Follow basic smoked sausage preparation practices when making this sausage.

Clean and sanitize all of your equipment.
Keep your meat and grinder parts super cold (below 34F) at all times
Any liquid that is added to the mince needs to be ice cold
Mix your very chilled meat and seasonings till the mince becomes very tacky
Stuff the mince into sausage casings and prick out any air pockets
Refrigerate your sausage overnight to allow the cure to work
The next day follow a low and slow smoking schedule.
Cook sausages low and slow to an internal of 145f
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

Enjoy the video and the recipe. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

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4.88 from 16 votes

Smoked Hungarian Sausage

A spicy smoked sausage that is extremely versatile

Prep Time1 30

Cook Time6

How much do you want to make? 1000 grams

Ingredients

Metric – US Customary

700 g lean pork
300 g pork back fat
15 g kosher salt
2.5 g insta cure #1
4 g black pepper
3 g sugar
9 g hot Hungarian paprika
5 g sweet Hungarian paprika
5 g minced garlic
1.5 g caraway powder
78 ml water
hog casings

Instructions

Prepare the casings

Rehydrate your casing the night before you need them. 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 medium course plate. Rechill. Keep the temp under 34f (1.1c)
Combine the rest of the ingredients (spices and liquid) 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).

If you have a 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)
1.5 hours 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)

If you are cooking on a pit or offset here’s a different way:

on indirect heat start smoking sausages while the pit is at 150f (65.5) and smoke for 3 hours.
Increase the temperature to 200f (93.3) and cook till you get to an internal of 145f (62.7c)

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Rick Pickelhaupt

October 29, 2022 at 1:09 am

This is very close to my family recipe. We used a 90%/10% black pepper to white pepper to give it a bite and skip the caraway. We also would dry it for a few weeks to make a more like a salami firmness. This pairs well with fresh sweet red peppers.

Carl Burton

December 19, 2022 at 2:13 am

Oh Man is this a great recipe. Thank you Eric!
I made it this weekend, followed the recipe exactly and it turned out spectacular. It’s cold here in Central Oregon; 32 F for a high today, but no wind so the Masterbuilt smoker held great temps. Can’t complain about a few links having a bit of fat melt.

Eric
December 24, 2022 at 3:38 pm

Nice!!! I love this sausage. Very flavorful

Bob

February 12, 2023 at 8:54 pm

Eric,
Would this recipe work if I was going to use venison? I usually use pork butts with my venison, usually in a 50/50 ratio. I just found your site and want to try several 5lb batches of several of your recipes. Would you suggest a fatter cut of pork or add pork fat in place of some of the pork butts?
Thanks

Eric
February 19, 2023 at 2:48 pm

Venison is great. I would add a little extra back fat to the recipe to get you to that 30% mark

Andrew Sloan

November 28, 2023 at 12:33 am

Just finished making this with turkey and bacon. I had a 50lb turkey in the freezer from last season and my buddy gave me 20 lbs of leftover bacon from his wife’s perogie making for a local charity so I subbed it in for the pork fat and reduced the salt content slightly to compensate. they’re hanging now, waiting on the smoker tomorrow.