Rub for Fatties?


 
J

Jason Wayne

TVWBB Fan
How necessary is this? I have cooked a lot on my WSMs, but never tried fatties. So, I have a couple of lbs of regular country sausage and a couple of rolls of Jimmy Dean HOT.

I am curious how much a rub helps and what type of rub I should use. Should I use something closer to what I put on a butt or ribs?

Thanks for your suggestions.
 
Necessary it's not. If the sausage you've got has good flavor you can leave it alone. If not, you can either rub with similar or complementary flavors (onion, garlic, sage, e.g., if, say the sausage is a garlic or sage one), or flavors that provide contrast (hot chile, say, for a sweet sausage, or ground pepper for a mild one; sugar and/or sweet spices for a spicy one). And you can combine both approaches. I make my own sausage mixtures so I simply include anything I want in the mix and skip the rub, usually. If you're buying commercial and already like the flavor of the sausage try smoking without--or try rubbing half with a simple blend and leaving the other half plain, then see what you think.
 
Another approach is to use a different kind of sausage meat or combination thereof. I made fatties at one time or another using italian sausage, fresh kielbasa, and even chinese style sausages with ginger, scallions & cilantro.
 
Jason,

Like others suggested I have tried it all kinds of ways. I do like my rub that I use on ribs the best. I have done some plain with no rub and some with store bought rubs and it's all good to me. Try what you like and see. You can taste the rub just like smoking anything else. If the sausage is already seasoned I would go easy on the rub. I usually buy the plain mild Jimmy dean and add my rub that I use on other pork.

Randy
 
OK, I rolled one of the regular country sausage rolls and one of the hot Jimmy Dean rolls.

Overall, I wasn't impressed. I had a good variety to sample from, but I much prefer sausage from a cast iron skillet over the fatties. I usually enjoy any smoked foods, but the fatties didn't do much for me. Maybe it was the softer center texture, who knows.

Thanks Kevin and JIm!
 
Ooops, thanks to Randy too. I just used some general store bought rub. I usually don't use store bought rubs, so that might have something to do with the inferior end product.

I will try some of my own rub for ribs and butts the next time I try fatties. At least they're cheap and quick.
 
I'm with you on the texture. I slice thickly after smoking then pan-fry to caramelize the exterior.
 
You know, it didn't even cross my mind to immediately throw it in a hot skillet afterwards...I bet that would actually improve it quite a bit.

Thanks for the suggestion, Kevin.

I think the next time should show some improvement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top