Stuffers Spice mixes

Hello and Merry Christmas,

I am a total newbie when it comes to sausage making, and I am going to learn how to make fresh and smoked sausages over the holiday season. I have never used Stuffers mixes either. One of the many question that I have is when using the Moose salami mix or the Pepperoni mix what kind of smoking time have you tried and did you finish them with an water immersion cooking to bring them up to the right internal temperature. Also do you find using pork fat preferable to using Pork butt when trying to get the right fat mixture. Like I said I am going to learn how to do it then spend the rest of my life trying to perfect it. Any insight or tried wisdom would be of great help.

Cheers!!!

Trial and error. Stuffers has decent mixes/cures. I would recommend a decent digital thermometer so you can have peace of mind that the links have reached critical temperature and are safe to eat.

For smoking, i find less fat is better if you like dry pepperoni. I haven't done the water/ice immersion yet, but will next batch, as I think it will tighten up the casings. I like to cold smoke for 45min then apply heat for 2+ hours

Trial and error has the potential to lead to some pretty unique flavors. I think that using the 1 hour of smoke to each inch of casing maybe the place to start. Thanks for the input.

I always finish in a hot water bath to make temp as using the smoker at hi temp can melt the fat. I also always ice bath unless you want a shrivelled wiener.

One thing i found is that the fat you add can really effect the flavour both right away by the grinder getting too warm and melting the fat or by the fat going bad over time in the freezer..we made huge batches at first but then changed to freezing chunks of meat with no fat or bone and then trying to make no more than 6 months worth of sausage at a time....after a year the sausages tasted gamey while the frozen meat was still excellenT..

I fill up a cooler with ice water and dunk all the smoked sauseges, keeps em plump.

Also I never use collagen cases..they tend to peel off with pepperoni or rip on the bbq with fresh sausages...real casings are the best!

For my pepperoni, I like 2-5% pork shoulder meat, Cabelas snackin stick or pepperoni mix, mix well, grind and stuff tight as you can. I then add to my smoker and smoke at 125-150 for 1.5 hours with a soft wood like pecan or crown royal pucks, then stop the smoke, increase the temp to 200 until the internal temp is what you like.

Once the smoke is done, I rotate my racks every 30 min as the Bradley has a tendency to cook near the back first and the front last, so rotating the racks up and down or front to back keeps even heat.

Make sure you write everything down as you will forget a vital step......speaking from experience!

Good luck and let us know how it works out. That is my next weekend plan: sausages, hamburger, jerky and pepperoni. Moose and deer.

Cheers

SS

[QUOTE=Sitkaspruce;1965669]For my pepperoni, I like 2-5% pork shoulder meat, Cabelas snackin stick or pepperoni mix, mix well, grind and stuff tight as you can. I then add to my smoker and smoke at 125-150 for 1.5 hours with a soft wood like pecan or crown royal pucks, then stop the smoke, increase the temp to 200 until the internal temp is what you like.

Once the smoke is done, I rotate my racks every 30 min as the Bradley has a tendency to cook near the back first and the front last, so rotating the racks up and down or front to back keeps even heat.

Do you find that pork shoulder with such low fat content keeps the pepperoni moist enough? Rotating in the smoker is really good advice.

So I have modified my first time sausage plan. I am going to try 5 lbs Boerewors and the 5 lbs Jalapeno cheddar smokies from Mikey Rafiki and a 5 lbs mild italian, and that should be enough to start with two batches of fresh sausages and one that will need to smoked. I am pretty stoked about this, now back to Christmas Shopping :)

I have used the stuffers spice mixes for a couple years and had been very happy with them. I use pork butt, grind myself and then add to game meat. I finish in hot water to bring up to proper temp and then ice bath. Works great. Good thermometer is a must. I use the bradley one. There is a remote one that a buddy has and it works great. you can see whats happening without running back and forth to the smoker.