter.

This one? http://www.riflesandrecipes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=4&Itemid=6

I just ordered the one Vids suggested called Home Sausage Making.

Just noticed I never answered your question about the smokers from before. I'm no expert on smokers, I used to have the "can" style electric smoker from Char Broil, but it wouldn't produce smoke unless the temp was really high and that dried out my brats. I got a Bradley digital for Christmas a couple years ago and it works great. I think the trick is having two separate heating elements in there. One that smokes the wood pucks, and one that controls the oven temp. I can produce nice smoke at really low temps which is great.

"Budget friendly" is a relative term, but my Bradley was around $500 which is getting up there. Head over to www.smokingmeatforums.com and you can get any and all questions answered about smoking. it's a great site with smoker reviews as well. Overall, I think you'll have a tough time finding a cheap smoker that will do links real well.

I'll also toss in a few notes from my processing this year, just completed my doe this weekend.

1. I tried a few more recipes out of the book I mentioned above. Sicilian style sweet italian sausage, bratwurst and southwest pork sausage. All were excellent, I really love that book.
2. I went with collagen casings and had mixed results. A few batches came out okay, but I had some where the casings were wet and falling apart at the end. Looks like they need higher temps in the smoking process. I'll go back to natural casings next year.
3. Last year my sweet italian sausage links were a little bitter after smoking. This year I went without smoking and just put them in 170 deg water until they hit 155 degrees. They came out really nice, and the italian flavoring came through real well instead of just tasting smoke. That was a new method for me and worked pretty well. I'll bet you could probably put them in a roasting pan, covered and with water in the bottom and it would work well too.
4. I just baked my summer sausage (in 3" mahogany casings) in the oven instead of smoking. First time I tried that and they came out great, so again I'm not sure how much smoke actually gets through those casings anyways.

Overall, happy to have another year with a stocked freezer even if I didn't get an elk this fall.

Thanks again Vids. I made up 3 kinds over the holiday out of the Home Sausage Making book. I did the moose sausage and the venison sausage from the game section using elk. Both turned out good but I will cut back on the lemon zest if I make the venison recipe again. I also did the summer sausage and it also turned out good. Easy to just stuff the casing and stick in the oven. I learned that I like more garlic than whats called for so I will up that next time too. So overall I am loving that book.

I also learned I really need a smoker. I worked a shift at the fire station Friday and took some elk meat to share for dinner. There is a smoker there so we smoked the meat then finished in the oven. It was so good. I will be getting one soon.

Sausage making was one of my favorite parts of school. Fill your cooler with ice and water and drop your grinder parts in it for 30 minutes or so between batches. I like the idea of pre cubing, measuring and freezing meat. If you have the freezer space freeze the cubes of meat individually on cookie sheets. When I am making meat products I try to make them in winter months, and use cardboard boxes on the porch overnight to freeze things. An aluminum pan put on the cold concrete of the porch with a card board box o ver it to keep neighborhood cats out will work when temps drop to the mid-low 20s. For fat, none of my local grocery stores will sell it to me, since they really don't package/cut meat much, and the ones that do put thier trim fat into thier ground meats and sausages. Find a butcher shop that processes carcasses or primals. The local organic meat market sells me beautiful, clean suet for $1.99/lb, $2.99/lb finely ground. As far as smokers go, my budget has not allowed the purchase of one, but I have built two of the four smokers that Alton Brown has built on his TV show, been very satisfied with the results, and not been upset when playful, mischievious kids damaged or destroyed part of one. Gimmie a couple of days and I can probably find youtube links for building all four designs. Bon Appitie Magazine in July of this year had a smoker built from a filing cabnet. Feed your inner McGuiver in all senses of the word.

pat

Here is a great website with a lot of info. He sells great products as well. Highly recommend the "Witt's" summer sausage seasoning.

http://www.askthemeatman.com/


Another tip for you when making different sausages. When it is seasoned and ground, make a small patty and run in the house, pan fry it and eat it. That will tell you if you need more/less of different ingredients. You can then add/change before you package the entire batch.


I use a Materbuilt Electric smoker. Works very well. Only limitation is the size. I can do about 25# of summer sausage at a time in mine. Remove the racks and hang the sausage from the top on dowl rods. Any of the little electric or propane smokers are fine. No real advantage of one over the other. With the propane you don't have to worry about any outlets. Get a quality wireless thermometer to use with your smoker. the ones built into the little cheap smokers are not accurate.