Hot Italian Sausage

CarolinaQ

I needed to take a Costco cryo of two frozen boneless butts out of the freezer and only needed one of them for a cook. Decided to break the other one down to use for slow cooker carnitas and the rest to make hot Italian sausage. Pulled a pound of frozen pork belly out too for the fat content.  Fried up a sample before stuffing and had nice heat and flavor.  Imagine will taste hotter after sitting in the fridge for a day, but could see adding a bit more red pepper flake otherwise. 

Sorry for mixing measurements and percentages, but I figure 5 pound increments are easily modified.

Hot Italian Sausage

4 lbs pork butt
1 lbs pork belly
1.5% salt
1Tbsp red pepper flakes 
2.5 tsp coarse black pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp coriander
2 big cloves diced fresh garlic
.3% toasted and ground fennel seed
.4% hot paprika
.1% cayenne

Stuffed in 32-35mm hog casings. Plan is to cook a few for lunch during the shoulder cook tomorrow.

JohnnyTarheel

Very nice.... mixture sounds spot on..

pgprescott

I’m continuously impressed by this group. Bravo

lkapigian

Nice @CarolinaQ,  recipe sounds great ,must have been in,the air, Butt was on,sale where I am so did the same...20lbs of sausage for around $20.00... Think,I probably doubled your red pepper flakes though ..all for lunch today 

BBQ_Mizer

Sorry if I sound like a moron, but what are the percentages based off in the recipe. Trying to figure out a good Italian recipe and this seems promising but I can't figure out the translation of % to tsp/tbs.

Thanks in advance for any clarification.

CarolinaQ

BBQ_Mizer said:

Sorry if I sound like a moron, but what are the percentages based off in the recipe. Trying to figure out a good Italian recipe and this seems promising but I can't figure out the translation of % to tsp/tbs.

Thanks in advance for any clarification.

Not at all. The way I posted the recipe was confusing. The percentages are percent of total meat and fat weight. I did a 5 lbs batch so 1.5% of 5lbs, or 80 ounces, would be 1.2 ounces of salt. 

After eating a few from this batch I'd probably add more red pepper flake. I think this batch had a little kick but it wasn't flat out spicy. 

CarolinaQ

lkapigian said:

Nice @CarolinaQ,  recipe sounds great ,must have been in,the air, Butt was on,sale where I am so did the same...20lbs of sausage for around $20.00... Think,I probably doubled your red pepper flakes though ..all for lunch today 

Good call on doubling the pepper flake. Wasn't hot enough for me either. 

buzd504

Thanks.  Adding this to my collection of sausage recipes.

bgebrent

Yup.  Great post.

XC242

That’s some righteous looking sausage. 

GrillSgt

Damn. 

WeberWho

Nice work!

mlc2013

Just about to make some sausage for the first time this weekend and was about to troll for ideas so thank you for beating me to the punch, Ill try more red pepper flakes. Would the recipe be the same for sweet? Assuming I would nix the paprika ,cayenne, and red pepper?

lkapigian

I do 4 TBS pepper flakes per 5 lbs and its ( for me) just right...here's last weeks 20 lb batch @CarolinaQ motivated me to do Hot Italian, the Red ones are Linguica 

jabam

@lkapigian what kind of casing do you use? I can’t find natural casing, here in Hanford, was wondering where you get yours?

lkapigian

jabam said:

@lkapigian what kind of casing do you use? I can’t find natural casing, here in Hanford, was wondering where you get yours?

@jabam I use Hog Casing Take a ride down to Quality Meats on Demaree in Visalia, it is right off the 198 they sell it by the Hank $20.00 in stock . About 15 Minutes from Hanford ..A Hanks will do about 100 LBS and it keeps forever in the fridge

buzd504

Thoughts on these?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030HSFW0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

jabam

Perfect, I know where that is, thanks!

lkapigian

jabam said:

Perfect, I know where that is, thanks!

If you can't make it here, one of my techs lives in Hanford I can have him bring it to you

lkapigian

buzd504 said:

Thoughts on these?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030HSFW0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Takes a lot of soaking, I prefer getting them in Saline, but the dry do work. They have a bit of a Funk Smell when you open...But otherwise it is the same thing

jabam

No, that’s ok. We go to Visalia often. Thanks for the offer. 

buzd504

lkapigian said:

buzd504 said:

Thoughts on these?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030HSFW0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Takes a lot of soaking, I prefer getting them in Saline, but the dry do work. They have a bit of a Funk Smell when you open...But otherwise it is the same thing

Gotcha, thanks.

lkapigian

jabam said:

No, that’s ok. We go to Visalia often. Thanks for the offer. 

hey @jabam the opened a Sportsmans Warehouse in Visalia by Costco, they have a LOT of meat production stuff in stock LEM, Westin ...Grinders,Stuffers Mixers Jerky Supplies in case you have not been there yet

jabam

lkapigian said:

jabam said:

No, that’s ok. We go to Visalia often. Thanks for the offer. 

hey @jabam the opened a Sportsmans Warehouse in Visalia by Costco, they have a LOT of meat production stuff in stock LEM, Westin ...Grinders,Stuffers Mixers Jerky Supplies in case you have not been there yet

No, I didn’t know about it, I will definitely check it out! Thanks. 

CarolinaQ

lkapigian said:

I do 4 TBS pepper flakes per 5 lbs and its ( for me) just right...here's last weeks 20 lb batch @CarolinaQ motivated me to do Hot Italian, the Red ones are Linguica 

That is a gorgeous pile of sausage. Nicely done. 

I'll try 3 tablespoons of red pepper flakes next time I do 5lbs and see where it ends up for me. Unfortunately my kids are too young to eat the spicy stuff and my wife only likes all beef. More heart attack tubers for me then!

CarolinaQ

mlc2013 said:

Just about to make some sausage for the first time this weekend and was about to troll for ideas so thank you for beating me to the punch, Ill try more red pepper flakes. Would the recipe be the same for sweet? Assuming I would nix the paprika ,cayenne, and red pepper?

I believe that's right. I tend to think of sweet being a little more heavy on the fennel, sometimes with whole seed thrown into the mix. Also some add nutmeg. 

mlc2013

CarolinaQ said:

mlc2013 said:

Just about to make some sausage for the first time this weekend and was about to troll for ideas so thank you for beating me to the punch, Ill try more red pepper flakes. Would the recipe be the same for sweet? Assuming I would nix the paprika ,cayenne, and red pepper?

I believe that's right. I tend to think of sweet being a little more heavy on the fennel, sometimes with whole seed thrown into the mix. Also some add nutmeg. 

 sausage is being pushed off till next weekend didnt find everything I needed in time for this weekend but thank you for the advice