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
- Digital Smokers (I use the model 4D WiFi)
- Bella’s Cold Smoke Generator
- Kamado Ceramic Grill
- High Quality Natural Casings (AA Grade)
- MK4 Thermapen (Accurate Thermometer)
- Chef Knife – KOTAI (for 15% off use discount code – 2guys )
- Sausage Pricker
- Meat Grinders
- Meat Mixers
- Sausage Stuffers
- Stuffing Horn Cleaner
- Butcher Twine & Dispenser
- Small accurate Scale for spices
- Large Capacity Scale (33 pounds)
- Drying rack and tray
- Custom Cutting Board
Enjoy the video and the recipe. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.
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Texas Hot Guts with Pepperjack Cheese
A smokey, juicy, spicy cheesy, Texas treat
How much do you want to make? 1000 grams
Ingredients
- 1000 g Brisket 70/30
- 16 g Kosher salt
- 2.5 g Cure #1
- 36 g High Heat Non-Fat Dry Milk Powder
- 3.6 g Black Pepper
- 5.5 g Granulated Garlic
- 3.6 g Granulated Onion
- 3.6 g Paprika
- 5.5 g Cayenne
- 3.6 g Mustard
- 2.5 g Chili Powder
- 2.5 g Turmeric
- 1.5 g sodium erythorbate optional – use this ingredient if you want to cook the same day you stuff your sausage. If you don't use this, then you'll want to let the sausages rest in the fridge overnight before cooking (this allows the cure to do its job before cooking)
- 66 g Fresh Jalapeños deseed for a milder version
- 70 g Pepper Jack Cheese
- 118 ml beef bone broth unsalted
- hog casings
Instructions
- Clean and rehydrate your hog casings
- Prepare the brisket by cutting the meat and fat into small strips or cubes. Place in the freezer for an hour or until the temp reaches below 34F (1.1c).
- Prepare all of your seasonings.
- Grind your very chilled meat, fat, and jalapenos on a course plate (10ml)
- Add all of the seasonings and liquid to your mincemeat and mix till it becomes very tacky. If you grab a small handful it will stick to your hand if you hold your hand upside down.
- Once your meat has become tacky add the pepper jack cheese and mix to incorporate the cheese.
- Stuff your mincemeat into the casings, link, and prick out any air pockets.
- Let the sausages rest in your refrigerator overnight to allow the cure to work.
- IF YOU ARE USING SODIUM ERYTHORBATE (CURE ACCELERATOR) YOU CAN COOK THIS WITHOUT HAVING THEM REST OVERNIGHT IN THE REFRIGERATOR
Smoking Schedule
- IF YOU ARE USING A BBQ PIT OR OFFSET SMOKERStart by drying out your sausages. Leave them at room temperature for 1-2 hours. They should feel dry to the touch with no condensation on them.Place then in your pit or smoker (indirect heat) with your smoker set to 150f (65.5c). Smoke for several hours.Increase the temp to 200f (93.3c) until you reach an internal of 145f (62.7c)
- IF YOU HAVE A DIGITAL SMOKERStart by drying your sausage out and bringing them to room temp before smoking. I set my smoker to 100F (37.7c) with the door slightly open for 1.5 hours. This will dry out the sausage and get it ready for smokingNext raise the temperature to 125F (51.6c) for 1.5 hour and begin to apply smoke.Raise to 155F (68.3c) for 1 hour, then raise to 175F (79.4) for 1 hour, then raise to 200F (93.3) till the internal temp reaches 145F (62.7)
- Once cooked submerge in ice cold water then allow to bloom for several hours at room temperature. Enjoy!
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Why no cure accelerator when going directly into the smoker?
If you are going directly into the smoker, you should use a cure accelerator. The way the recipe is written though it reads to let the sausage rest in the refrigerator overnight
Hi Eric, after mixing up all the spices with meat should I leave in the fridge overnight and then casing or can I casing it straitaway and leve in the fridge overnight before smoking? Thank You
I would case it straight away then place in the fridge overnight before smoking
is there a rule of thumb for weight if using dehydrated peppers instead of fresh peppers?
Thanks, Jason H.
not really. it comes down to personal preference. I usually add .25% of dried. So if I were to add 40 grams of fresh peppers, i would add 10 grams of dried. But really it comes down tto what you prefer.
Hey there, So i have made hot links before ( well, every time i smoke a brisket) and i usually eat them straight off the smoker. This could be a really stupid question… but i’m getting confused with the ice bath. Should i be putting them into an ice bath post smoke and then heat them on the grill later? Or are they good straight off the grill? Admittedly i always have loads so freeze them. Should i be putting the spares in the ice bath ahead freezing? Apologies if thats the most ridiculous confused question ever…. Its just how my brain tries to work!!!!
Cheers
J
I would give them an ice water bath post smoking/cooking. Then freeze the extra and reheat when you are ready to eat.
Hi Eric! In the video it looks like just two jalapeños were added, but the recipe calls for 7oz of jalapeños for 6lbs of meat. That would be around 7 jalapeños or more. Just want to double check so I don’t make it too hot.
That’s correcto 7oz sounds about right. You can deseed the peppers and scale up or down to your own personal tastes.
I just wanted to verify the calculation for the sodium eyrthorbate. From what I’ve read, 0.1oz or 2.8g per 10 lbs of meat. Please correct me if I’m mistaken. I use it in many of my sausages, but I just happened to notice the amount that it called for in a 20 lb batch that I’m doing and it caught my attention. Thank you in advance!
The amount recommended is anything between .05% and .15% in your recipe. We use the higher amount .15% so for every kilo you would use 1.5 grams. For 20 pounds you would use 13.62 grams. This amount converts the nitrite faster.
Hi Eric, I just finished making these and they turned out absolutely spot on. I didn’t see much colour change from the cure overnight, but after smoking they were perfect. Just wanted to say thanks for the great detailed instructions and the video. I made mine in a pit barrel, it’s very hard to keep the temperature low, so I only managed to keep them in for about two and a half hours before the internal temperature of the sausages was above 65c, but they still tasted great.
Excellent!!! Glad it worked out
Why has nobody realized that the 2.5g of cure #1 (pink salt) is supposed to be 25g for a .25% mix ratio.
I sure hope you did not add 25g of pink salt to your recipe😅. .25% is equal to .0025 so if you multiply 1000g x .0025 you will get 2.5g. Here’s an easier breakdown:
10% of 1000g = 100g
5% of 1000g = 50g
2.5% of 1000g = 25g
.25% of 1000g = 2.5g
Hi, Eric.
Love your videos. Thanks for the introduction to sausage making. I haven’t made too much. I did, however, make Bradley Robinson’s Texas Hot Guts over the last 2+ days. I haven’t mastered fire and temperature control, so it took less time to cook them today. I was worried about having overcooked them. Worried for absolutely no reason. Took one out for a test and it was amazing. A little spicy – not sure if it was the cayenne or the jalapenos – but it was delicious. They’re sitting on a rack in the kitchen, blooming now.
I do have a question for you. What exactly does blooming do for the sausage?
Since this is the first time I’ve made these, as I always do on the first time, I tried to follow the recipe exactly. Next time (after serving the 16 sausage links on Memorial Day to friends and family), I’ll probably cut back on both the peppers and cayenne. Unless my wife tells me to do otherwise.
Regards,
blooming allows the smoke flavor to mellow out, it also allows oxygen to interact with the meat intensifying the color (more for ascetics than anything else)