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Cold smoked and dry aged sausage

Jgetch

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2017
Messages
463
Location
Wisconsin
I fired up the cold smoker again today. Completely forgot to take any pictures and it’s closed with the smoke rolling so I’ll post some tomorrow when I pull them. Anyway, two types. Did an old family recipe for Hungarians. Half stayed fresh and went in the freezer and the other half got the pink salt treatment and into the cold smoker. After a good 24 hr smoke they’ll join the pancetta to hang for 3-4 weeks. Along with those I also made a batch of an Italian recipe from a pretty famous (now closed) old world style sausage shop from northern Wisconsin/Michigan border. Supposedly one of my uncles got the recipe from the kid after the health dept made them stop producing about a decade ago. They hung all their for sale sausage in the basement as well. Some of you from up that way probably know the name: Renerios. You used to have to drink a glass of their wine and talk shop for a little bit and then they’d lead you down the stairs where an unbelievable stench (meant in the best possible way) would hammer you as you went down the stairs and you were met by tons of sausage hanging and aging from the basement rafters. They had these snack stick (they called them something else and it’s eluding me right now) that was their Italian recipe plus pink salt #2 and then let ‘em hang for 10-14 days. I’ve never been able to get mine to turn out like theirs but pretty close and even when you miss doing these types of things it’s almost always delicious in its own right. So I’ll snap pics tomorrow when I transfer to the aging room. Eat something delicious!
 
Any chance you will be posting that Italian recipe?

I need to make more sausage. I haven't made any since I made several different types of bear summer sausage. I really enjoy the process.

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Well there they are done in the smoker and then hanging in the room with the pancetta. Not to long of a wait for these. Usually ready within 21-28 days. I let them hang like that overnight last night and then today I took some spacers (I used canning caps) to make sure none of the sausage was touching another piece. If they are then those parts that are touching go way slower and harbor a wet environment that could potentially support the bad types of mold and bacteria that we wouldn’t want. Within a week we should start to see a nice white mold growing on these. That’s good. We want the white mold to colonize quickly so that the bad stuff doesn’t have any room to get a foot hold. I’ll grab some more pics with mold in about 10 days. We’re headed to Hawaii tomorrow so I won’t be able to check them until we get back. Eat something delicious today!


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Well they dried out a bit quicker then I would’ve liked. Prefer to get around 30 days of hanging for the flavor profile to ferment but today when I checked with a knife everything looked and tasted really good with just the right amount of moisture.
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The bright red are the Hungarians and the darker red are the Italians. I used a very big grinder plate when I ground (the one with the big triangles instead of the smaller circles). This is what gives the big individual pieces of fat and meat dispersed throughout the sausage. This is my favorite way to do a cutting sausage and even a brat type cooking sausage (which I did keep about 5# of each of these for buns of course).
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Not a bad haul for 36# of meat and fat plus there was the fresh and bulk sausage that is already in the freezer.

Everything, except a few pieces that got sliced up and eaten, got wrapped and is in the freezer now. Big float trip in Alaska this summer that will use up a fair amount but this should last through the holidays being used on sausage and cheese trays (along with those pancetta that are coming along) for any gathering we have going on. They hold up really well with some quality aged cheese.

Eat something good today!


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I was jealous just looking at these but, now imagining you eating these floating down a river in Alaska.......I think I hate you.. ;)

That sounds like heaven to me.
We’re pretty jacked for the Alaska trip. Been in the works for over a decade and finally got it all put together. Generally speaking the food is either freeze dried or salmon so some nice sausage will be a good way to break it up a bit.
 
If anyone wants to take a crack at these you do not actually need to cold smoke them and once I even used liquid smoke. I used to get hung up on the temp and humidity to the point I was building out a refrigerator to act as the aging chamber. For the first batch I ever did I thought “I’ll just try it in the basement and then get the fridge built for next time”. Well they turned out great and I never made a chamber. My buddy went to Italy a couple years ago and he said almost every country home he visited had meat hanging from any available spot that was shaded. In kitchens, on the back of chairs, breezeways, carports and if they had them basements and cellars and they rarely use the pink salts over there. So if you want to do it go for it. If you don’t have the ratios for the salt/pink salt/meat just message me the weight of your meat and I’ll send the ratios. Don’t worry about having perfect conditions because they’ll turn out great regardless. Now’s the perfect time of year and with 30-40# of pork butts you’ll have cutting sausage for the rest of the year……hopefully!
 
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