My Sausage Weekend!

[DeejayDebi]

This was my sausage weekend. It actually started on Wedneday after work when I trimmed and cubed up all the meat. Roughly 75 pounds of beef, pork and turkey.

I made two 6.5 lb smoked and rubbed Bolognas.

12 pounds of Wisconsin Style Brats (plain).

Two 4.5 pound smoked capricolas.

Two 8 pound and one 3 pound smoked slicing pepperonis.

One 8 pound smoked turkey roll.

and smoked one 10 pound beef shoulder clod.

Here are a few pictures:

[DeejayDebi]

and here's the beef should clod and the turkey roll

[sominus]

Debi:

  I want to start making sausage in a few months (got a couple projects to get out of the way)...  I haven't seen a capicola recipe before -- is it on your site?

-M

[Sailor Con Queso]

Very cool Deb. Darn, I don't need another hobby, but those look awfully tasty.

[DeejayDebi]

sominus -
Yes they are all on my site and I think they are all in the eBook. I actually lost my cooked pepperoni recipe and had to go download it from my site myself.

I like dry cured pepperoni best but I don't have room in the cave right now and it's not cold enough yet to hang in the attic or computer/curing room so I made cooked pepperoni. Different texture.

Capricolla is really pretty simple. Just trim your meat well. I use pork buttsand you have to get all the silver skin out.


BTW - this is a good place to use some of your whey from cheese making. The whey will encourage lacto-fermentaion in your sausages if you let it sit in the fridge for a few days before baking or smoking. It adds a tanginess to the sausage which is needed in things like peppeoni or salami.


Sailor-
On thing about sausage is you don't need to do it every weekend. 10, 20 or 30 pounds of sausages lasts a long time. It's nice to buy meat on sale and pay only a few dollars a pound. Here Brats for example are packaged 4 for Around $5 and they are way to salty and taste more like hotdogs.

[deb415611]

Debi,

Awesome sausage!  I'm going to try your slicing pepperoni soon.  What size casings did you use ? Freezer is empty of sausage so I need to set aside a sausage making day. 

Could you use the whey in place of fermento on a recipe calling for fermento?

Thanks,
Deb

[DeejayDebi]

Hi Deb -

Normally this recipe would use something about 30 to 39 mm casings. I put it in 4 inch casings becuase I just happen to have about 200 feet of it. The texture is like the stuff you see in most butcher shops. For the really firm salami like texture you need to dry ferment for a few months. Keep the temperature low or you will render out all the fat and it will be very dry.

As for whey I believe fermento is cultured whey and skimed milk powder. I always used dry powdered milk as the binding ingrediant in sausage. Never use soy it will be awful and gummy! I use whey or powdered whey as my liquid in all spicey sausages so I guess I have recreated a form of the fermento product by default. Buttermilk powder and whey will do the same thing. You're creating a lactic acid bacterial fermentation just like in cheese.

I guess the old farmers understood lactic acid fermentation years before we even knew what it was - they just did it with everything - pickling, sausage and cheese.

Salute!

[mtncheesemaker]

Hey Debi;
Those pictures are making my mouth water! My hubby came running in to see them up close.
I do have a technical question for you about your cheese/sausage/bookwriting, etc.:
When do you sleep, girl???
Pam

[DeejayDebi]

  Pam I have been known to run on 2 or 3 hours sleep a night for a week until I just about fall down. Sometimes I just have to take a nap after work for a few hours to keep going.

Today I got another bright idea. I've been wanting to add stuffing to the center of my turkey roll but I've been afraid it's make someone sick as it is slow smoked so  ... I make a stuffing sausage with extra thick gravy which should thin as the celery and onion cook, made from fried skin and broth and baked it. Hopefully this will firm when chilled slice and liquify when reheated and so I can add it to the top of my smoked turkey sammies.

[DeejayDebi]

I thought I would add a post of the final experiment - stuffed stuffing. It worked great!
After making a smoked turkey loaf the other night I was looking for a way to make some sandwich sized stuffing to go with the sandwiches. So I made a batch of stuffing and put it in a casing and baked it. Okay sounds hokey and It's a waste of casing but I have tons of this stuff so what the heck?
 
Any way it worked great!  The 4 inch casing is exactly the same size as a slice of Wonder Bread (Which is all Jessie and my son will eat) so both were made in ths size. I like a nice thicj hunk of turkey on a piece of toasted bread with an equal portion of stuffing for after holiday meals. Problem is I only want it once in a while. So the object was to make an after Thanksgiving sammie available anytime I want it - when I want it.
 
So here it is and Jessie and I both really enjoyed it!
 
Here's the cold sliced turkey and stuffing on a slice of bread.
Here's the baked sammie out of the oven
and here's dinner! Boy that was good!

[deb415611]

Thanks Debi!

I have 29-32 mm casings so I'll use those.  The dry curing is in my future but not til after I get comfortable with cheese so your recipe will be great to work with now.   

Great idea on the stuffing. 

[DeejayDebi]

Thanks Deb!

Just keep in mind this is a cook pepperoni (like cooked salami) so you won't expect a fermented product. The advantage we have with fermented sausages is we already have the caves! Or in winter I hang them in the attic or spare unheated room.

[Tea]

I have GOT to start making sausages again.  They all looks wonderful.

[DeejayDebi]

I'm always ready to share when your ready Tea. Is there an Austrailian sausage I should know about? I am always trying new things. I get bored easy.

[Tea]

Well I don't know.  Remember that we are a mismash of English, German, Italian heritage, with the American culture also weighing heavily on us, so our sausages for the most part are a blend of these influences.  We have something call the bushranger snag, but usually it just means, onions, and tomatoes.  There is a beautiful sausage that I purchase from a local butcher that has won him lots of awards, and it is a honey, garlic and herb.  It is a beef sausage and is superb.  A lot of influential cooks are starting to experiment with local bush herbs etc that are found growing in Australia, so that has been interesting to follow.