made spicy cajun sausage links


 

JimZ

TVWBB Super Fan
First time making this type of sausage ground up about 9 lbs pork shoulder and added a bunch of spices to 4 cup beer. Also added 4 tsp instacure #1 to the marinade. Marinated for 24 hours then packed into casings and then smoked on the 18" WSM to 155. My question i if i smoked to 155 internal why was the instacure required? Just starting out and want to learn. Have done bratwurst a bunch of times with great success but thats packed into links uncooked and no instacure there.
Thanks for any input.
 
I'd have to see the recipe. That seems like a lot of cure, but you are doing a brine so it's probably ok? It seems a little weird. General rule of thumb is 1 tsp per 5 lbs in sausage. Anyway, the cure is really there for the taste. Cured meat tastes different. It's was make ham taste like ham or bacon taste like bacon. It is critical for any kind of cold smoking technique to prevent botulism. If you are doing a long cold smoke or even a slow warm smoke (Smoking at 150 degrees and then upping it to 180 for instance) then you should have it there.

There are people way more knowledgeable about this than me, but the problem arises if you have the meat too long in the danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees.
 
Dustin is pretty much spot on.
Nitrites are necessary for safety when you you are outside the safe temperatures. For fresh sausages it is not necessary, but it does change the taste of the meat.

I am not sure if you mixed your beer/instacure mixture with the ground meat, or what you did exactly. It looks like a lot of instacure.
As for amounts: I would advice you to buy a scale, esp for measuring cure etc. Preferably in metric as it is much easier to work with (esp when scaling up or down).
Some good places to find more info:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/: A forum much more catered to charcuterie than this one
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/ : from the same guys, but not a forum

Hope this helps and good luck making sausages: It's a great hobby :)
 
Dustin is pretty much spot on.
Nitrites are necessary for safety when you you are outside the safe temperatures. For fresh sausages it is not necessary, but it does change the taste of the meat.

I am not sure if you mixed your beer/instacure mixture with the ground meat, or what you did exactly. It looks like a lot of instacure.
As for amounts: I would advice you to buy a scale, esp for measuring cure etc. Preferably in metric as it is much easier to work with (esp when scaling up or down).
Some good places to find more info:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/: A forum much more catered to charcuterie than this one
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/ : from the same guys, but not a forum

Hope this helps and good luck making sausages: It's a great hobby :)
Thanks for the reply's guys. I did mix the spices and instacure #1 in 4 cups beer and let sit for 24 hours in the fridge. I will back off on the amount i use in the future. I figured because I was diluting it in 4 cups beer that I should bump up the amount. The label said to use 1/2 cup in one gallon water with like a pound of salt and some sugar as well. I hope the amount I used wasn't in the harmful neighborhood.
 
When you are wet curing a solid hunk of meat in a brining solution you will use more cure that what you'll use with sausage. I typically cube up my meat and then season it with the cure and let it dry cure over night. I usually add liquid before mixing and stuffing. If you are following a recipe, it most likely is right depending on the source.
 

 

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