Andouille Sausage


 
Me again!!
LaPlace,La. is the "Andouille Capital of the World". If you ever travel between Baton Rouge and New Orleans get off the Interstate and go there. The palces to go are Jacobs and Baileys.
Arguably the best there is according to Tom Fitzmorris, of the Times-Picayune. You can order from Jacobs on the 'Net but the shipping is almost as much as the Andoullie.
 
A couple of years ago I remember picking up some of Paul Prudommes andouillie sausage at my local high end market. This was hot and cold smoked. What are the advantages of smoking both hot and cold and does anyone make sausage not in casings to absorb more flavor?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Konrad Haskins:
[qb] Well I like Emeril as does my buddy Bad Byron of Buttrub.com who worked under him. Here is his Andouille Sausage Recipe. [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I like him, too, but he sure likes to throw the kitchen sink into a lot of his recipes. Here is a more straightforward recipe, with better instructions (than "Prepare the smoker"), from the capital itself (well, maybe a couple miles up the road from the capital):

Chef John Folse's Andouille Recipe
 
Tom, I've made venison salamis by forming loaves and hanging them in netting. Worked ok, and would probably work even better with pork because it would stick to itself better. Did it because I didn't have a sausage stuffer, though, and not for flavor reasons. If you stuff real casings, instead of the synthetic fiber material which does not cling to meat and does not permit smoke penetration, you won't have a problem with flavor.

Am I correct in assuming that Emeril's recipe is for barbecue smoker and Folse's is for smokehouse smoker? I wish there were clearer designations between smoking (cold and hot smoking) and barbecuing. In any event, could you cook the andouille as Emeril suggests in 25 to 30 minutes in something short of a kettle, and would it then be authentic andouille? I don't understand.

Have filed Folse's and promised self to try it soon. Looks very good and very manageable for me. But, aieeee!, I've used the stuffing tube on a meat grinder before and don't ever want to do that again anytime soon. I'm guessing he suggested the meat grinder as a home economy approach and not because it's his method.
 
Hey Dean, I'd like to pick your brain for a minute if I may.
I have never made sausage, but always wanted to. We always have extra venison around, and sausage seems like a good thing to try.
I got a sausage attachment/food grinder for my kitchen aid for christmas and haven't used it yet. Now it seems that smoked sausage would be a great thing to try.
I would love the andouille recipe, but the majority of my family are wimps and can't handle the heat. What would be a good recipe to try smoking first, one with a milder heat. Any suggestions? I am out of venison (for now)so a pork sausage would be okay.
 
The first salami I made with venison turned out too hard and too dry. Learned that I had to mix in some pork. Best thing to do is buy some pork trimmings, either 60/40 or 50/50, and add at an amount of about 20 to 25 percent to the venison.

For a mild sausage, it's hard to beat a good breakfast or farmer's sausage without sage in it. Sage just don't get it for me, but that's subjective taste speaking. I'm happy to provide you a recipe from a reference book I have, but honestly, unless you really want to get serious with experimentation, don't mind weighing out spices and also buying much more of everything than you really need, I think you're better served to ring up someone like the folks at butcher-packer.com and ask them for a pkg sufficient for 25 lbs of grind.

Now, the smoking. Ahhhhh. That's what make it so good.
 
Dean,

Thanks for the reply. I'd love the breakfast sausage recipe. Don't worry about bulk, I can adjust the recipe for a smaller size. In a past life I used to do this for a living...
 
Randy...

If you've never made sausage before, check out my link.

Once at the page, go to the article entitled...Sausage Making the Easy Way. It explains how to make sausage without grinding or stuffing.

On that page I also have several sasages made this way. Matter of fact, I cooked up 25 lbs. of sausages last weekend...some Andouille, cudighi and Texas Hot Links.

Sausage Making the Easy Way
 
Stogie,

Nice site! Did you do that all yourself? A great alternative to people without grinders and stuffers, but I got all these cool toys for Christmas and really want to play...
I'm lucky enough to have a butcher who will give me casings in any amount I need, all I need now is a good breakfast sausage recipe to get me started. I didn't see any on the page with the recipes, should I have done a search?
 
Kevin's website is excellent, and I've commended him on it in private correspondence. (Will try his chili recipe at the next opportunity.) His way of mixing spices into sausage is the way I do it, the way I was taught, and, therefore, the correct, best and onliest way. (ok, dammit, insert smiley face.)

The bible on sausage making, "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing," by Rytek Kutas, recommends about 5 cups of ice water with the spices added to a portion, run through a blender, recombined and then distributed through the meat. I think so, anyway. Been a while since I've read the method or the reasons for it. But the point that's important is that you must distribute the recipe through the meat thoroughly. Get a butcher's lug for this purpose. They're cheap from Cabela's if nowhere convenient. It is of ideal dimensions for folding meat around, over and through, and also works just as a tote and storage container.

In addition to serving as a vehicle for the even distribution of spices through the meat, the water helps with the extruding process, lubricating the effort better when you force it into casings. Really, though, if you stay away from synthetic casings, which you need to do if you want to smoke, then you don't need the water. I don't use it.

Here's a pretty standard recipe, this one from Kutas:

To 25 lbs of pork butts, add 2/3 cup salt, 2.5 Tb ground white pepper, 5 Tb rubbed sage, 2.5 tsp ginger, 2.5 Tb nutmeg, 2.5 Tb thyme, 2.5 Tb ground hot red pepper.

If you are going to smoke this, add 5 tsp of D.Q curing salt, as it is known if you buy it from butcher-packer.com, or Instacure, as it is known from sausagemaker.com. Otherwise this makes a nice fresh farmer's sausage, though I leave out the sage.

When I'm fooling around with a recipe, I mix some up, move it immediately to the cooler and let it sit for a while. Fry up a small portion. You can tell then if you need more or less of something. In this case, you can adjust for pepper if you wish, or strengthen any of the flavors that you prefer.
 
PS, when smoking casings or any sausage, be careful not to get much above 180. You start melting fat and you mess it up. Kevin's timetable and temp range corresponds with my experiences.
 
I made some great brats recently. Chopped up green and red sweet peppers, a bunch of white onions, and folded them into the meat and recipe and then ran them through the sausage stuffer into casings. Really good stuff having the vegetables steam and simmer right amongst the meat inside the casing when it cooks.
 
(Gal bowing down to Dean in gratitude...)
Thanks for the recipe...I cant wait to try it! It is exactly what I was looking for!
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>If you are going to smoke this, add 5 tsp of D.Q curing salt <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Why do you need this only if you smoke it? What does it do?
 
Tender Quick will hinder the growth of bacteria during the long smoke process while the meat would be in the 40 to 140*F danger zone. If you were not going to smoke and cook quicker then the TQ would not be needed.

Jim
 
Gal.....

Thanks for stopping by! I helped start that site a few years ago and have now pretty much turned it over to Linda, who is retired and lives in the AZ desert.

There are a few sausage recipes on the website but no breakfast sausage. Check out the andouille and the Texas Hot Links...VERY good stuff!

I hear ya about needing to play with those toys!!

So...........I will post several more in the Recipe section of the forum.
 
Jim,

Thanks for answering my question...I'm one of those people that learns best by knowing the consequences of my actions...I remember telling my son when he was 3..."if you ride your trike in the road, you'll get hit by a car, the tires will crush you head like a pumpkin and you'll die..." It made my parents nuts...but they never went in the road...now that the kids are grown it's a big family joke (and yes, they are fairly normal).
That's why I like Chris's pics...say for the BRITU, if you don't put on enough rub, the glaze won't come out.
All you Q masters are full of these gems, that's why I love this site so much.
Thanks again...
 
Posted by Keri C on 12/9/03 in a duplicate thread on Andouille Sausage.

-------------------------
Chef John Folse's Andouille Sausage Recipe

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/andouille.html

5 pounds pork butt
1/2 pound pork fat
1/2 cup chopped garlic
1/4 cup cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dry thyme
4 tablespoons salt
6 feet beef middle casing (see butcher or specialty shop)

Cube pork butt into one and a half inch cubes. Using a meat grinder with four one quarter inch holes in the grinding plate, grind pork and pork fat. If you do not have a grinding plate this size, I suggest hand cutting pork butt into one quarter inch square pieces.

Place ground pork in large mixing bowl and blend in all remaining ingredients. Once well blended, stuff meat into casings in one foot links, using the sausage attachment on your meat grinder. Tie both ends of the sausage securely using a heavy gauge twine.

In your homestyle smoker, smoke andouille at 175-200*F for approximately four to five hours using pecan or hickory wood. The andouille may then be frozen and used for seasoning gumbos, white or red beans, pastas or grilling as an hors d'oeuvre.

Recipe by:
Chef John Folse
Louisiana's Premier Products
2517 South Philippe Avenue
Gonzales, LA 70737
(504) 644-6000

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the only andouille I've ever tried, but it has a good flavor. Sweet-talk your butcher or meat market ahead of time, and they'll go ahead and grind the butt to your specs for you so that all you need to do is season, mix, and stuff. -Keri C
 
I was buying Andouille at Costco, but they quit carrying it. I have not found a replacement source yet, and my Cajun "habits" were getting the best of me. I tried the Chef Folse recipe with some concerns, as I had not made this type of sausages before (as a kid I helped kill hogs and made bulk country sausage). I used the grinder attachment on my Oster mixer, with a stuffing tube. I then smoked them in my Little Chief smoker (great little electric smoker from Luhr-Jensen)using pecan wood, for 7 hours. I was well pleased with the results. Way beyond my expectations for the first time out of the chute. Here are a few pix:

http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPAlbumPict?com=us&awp=albumshow.html&album_id=3229757

I made my first batch of jambalaya using this over Thanksgiving, and the relatives made short work of it.

Born in Nawlins, cookin' in Tennessee
 
Very interesting. I have tried some andouille sausage from my butcher and wasnt very pleased with them, but im sure that there are better tasting recipes out there. Probably here. But I was asked last night what I wanted for Xmas and a grinder and sausage stuffer doesnt sound to bad. I like the Johnsonville brats or basicly most types of italian, beer brats ect..
My question is, does any of the above recipes taste sort of like them? Dumb question to ask but well, im dumb. lol
DP
 
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