IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
The Sausage Factory
This is an excellent example of the Student FAR surpassing the teacher.
Many years ago a Buddy, both an excellent fishing guide & deadly cook, asked me if I would show him the ropes for making sausage. At that time my partner & I were producing several hundred pounds a year, so I simply said Sure, Come On Down. He caught on very quickly, and asked the odd piece of advice over the next year or so...
Then after a few more years he went to work in a butcher shop specializing in sausages and more.
Leap forward another few years, and now with one hell of a lot of experience under his belt. he began to build and outfit his own custom butchering and sausage making shop. That was around 5 years ago, and he has been hounding me since to come down and have a boo. Unfortunately until now I was unable to do so. But this year he basically demanded I show up, bring down some meat and my Polish Hunter Sausage recipe, noting he was willing to make that plus whatever else I wanted. How could I say no?
So I saddled up and made the run down there with the meat in tow. Been a spell since we had seen each other, and it was really great to do so once again! After a little BS'ing, we got down to the task at hand.
Here is Roy running the first batch (Hunter Sausage) through his massive meat grinder. I swear you could drop a whole cow into that and see it done within minutes!
The Beast:
A better shot showing more of that marvelous shop:
From there the ground meat goes into the mixer (another Beast!) along with the spices, binder & ice water. That machine made extremely fast work of a job I always dreaded (doing it by freezing hands):
Once it reaches the right consistency, the product goes into the Hydraulic Stuffer (which can take up to 60 pounds!) and is shot into the casings. Smoothest way I have ever seen that done:
Then racked and off to the Smoker:
Roy's smoker is huge (the Man never does anything in a small way!). You can see the external firebox to the left behind him. That gets filled with alder chunks and fired up once the smoker has reached the correct internal temperature.
The amount of smoke that produces it literally mind blowing! So much so that the smoking time is not a heck of a lot more than an hour!
The product turns out damned amazing!
Then it goes into a hot water bath to bring the internal temp up to snuff:
Once that temperature is realized, it goes into an ice water bath to instantly cool it down. Then onto racks to hang overnight to bloom. Forgot to take pix of those last two steps, but methinks you can visualize what I am getting at.
We then ran 40 pounds of brats through the process, and wrapped all of those before having a couple celebratory rums. Then up to the house for din-din. Roy bar-beed some wonderful moose burgers, topped with onion, cheese and fancy mushrooms, accompanied by home made fries and a fresh garden salad! Awesome hospitality, and of course awesome food!
Although Roy has one of the best chamber vacuum sealers going, I declined his generous offer to wrap all my smoked product. I knew this was coming, and had stocked up on a lot of rolls for my machine at home. So we chatted a spell over coffee before loading up my stuff. He did note that he rather liked the Polish Hunter Sausage (it is very unique and indeed excellent), so I left him with a coil and a half of that to enjoy.
I thanked him profusely, and then bade the Man a fond farewell noting I may well make this an annual trip!!
The run home was uneventful despite it being a long weekend.
But the truck certainly smelled Wonderful all the way home & still does!
Made it back in record time, and set up to put the product to bed.
Jalipino / Cheddar Smokies:
Polish Hunter Sausage:
The latter hit my taste buds so well I ate so much that I damn near did do supper any justice whatsoever!!
All in all a classic example of the Student really excelling the Teacher!
Roy's set up is one of the most professional I have ever seen, and a lot of folks have come to rely on his expertise to transform their meat into incredibly delicious products! Professionalism to the extreme!
Many MANY THANKS my Friend! Sincerely Appreciated!
And don't be surprised to hear a knock on your door following next year's hunting season!!
Cheers!
Nog
This is an excellent example of the Student FAR surpassing the teacher.
Many years ago a Buddy, both an excellent fishing guide & deadly cook, asked me if I would show him the ropes for making sausage. At that time my partner & I were producing several hundred pounds a year, so I simply said Sure, Come On Down. He caught on very quickly, and asked the odd piece of advice over the next year or so...
Then after a few more years he went to work in a butcher shop specializing in sausages and more.
Leap forward another few years, and now with one hell of a lot of experience under his belt. he began to build and outfit his own custom butchering and sausage making shop. That was around 5 years ago, and he has been hounding me since to come down and have a boo. Unfortunately until now I was unable to do so. But this year he basically demanded I show up, bring down some meat and my Polish Hunter Sausage recipe, noting he was willing to make that plus whatever else I wanted. How could I say no?
So I saddled up and made the run down there with the meat in tow. Been a spell since we had seen each other, and it was really great to do so once again! After a little BS'ing, we got down to the task at hand.
Here is Roy running the first batch (Hunter Sausage) through his massive meat grinder. I swear you could drop a whole cow into that and see it done within minutes!
The Beast:
A better shot showing more of that marvelous shop:
From there the ground meat goes into the mixer (another Beast!) along with the spices, binder & ice water. That machine made extremely fast work of a job I always dreaded (doing it by freezing hands):
Once it reaches the right consistency, the product goes into the Hydraulic Stuffer (which can take up to 60 pounds!) and is shot into the casings. Smoothest way I have ever seen that done:
Then racked and off to the Smoker:
Roy's smoker is huge (the Man never does anything in a small way!). You can see the external firebox to the left behind him. That gets filled with alder chunks and fired up once the smoker has reached the correct internal temperature.
The amount of smoke that produces it literally mind blowing! So much so that the smoking time is not a heck of a lot more than an hour!
The product turns out damned amazing!
Then it goes into a hot water bath to bring the internal temp up to snuff:
Once that temperature is realized, it goes into an ice water bath to instantly cool it down. Then onto racks to hang overnight to bloom. Forgot to take pix of those last two steps, but methinks you can visualize what I am getting at.
We then ran 40 pounds of brats through the process, and wrapped all of those before having a couple celebratory rums. Then up to the house for din-din. Roy bar-beed some wonderful moose burgers, topped with onion, cheese and fancy mushrooms, accompanied by home made fries and a fresh garden salad! Awesome hospitality, and of course awesome food!
Although Roy has one of the best chamber vacuum sealers going, I declined his generous offer to wrap all my smoked product. I knew this was coming, and had stocked up on a lot of rolls for my machine at home. So we chatted a spell over coffee before loading up my stuff. He did note that he rather liked the Polish Hunter Sausage (it is very unique and indeed excellent), so I left him with a coil and a half of that to enjoy.
I thanked him profusely, and then bade the Man a fond farewell noting I may well make this an annual trip!!
The run home was uneventful despite it being a long weekend.
But the truck certainly smelled Wonderful all the way home & still does!
Made it back in record time, and set up to put the product to bed.
Jalipino / Cheddar Smokies:
Polish Hunter Sausage:
The latter hit my taste buds so well I ate so much that I damn near did do supper any justice whatsoever!!
All in all a classic example of the Student really excelling the Teacher!
Roy's set up is one of the most professional I have ever seen, and a lot of folks have come to rely on his expertise to transform their meat into incredibly delicious products! Professionalism to the extreme!
Many MANY THANKS my Friend! Sincerely Appreciated!
And don't be surprised to hear a knock on your door following next year's hunting season!!
Cheers!
Nog
