Homemade Sausage Making

While I'm roasting a 50 pound hog today for our Search And Rescue groups End of summer dinner I'm going to make 40 pounds of smoked Paprika, chili Habanero cheese smokies. At this time of year I'm usually making sausage with the the last of last years wild game meat to make room for this years game. This year I wasn't successful in drawing a moose license so I'll be saving what nice moose roasts I still have from last season for the slow cooker this winter. With Covid and low beef prices here the live beef market here took quite a slump. The elderly farmer at one of the places I hunt had an old cow that had a knee give out so he asked me to come and kill it and salvage it. I made them 50 pounds of hamburger patties and some cracked pepper salami and got to keep the rest. its very lean and quite watery but it makes good sausage when I bump up the added pork percentage. heading to the shed to start grinding now.

Nice to to see that you are keeping busy with meat and sausage projects. How did the pig turn out? Did you turn it over charcoal and how long did it take? That beef would make a great summer sausage or something like the Harvest brand cooked salami. Also good as a natural binder when added to sausage at 10-15 finely ground or emulsified.

Red I built my pig roaster from an old fuel tank a number of years ago. We roast 3 or 4 every year. I have an electric motor and gear reduction to drive the spit and I built my own propane burner. I put in a can of wood pellets on the flame diffuser to get smoke as well. A 50 pounder is on the spit at 375F for about 5 hours. I'll see if I can find a picture of my cooker with a hog on it.