smoking Sausage season has begun

Hinky said:
The recipe uses Tender Quick which is a true cure as it contains sodium nitrites and sodium nitrates. Correct me if I'm wrong but the aversion to sodium nitrate/nitrite seems to be pretty much an American thing.
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I believe any sausage that is cold-smoked or air-dried should be cured with sodium nitrite(or sodium nitrate.) In the past, and in many old authentic recipes they even call for the use of saltpeter(potassium nitrate) but I would definitely avoid using this. I'd even avoid the sodium nitrate unless you are air-drying your sausage over a long period of time.

I also had a cheap(much cheaper than the cabellas one) horn type stuffer, but I gave it away and bought a better one after its first use. For me it was may to much work and you have to add a lot of liquid in the sausage mix, and have a second person helping which cramps my style;)
 
The weather's been getting nicer, and I've been making a lot of smoked sausage again lately. I'm using a lot of store bought seasonings again, although most times I also try a smaller batch of my own creation.
Anyways, I just ordered a bunch more supplies and am now educating myself in the fine art of fermented air dried sausage. I'm really hoping to learn all the microbiology involved in making a great pepperoni or salami but I also need to build a temp/humidity controlled drying chamber which likely will involve me buying a small fridge. Project pepperoni coming soon:)

Actually here's my first attempt at "Project pepperoni" although this is a non fermented, smoked type. It turned out good, but a little bit on the salty side even for pepperoni, and not quite spicy enough. Changes will be made next time, hopefully I can also find some slighly larger hog casings.

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Here's my sausage spice cupboard with some new additions

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You know, i was looking at the title of this thread and it just occurred to me......exactly when is it NOT sausage season?
 
For me winter and summer are off seasons, especially for smoked sausage but with a drying chamber, I might just never stop:)
 
Hinky said:
Penny-
Try to roll your own if you're interested, they actually don't turn out bad at all. You just roll up the mix in Saran Wrap to the thickness you want, then unroll the wrap onto a grill, let it sit on the grill overnight (refrigerated, of course) and then smoke it.
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How do you refridgerate your your grill?
 
I figured that , it just looked funny!

That is nice in the winter, it has been fairly warm here lately though.

Case-less sausages would be a little delicate, but not near as much trouble!
 
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