Author | Grilla Grills
Brand | MEAT!
Chef | Cosmo Goss
Chef Cosmo is back with a complete tutorial on how to make Smoked Sausage from start to finish. By the end of this video you’ll know how to trim, prep, grind, stuff and smoke Cheesy Kielbasa on your own.
This video is chock full of great tips and tricks from a professional chef that has something useful for even the most experienced home sausage maker. We’ll be using the Mammoth, the newest vertical pellet smoker from Grilla to smoke our meat because its massive chamber is specifically made to hang smoked sausage!
How do you get a tightly bound sausage?
When you’re using a mixer for making sausage it’s important to use it correctly to get a tightly bound sausage. Otherwise, it will have air bubbles, take on an improper shape and cook uneven. This comes down to ensuring you have the correct ratio of fat to meat and then mixing until you have the right texture. Luckily, Chef Cosmo has a simple test you can use to guarantee you’ve got the right texture. Grab a small amount of meat and roll a ball the size of your palm. If that ball sticks to your hand when you flip it over, you’ve got the right texture and it’s time to stop mixing.
Ingredients:
- 5.5 lbs. Pork Shoulder, cubed
- 2 lbs. Pork Belly, cubed
- Beef Middle Casing
- 1 lbs. Gouda Cheese, diced
- 2.5 Tbsp. Oregano
- 3 Tbsp. Kosher Salt
- 3 Tbsp. Garlic Powder
- 3 Tbsp. Black Pepper
- 1.5 Tsp. Curing Salt
Tools:
Directions:
Remove the Beef Middle casings from their original packaging. To remove excess salt, thoroughly rinse and set in cool water overnight, or for at least 1 hour in lukewarm water before stuffing.
Prepare your seasoning mix by combining all the dry ingredients above into a container and mix it thoroughly.
Cube your pork belly and pork shoulder into roughly 2” pieces and put them into a large bowl together.
Combine the meat and seasonings and mix until they’re thoroughly incorporated.
Cover and set this aside in the fridge overnight.
The next day, remove the seasoned meat from the fridge.
Dice your cheese into small cubes.
Pull out your meat grinder and slowly insert the small chunks.
Grind all your pork belly and pork shoulder together.
Once finished with grinding everything together, add your ground meat to the MEAT! Mixer and slowly add in your cheese.
When adding your cheese to the mix we recommend paying attention to the size you’ve cut it down to. Smaller pieces of cheese will melt throughout the sausage, giving you a rich and moist kielbasa. Larger chunks of cheese will keep their shape for the most part, and ooze out when you take a bite. Choose whichever you prefer or toss in a mix of both for variety.
Stop mixing when your meat mixture takes on a slightly tacky texture and all your ingredients are added.
You do not want to overmix your sausage; it will take on a tough or rubbery texture.
Great job, you’ve made your sausage filling. Now it’s time to stuff it into the casings we’ve been soaking.
Using the MEAT! Stuffer , press your final meat mixture into the canister. You will want to make sure you get it packed down to remove any air bubbles from the meat.
With the canister full, attach the casing to the stuffing tube. Leave an inch of casing hanging off and do not tie until you have pumped in some of the meat into the casing.
Twist off the size sausage you prefer; we recommend 10-12 inches at least for these larger summer sausages.
Hang sausages for 3-4 hours then place in fridge for a couple hours to allow casing to shrink and adhere to meat.
Once your sausages are set, turn your smoker on and set it to 180-degrees and allow it to smoke for at least 2-hours.
Congratulations, you’ve just smoked your own Gouda stuffed Kielbasa Summer Sausage!
