Rich G
TVWBB Honor Circle
Hard to believe that I joined Chris’ merry band at TVWBB 13 years ago! It’s taken me a lot longer than some to make it to 1,000 posts, so, since I’m here, figured I better make it count! 
I’ve learned so many things from people who have posted here over the years (some still here, some who moved on long ago), that I pretty much figure that anything I do on or around the grills has been influenced in some way by TVWBB. So, for my 1,000th post, I thought I’d post up something that I’ve been working on getting better at…..sausage.
On the docket this time around is some fresh Kielbasa from Rytek Kutas’ “Great Sausage Recipes & Meat Curing”, which I planned to hot smoke for some extra flavor. I started with some pork butts from my local grocer, who was also quite happy to provide me with some fresh fat trimmings (no charge), and enough casings for 25lbs of meat (at a VERY nominal charge.) I wasn’t shutter-happy during the grinding process, but make some mental pictures of some pork butt and fat trimmings cut up and ground, then mixed with the appropriate spices…..resulting in this 5lb Ziploc full of goodness (pork, salt, sugar, pepper, garlic, marjoram):
I let this chill out in the fridge overnight, and then busted out my antique cast iron stuffer to fill up my casings:
After stuffing the sausage, I left it in the fridge overnight, uncovered so that it could thoroughly dry before smoking. The next day, I loaded the sausage up on my new toy from Xmas, the Weber Expandable Smoker Rack:
I started with a smoker temp of 175 degrees with some heavy cherry smoke for the first couple of hours then raised the temp to 200 degrees until my sausages were 160 degrees internal. All told, it took about four hours until I beheld this wonderful sight:
I then removed the sausage from the WSM, and immediately placed it in an ice bath to make sure that the casings didn’t shrivel up as they cooled down, eventually ending up with this appetizing plate:
In parallel to my sausage production, I decided that I couldn’t let Mr. Schultz have all the fun on the bread front, so I made up a couple of loaves of 40% rye sourdough, which, if I do say so myself, turned out damned good!!
So, after all that work, I figured I should eat something……
I couldn’t be happier with how these two projects turned out. The sausage came out just right in terms of texture, flavor and smokiness. The bread has a perfect balance of sour, crunch, and rye flavor (though it would have been even better if I wasn’t out of caraway seeds!)
I’ve said it many times, but thanks to all of you who post here. Whether you are asking for information, providing information from your experience, or just generally provoking thought and conversation, you have all helped me to continually expand my cooking horizons outdoors and in. Thank you, and grill on!
Rich
I’ve learned so many things from people who have posted here over the years (some still here, some who moved on long ago), that I pretty much figure that anything I do on or around the grills has been influenced in some way by TVWBB. So, for my 1,000th post, I thought I’d post up something that I’ve been working on getting better at…..sausage.On the docket this time around is some fresh Kielbasa from Rytek Kutas’ “Great Sausage Recipes & Meat Curing”, which I planned to hot smoke for some extra flavor. I started with some pork butts from my local grocer, who was also quite happy to provide me with some fresh fat trimmings (no charge), and enough casings for 25lbs of meat (at a VERY nominal charge.) I wasn’t shutter-happy during the grinding process, but make some mental pictures of some pork butt and fat trimmings cut up and ground, then mixed with the appropriate spices…..resulting in this 5lb Ziploc full of goodness (pork, salt, sugar, pepper, garlic, marjoram):
I let this chill out in the fridge overnight, and then busted out my antique cast iron stuffer to fill up my casings:
After stuffing the sausage, I left it in the fridge overnight, uncovered so that it could thoroughly dry before smoking. The next day, I loaded the sausage up on my new toy from Xmas, the Weber Expandable Smoker Rack:
I started with a smoker temp of 175 degrees with some heavy cherry smoke for the first couple of hours then raised the temp to 200 degrees until my sausages were 160 degrees internal. All told, it took about four hours until I beheld this wonderful sight:
I then removed the sausage from the WSM, and immediately placed it in an ice bath to make sure that the casings didn’t shrivel up as they cooled down, eventually ending up with this appetizing plate:
In parallel to my sausage production, I decided that I couldn’t let Mr. Schultz have all the fun on the bread front, so I made up a couple of loaves of 40% rye sourdough, which, if I do say so myself, turned out damned good!!
So, after all that work, I figured I should eat something……
I couldn’t be happier with how these two projects turned out. The sausage came out just right in terms of texture, flavor and smokiness. The bread has a perfect balance of sour, crunch, and rye flavor (though it would have been even better if I wasn’t out of caraway seeds!)
I’ve said it many times, but thanks to all of you who post here. Whether you are asking for information, providing information from your experience, or just generally provoking thought and conversation, you have all helped me to continually expand my cooking horizons outdoors and in. Thank you, and grill on!
Rich
