Italian Smoked Sausage like Italian fresh sausage can be made in sweet, medium or hot flavor.

Materials

lean pork trimmings, 25 %

regular pork trimmings, 75%

OR 100% pok butt

1.25 kg (2.75 lb)

3.75 kg (8.25 lb)

pork butt, 75%

lean beef, 25%

3.75 kg (8.25 lb)

1.25 kg (2.75 lb)

Ingredients

salt, 2.0 % (salt in Cure #1 accounted for)

Cure #1

cracked black pepper

ground red pepper (or cayenne)

ground coriander

ground caraway

ground nutmeg

whole fennel seeds

90 g (5 Tbsp)

12 g (2 tsp)

7.5 g (1 Tbsp)

5 g (2 tsp)

2.5 g (1 tsp)

10 g (5 tsp)

Instructions

1. Grind pork meat through 3/8" (10 mm) plate. Grind beef through 1/8" (3 mm) plate.

2. Mix all ingredients in 1 cup of water then pour over the ground meat. Mix everything together until sticky. You may add another cup of water during mixing.

3. Stuff into 36 mm hog casings.

4. Hang sausages at room temperature for 1-2 hours to dry OR place for 30 minutes in a pre-heated smokehouse (no smoke applied) at 110-120° F (43-49° C) to dry the surface of the sausages. Keep the vent fully open to facilitate removal of the moisture.

5. Adjust vent 1/4 open and apply heavy smoke increasing temperature to around 140° F (60° C) until desired color is obtained. This should take about 2 hours.

6. Increase temperature to 170° F ( 77 C) until an internal meat temperature of 154° F (68° C) is reached.

7. Shower sausages with cold water until internal meat temperature is reduced to 110° F (43° F).

8. Keep refrigerated.

Notes

Mild Italian-Sausage: reduce the amount of red pepper to 1 Tbsp.

Sweet Italian-Sausage: Replace red pepper with sweet Spanish or Hungarian paprika.