Smoked Italian Sausage

One of my favorite recipes, traditionally made with pork, but we'll be using beef. It can be fried for a delicious breakfast sausage along with creamy scrambled eggs, grilled over some charcoal for a delicious BBQ sausage sandwich, or eaten straight off the smoke as I did in the video! It's such a versatile and delicious recipe and can be made with a dedicated sausage stuffer, or with other creative stuffing methods. 

Ingredients:

• 1.25 Kg brisket meat (or buy it minced)
• 300 grams of fat (or buy it minced)
• About 1 meter of beef casings, same type used to make the Egyptian dish mombar.
• 30g salt
• 30g sugar
• 6-8 cloves of garlic
• 1.5 tbsp Fennel seeds
• 2 tbsp Paprika
• 1.5 tbsp Black peppercorns
• 1/2 tbsp Coriander seeds
• 2 tbsp Dried oregano
• 2 tbsp Dried basil
• 1.5 tbsp Chili peppers (optional)
• 1/2 cup of ice cold water
• 2 tbsp vinegar

Steps:

1. Begin by cutting your beef brisket and fat into cubes and placing them in the freezer for 30 minutes (this will make grinding it extremely easy).
2. Mix your spices and seasoning and finely grind in a spice grinder.
3. Place the chilled meat in a bowl and spread the seasoning over it. Gently work it into the meat and set aside.
4. Grind your beef and fat using a 2mm plate, adding in cloves of garlic throughout the grinding process. PRO TIP: place grinder's removable parts in a freezer for 30 minutes to make grinding and cleanup much easier!
5. Place the minced meat in the same bowl which contained the spices to pick up any seasoning you might have missed, mix intensely with your hands.
6. Add 1/2 cup of ice cold water and mix thoroughly until you achieve a pasty, sticky texture.
7. Cover the meat mixture with plastic wrap on the top layer and place in the fridge for at least 12 hours. The plastic wrap prevents a dry layer from forming on the top layer of the sausage mixture which you DO NOT WANT - yuck!
8. Prepare your beef casings by washing them thoroughly in a bowl with course salt and a small amount of tap water. Scrub the casings well, rinsing away the salt repeatedly until the water runs clear (the salt usually results in a milky white colored water). Once the water runs clear, flip the casings inside out and wash with salt once again.
9. Once clean, cover the casings with water and add 2 table spoons of vinegar and leave it to soak for 30 minutes.
10. Assemble your sausage stuffer and place your minced meat inside, making sure to avoid any air pockets by pressing down with your hand and "packing" the meat together.
11. Place a little bit of oil on the stuffing tube and begin rolling the casings onto it.
12. Tie off the end of the casings, stuff the sausages into the casings slowly until you fill the length of the casing, then tie off the second end of the casing.
13. Twist the casing into sausage shapes (I used butcher's twine to make sure my twists didn't come loose).
14. Use a sewing needle to prick holes into the sausage and hang it for about 15 minutes.
15. Prepare a pot of boiling water and once it starts boiling, lower the heat to a simmer.
16. Lower your sausages into the hot water and let them simmer for a maximum of 6 minutes.
17. Heat some charcoal until it's red hot and place it on one side of your grill, thereby creating a "hot zone" and a "cold zone".
18. Place some The Smokebox Premium Apple Chunks onto the hot charcoal and await them catching on fire before replacing the lid of the grill.
19. Remove the sausages from the hot water and immediately place on the "cold zone" of the grill. Smoke the sausages indirectly until you reach an internal temperature of 165°F, or  74°C.
20. (Optional step) Place the sausages into ice cold water to stop the cooking process.

That's it! Enjoy it and don't forget to post your results to our Facebook Group.

Full Video:

@school.of.smoke Smoked Italian Sausages Part 1 - The prep #beef #baladi #sausage #bratwurst #sujok #smoked #brisket #foodlover ♬ original sound - Cate Culp