Follow basic smoked sausage preparation practices when making this sausage.
- Clean and sanitize all of your equipment before and after use
- Prepare your casings a day in advance and let them soak in the refrigerator.
- Keep your meat and grinder parts super cold (below 34F or 1c) at all times.
- Mix your very chilled meat (under 34f or 1c), liquid, and seasonings till the mince becomes very tacky.
- Stuff the mince into your sausage casings and prick out any air pockets.
- If you plan on using a curing salt let your sausage rest in the refrigerator overnight to allow the cure to work.
- The next day follow a low and slow smoking schedule.
- Cook sausage till you reach your desired cooking temperature
- Once the internal temp has been reached place the sausages in a cold-water bath to cool down and let them bloom at room temperature for 3-4 hours
Here are a few things you might find useful when making a smoked sausage.
- SavorYe Flavor Booster
- Digital Smokers (I use the model 4D Pro-series WiFi)
- Bella’s Cold Smoke Generator
- High Quality Natural Casings (AA Grade)
- Non Fat Dry Milk (Binder for better texture and moisture retention)
- Potato Starch (Binder for better texture and moisture retention)
- Insta Cure #1
- Eco Cure #1 (A Nitrite free alternative to curing your meat)
- Cure Accelerator
- Thermapen ONE (Accurate Thermometer)
- Sausage Pricker
- Kotai Chef Knife
- Sausage Stuffers
- Meat Grinder
- Meat Mixers
- Stuffing Horn Cleaner
- Butcher Twine & Dispenser
- Small accurate Scale for spices
- Large Capacity Scale (33 pounds)
- Drying rack and tray
- Custom Cutting Board
- Jende Lapping plate for sharpening our grinder plates and knife
Enjoy the video and the recipe. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.
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Andouille Sausage
A New Orleans Staple
How much do you want to make? 1000 grams
Ingredients
- 700 g pork shoulder
- 300 g pork back fat
- 15 g kosher salt
- 2.5 g insta cure #1
- 10 g black pepper
- 7 g savorye
- 5.5 g cayenne pepper
- 45 g minced garlic
- 1 g dried thyme
- 100 g water
- 25 g potato starch
- hog casings
Instructions
Prepare the casings
- Rinse off the salt and flush the casings with some cool water. Place the cleaned casings in some fresh water with some baking soda in it (I use 1 tsp per quart of water) and place in the refrigerator. If you let your casings soak for at least 12 hours, they will be nice and tender by the time you use them.
Prepare the Meat
- Clean meat from any silver skin and arteries. Chill the meat and the fat so that the temperature is below 34f (1.1c)
- Grind chilled meat and fat on a course plate (anything between 10mm and 18mm works). Rechill. Keep the temp under 34f (1.1c)
- Combine the rest of the ingredients (spices, garlic, liquid, binder) and mix till the meat turns into a sticky batter. The meat mixture will stick to your hand when you grab a small handful of it and turn your hand upside down.
- Stuff mixture in your casings and link them to your desired size. If you notice any air pockets, be sure to prick them out
- Place the sausage in your refrigerator overnight so that the cure can do its job
- The next day, smoke the sausage using incremental adjustments in temperature to slowly bring the sausage up to a core temperature of 145f (62.7c) – 150F (65.5c).
If you have a digital convection smoker:
- 1 hour at 100f (37.7c) with the fan on at 50%. This dries out the sausage.
- 1 hour at 125f (51.6c) start adding smoke. Fan still on at 50%
- 1.5 hours at 150f (65.5c)
- The finally increase the temp to 170f (76.6c) till the internal temperature of your sausage reaches 145f (62.7c). Once you hit your target internal, let the sausage remain there for 3-5 minutes for proper pasteurization. I like to add an additional warming stage to my smoker where I'll back the temperature down to 145f to complete pasteurization.
If you have a non convection digital smoker this is a great cooking schedule:
- 1.5 hours at 100f (37.7c) – this dries out the sausage (leave the dampers wide open and leave the door slightly ajar)
- 1 hour at 125f (51.6c) – this is when I start applying smoke
- 1 hour at 155f (68.3c)
- 1 hour at 175f (79.4c)
- then I bump up to 200f (93.3c) until I reach an internal of 145f (62.7c). Make sure you let the sausage cook for at least 3-5 minutes once you hit the 145f (62.7c) temperature to achieve proper pasteurization.
If you are cooking on a pit or offset:
- on indirect heat start smoking sausages while the pit is at 150f (65.5c) and smoke for 3 hours.
- Increase the temperature to 250f (121.1c) and cook till you get to an internal of 150f (65.5c)
Once finished
- After your sausage has finished cooking, place them in a cold-water bath till the internal temp gets below 100f (37.7c). Then place the sausage on a rack or hang them at room temp for 3-4 hours to bloom. After they bloom, refrigerate and enjoy
Storage Instructions
- For long term storage, place the smoked sausages in a vacuum sealed bag and freeze. They will last up to a year in the freezer.
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Hey Eric. Another great recipe you have given us. I have been wanting for this a long time. Looks fantastic. Can’t wait to make it. Thank you for all you do.
You are very welcome!! As soon as you make it let me know your thoughts!
Hey Eric Winning the 3.5 convection Smokin it Smoker would up my sausage game so much. I know these smokers are top of the line. Great smokers and great people at Smokin it Smoker.
Pork shoulder Vs Pork Butt? I am sure it is a personal preference but I rarely use Shoulder for any sausage. Should I be? Anyway as to the Smoker: I made a smoker out of a 1960’s freezer and have been dealing with huge temperature swings for decades and reeeeely have to stay on top of the process. Recently I installed a digital controller and was much happier with less Temp swings to the tune of 15 degree variance from Digital temp probe to door mechanical temp probe but when I did some smoked trout the other day I saw a 30 plus degree swing in temps…Totally frustrating…I have been looking at Smokn-It smokers ever since I started watching you but the price point for the PRO is just to huge for me to warrant that kinda expense. Love to own one though!!
Keep up the great Videos Eric. Stellar stuff. Will be making this Andoui soon.
It really doesn’t matter what part you use. What’s more important is lean to fat ratio. I like 70:30
Eric you said the minced garlic should be about 5%. In the recipe for 1000G of meat it calculated 15G of minced garlic. Wouldn’t 5% of 1000G be 50G of minced garlic? I am making 4536G (10lbs) of the Andouille and the Calculator says 68.04G…??
5% of 4536G is 226.8G. That’s about 15 Tablespoons minced garlic (basically 1 cup). Something don’t sound right..lol…Help me out please.
The Recipe Calculator for my 4536G Batch calculated the minced garlic at 1.5% or 68.04G which is about what I have been noticing in other recipes. Actually 1.5-2.8% of total meat seems to be a popular amount.
Thanx
Thank you for catching that. I’ve adjusted the recipe. In my video I added 4.5% minced garlic. 45g per kilo
Thanks for feedback on Garlic. As soon as my SavorYe gets here I will make that 10lb batch with 204g of garlic and let U know how it turns out. I assume this comment section will still be active and available for you to respond.
I will definitely double this sausage recipe. I really do like this recipe better than your original Andouille reipe–this one is easier to make and I also like mixing all the ingredients with the meat and refrigerating it overnight before grinding all of it. I know that Andouille sausage is supposed to have a chunkier grind but I am goinging to use the 10 mm plate. I do like smaller pieces of meat in my sausage endeavors. Thank you for being an excellent teacher of different sausages. I’ve found that you are a very trustworthy presenter and when I use any of your recipes, there is never a failure. Thank you, thank you!!!!
Yes, I would love to have a convection smoker from Smokin-it Smokers but with this economy I cannot afford one.
Thank you for such a kind comment!!
I love your channel and love this recipe. This Andouille sausage recipe has jumped to the top of my short list of next sausages to make. Thank you. I am keeping my fingers crossed to win the Smokin-it smoker because, to be absolutely honest, I am not very skilled when it comes to hot smoking sausages (or really anything) and I can use all the help I can get. Being able to use such a high end smoker that can be programmed would be an absolute game changer for me and the quality sausages that I would be able to produce.
I’ve just started making sausages last year with the guidance of your videos and am completely hooked on building sausage. I’m currently smoking on a pellet smoker and it’s not ideal for hanging sausage. I would love to win a smokin-it smoker.
have made this today came out wonderful
Very cool!!
Hey Eric started making sausage about 2 years ago and a new smokin it smoker would really help me up my smoking game. The smoker I have now is not big enough or controllable enough to get the kind of product that I’m looking for
Love your show you have taught me so much! Thank you
I do need a smoker. Please include me in the drawing for the Professional Model 3.5 Convection Digital WiFi Smoker given by Smokin’-It Smokers, a family owned company striving for customer satisfaction with affordable well constructed smokers.
Hi Eric!
I’ve been making sausages for a year or two using your recipes almost exclusively! I just got my Savor Ye two days ago so I’m going to try the andouille. The question I have is, after smoking can I store vac sealed in a fridge or should I freeze? I won’t be needing the sausage until mid February.
Many thanks in advance !
I would vac seal, then freeze. They freeze great!!