r/sausagetalk

Not necessarily for sausage but you guys know grinders. I'm planning on getting a LEM #8 0.5hp grinder on their 4th of July sale to be used for grinding brisket into ground beef for burgers, tacos, chili and spaghetti. Will a double grinder do a good job of evenly distributing the fat? Or should I stick to double grinding with 2 passes on a single grinder?

I got some pepperoni in my fermentation chamber. My question is what is everyone’s thoughts about how long to dry cure? The recipe I’m seeing from 2 Guys and a Cooler has them hanging u til they lose 20% and then smoking them. Other recipes I’ve seen will have them hanging until 40% weight loss like salami.

What’s the best option?

This seems like a silly question but can’t seem to find a great answer. Is there really any reason to choose one over the other, or is sheet pan cooking meant to be more for convenience with more servings?

Hello, was wondering if anyone had suggestions for taking homemade sausages camping with kids involved. I make a pretty standard fresh pork butt in lamb casing with different seasonings depending on the batch.

I want to bring sausages instead of hotdogs for dinners camping (5 days, sausages would be in a cooler with ice). Anyway to make this safe? Also kids dgaf about cooking to temp around the fire pit so I thought pre-cooking might be best. I could bake, bbq, sous-vide. Could then freeze before putting them in the cooler.

Got grocery from metro on chemong rd Peterborough delivered. When I was putting them away the smell hit me so bad I gagged hard. Got my money back through instacart and reported them. You cant sell rotted meat and think that’s ok and why the fuck didn’t the guy shopping smell that? Disgusting. 🤮

Some of my favorite sausages, like Chorizo, use acidic ingredients like vinegar. Every time I’ve made a batch that uses vinegar it always turns the casings rubbery. Every time I’ve skip the ingredient, it feels like it’s missing. But I’ve definitely have had sausages with vinegar in the ingredients and they always seem to be just fine somehow. Anyone have any tips on how to get it right?

I mess around with making Cajun smoked sausage (not quite andouille, I dont think, but similar) every so often, and have been trying to experiment with it when I can. I’m trying to figure out how to get my homemade sausage to the consistency I want it, where it’s dense enough that, with kitchen shears or a knife, you can cut it real thin.

Last time I made sausage was probably the best I’ve made so far. Like 85% pork, 14% deer, and maybe 1% chicken liver, coarsely ground, and mixed with seasonings & cooked finely-chopped veggies (onions, garlic, peppers) that had steeped in beer overnight. Then I stuff and let it smoke a couple hours on one of those pellet grills. Better than all my other attempts but still falls apart if it’s cut into slices smaller than 1/2 an inch.

I have some ideas of what it might be:

- because of limited real estate, they’re all curved on the smoker grill. Maybe letting them hang and get straighter could help?

- cold smoke it, I can’t quite do that with my pellet smoker

- mix in a little bit of finer-ground meat

But I wanted some professionaler opinions. Thank you.

I used to get my venison processed at Kewaskum Meats each year until the new owners took over, and it eventually went out of business. It was the best venison (summer sausage) I have ever had and I have been searching for years to find a meat market that is as good as Kewaskum used to be. Has anyone found anything close in the eastern or central part of Wisconsin? I am willing to drive if it's that good! Thanks!

I buy my sausage from my butcher but it's a frozen lump when I buy it. Often times I just want one sausage but I have to defrost most of the clump just to get one sausage. I end up defrosting the whole package and then simmering all of the sausage and then keeping what I need in the refrigerator for the next few days. The leftover sausage that had been simmering gets refrigerated for a few hours and then repackaged and then put back in the freezer. My question is, is this safe? Thank you.

New to this, in fact have never tried before. Looking to try a batch of bison/pork sausage and bought pork belly to add in- about 3 1/2 lbs.

So I guess first, if I'm thinking about a half pound of belly to 1 lb each of bison and sausage, does that sound about right? And secondly, would it be logical to grind the whole belly and portion into about half pound bags to freeze? Or better to leave unused whole until I need it.