Hot Links

Directions

If you’ve never made your own sausage, be warned that it’s a pretty involved process, but if done right will produce fantastic results. And there are endless possibilities. Pork, chicken, venison, other wild game, you name it. For the purpose of this recipe I made two versions, both out of pork. One version was a hot link and another version was a non-spicy sausage that my wife and kids could eat.

I should also note that you have to have the right equipment to be able to make sausage. You could dive right in with a heavy-duty grinder and stuffer (which is now on my Christmas list) or you can buy the KitchenAid stand mixer grinder and stuffer attachments, which is what I have. They aren’t ideal, but they get the job done if you’re not ready to fully plunge into sausage making.

The first step is to cut your pork shoulder into cubes. Make sure they are small enough to fit into your grinder. Once cubed, put them into a sheet pan and into the freezer. You want to leave enough surface area on each piece to freeze; don’t pack them too tight. Also put your grinder parts in the freezer so they get nice and cold. It’s way easier to grind the meat when the fat isn’t melting, so you want every aspect to be semi-frozen.

While it’s all in the freezer, now it’s time to get your hog casings ready. If you’re only doing 5-7 pounds of sausage, you’re only going to need about 1/3 of the casings that are in the bag. You can order them on Amazon or find them at Bass Pro Shops. Take them out and pack the rest of them back in the bag with some Kosher salt and toss them in your fridge until the next time you make sausage. Put the casings you are using into a bowl of water to soak for an hour.

After about an hour, assemble your grinder using the coarse grinding plate. Now it’s time to start feeding your meat into the grinder. Place a bowl underneath to catch the ground meat and work as fast as your grinder allows so your meat stays semi-frozen throughout. If it thaws too much it’ll start turning to mush as it goes through the grinder. This isn’t good, so put it back in the freezer for a big to let it refreeze.

Once it’s all ground, now it’s time to season it. This is another area that’s up to you. There are so many different seasonings, sauces, herbs, and more that you can add to achieve your desired flavor.

For hot links, I used 3 tablespoons of Lane’s Garlic2 Rub, 6 tablespoons of ancho powder, 3 tablespoons of hot paprika, 3 table spoons of coarse ground black pepper, and 5 tablespoons of Lane’s Southbound Sauce. I found the heat level to be slightly underwhelming right after cooking, but it intensified greatly after reheating the next day, so keep that in mind.

For the non-hot version, I used 3 tablespoons of Lane’s Garlic2 Rub, 5 tablespoons of Lane’s Kapalua Rub, 3 tablespoons of regular paprika, and 5 tablespoons of Lane’s Southbound Sauce. The Kapalua gave it a nice sweet flavor profile that paired really well alongside the hot links.

Mix up your ground, seasoned pork to let it all incorporate, but don’t work it too much with your hands, because — again — you don’t want that fat to melt. Stick it back in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes (along with your grinder parts) to refreeze.

Once the meat is about half frozen again, reassemble your grinder, but with the fine grinding plate this time. Run it all through again to grind more finely. This time through it helps incorporate all your flavor, and you can really start to smell it.

After it is all ground the second time, put it into a mixing bowl use the paddle attachment on your KitchenAid stand mixer (or you can use a hand mixer) to mix it for about 60 seconds. You want it to turn to a firm, sticky mush at this point, which will give you a great sausage texture. Now put it into the freezer to keep cool while you get your stuffer and casings ready.

Move your casings to a bowl of clean water. Find one end of one of the casings and get a couple of fingers into it to let some water in. Let the water move all the way through to the other end, then back. This cleans out the salt from the inside of the casing. Transfer your clean casing to another bowl of water and repeat with the rest of your casings. There’s a great video from All Things Barbecue that shows this process.

Now it’s time to put your casings onto the stuffer. Make sure to grease the stuffer first so they can slide on easily. You don’t want them to tear. In that video I linked to above, there’s a great method for keeping water inside the casing to help you slide it on. To me, this was the most tedious process, but it worked.

Once all your casings are on, it’s time to start stuffing. Tie off one end of the casing and start feeding your meat through with one hand. Keep your other hand on the end of the tube to help guide the meat into the casing. It takes a little bit to get the correct pressure down, but not too long. You don’t want to overstuff them or you could bust the casings, but you also don’t want to let air bubbles in. When you get to the end of your casing, stop stuffing and remove the back end of the casing. Use your fingers to squeeze the sausage in firmly so you have a little bit of room at the end of the casing. Don’t tie it off just yet. Repeat this whole process with the other casings until you are out of meat.

Now that you have your sausages cased, you can either leave them in one big rope that allows you to cut the cooked sausage in whatever size links you want, or you can pinch off links at your desired sizes and twist to form the links.

Finally, it’s time to actually cook them. The good thing is this is the quick part. You have a couple of options. You can grill them fast or smoke them to get an extra layer of flavor. If you smoke them, you’ll want to let them sit in the fridge, uncovered, overnight, which will help the smoke stick to the outside of the casings. So in that case, you’ll have to do all the grinding and stuffing the night before you intend to eat them. That’s what I did.

Fire up your smoker to 225 indirect with your choice of wood. I used pecan, which has been my wood of choice for most cooks recently. You’re look at an internal temperature of 160 degrees, which shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. It took my 6 pounds of sausage about an hour and a half. You don’t want to let your smoker temperature get much higher than that because you don’t want the casings to burst, but it’s also not a good idea to smoke much lower because the longer your meat goes from the time you take it out of the fridge until the time it reaches internal temp could create bad bacteria to grow. The general rule is less than four hours from 40 degrees to 140. If you’re smoking at 225, you’ll easily avoid anything bad without running too hot.

These turned out great and the true test was whether my wife would like them because she’s not a fan of sausage. She ate three links and said that she never wants to buy sausage from the store again, which means it looks like I have a lot more sausage making in my future! Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it makes a lot of sausage, so if you can knock it out on Friday, you have plenty to share at the Saturday tailgate. Serve with some vinegar-based coleslaw, maybe some pickles, or whatever other sides you want to add.

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