Three Meat Sausage From Czech Spices

I haven’t made sausage in awhile and was completely out. Since the local meat market had pork butt and beef bottom round on sale and I’d just inherited some deer burger from a friend, it seemed as though the time was right. I made three different meat mixes all using the spice blend from Novak’s market that I’ve used in the past. First batch was a 50/50 mix of pork and beef, then a 100 % beef, then a mix of 4# of deer and 6# of pork. The market ground the beef and pork for me. This is everything ready to begin.


I mixed it all by hand and since I still don’t have a sausage stuffer, just made it into fatty’s (smoked logs of uncased sausage). This is the beef with half the spices and after mixing them, I added the other half and finished mixing.



This is the pre mixed pork and deer - no one ever accused venison of being the other white meat :) Second pic is after final mixing.



I put it in the frig in bulk over night for the spice flavors to distribute throughout the meat.

Tuesday morning I rolled everything into 1 ¼ pound logs in preparation of smoking. I’ve found I loose about 3 oz during cooking, so I should end up with just over one pound finished pieces. I first tried my jerky gun for making the logs, but found that each addition to the barrel was not bonding to the previous one and rather than try and figure out how to make it work, I just rolled them out by hand. Here are the 5 logs of all beef – the others look the same – except for color. I ended up with 5 of beef, 6 of beef/pork, 8 ½ of pork/deer, and a patty of beef/pork for lunch (which was real good, especially with some melted cheddar and mayo). The sausage was smoked with only the spice mix and no rub, baste or other outside addition.


I lit the smoker at 1:45pm with the outside temp a balmy 30* and I put the sausage on at 2:30pm with an external probe thermometer in one piece on each shelf.

I smoked to an internal temperature of 148* per recommendation from Novak’s at a pit temperature of 225*, and it took about 3 hours – it’s usually faster, but I wanted to see how I liked it cooked at a lower pit temp, especially from an external color standpoint. I’m sure I’ve said this, but I have a BBQ Guru on my Stumps Smoker and it does a great job of maintaining the pit temp. Had the meat been in casings, I would have used a much lower pit temperature to ensure no fat melting and resulting shriveled sausage. I’m going to keep doing this, I may have to get me a stuffer, and perhaps a grinder, so I can become a serious sausage maker - except Bev likes it better without the casing.

Here are a few shots of the finished product. The first is the whole load - we tried the small have fatty which was pork/deer and it was very good.


This is a close up of the beef.


The pork/beef mix.


The pork/deer mix.


This is the half one which we used for sampling - note the smoke ring.


I was real pleased with the color and flavor of this batch, but will have to order more spices tomorrow.

And remember, if you have a grill, you also have a smoker - email if you need advice on how to do it.

Have a great day and I enjoy your comments.

Larry

Frozen Lake - Now This Is Cold For Around Here

After growing up in Northern West Virginia and South Jersey, I moved to East Tennessee forty years ago. Over the years here, I can remember some winters with quite a bit of cold and snow and years when I planted stuff in my garden on New Years Day. We’ve owned the property where we now live for around 20 years and have had a boat dock in our little cove, where the winter water depth is about six feet, the entire time. In those 20 years this is only the second time for it to freeze over. I think the first time it was thicker as the dogs were out walking on it, but this is still a rare event. The first time may have been when Knoxville was announced as the coldest place in the country, at –24*, which is a very rare event indeed. Here are a couple of shots from Monday.

The lake we live on is directly connected to Fort Loudon Lake which is a navigable lake in the Tennessee River system, therefore it only drops six feet in winter, compared to maybe 50 feet for the storage lakes. This a shot from my little parking area out to my dock - it's all water in the summer.


This is a closer view from the same direction.


This is toward the back of the cove. Don't know how thick it is but would not want the dogs to walk on it. I did notice though, that nothing seemed to crack as I walked on the dock.


As a reminder, this is what it looked like when the water was a couple of feet above normal in September.


This is a shot toward the channel and you can see the beginning of the ice. The last time, I think it was frozen out to the next corner.


I took this shot Monday morning on my way home from taking Alex to school. It is an embayment of one of the creeks feeding the lake and it is frozen clear across - no big deal for those of you in the frozen North, but hey this is the South.



It got above freezing on Monday and is predicted to be in the 50's on Thursday. This was the longest below freezing stretch for Knoxville in 115 years. Since I’m BBQing on Wedneday and cutting up and moving a big oak log on Thursday, I’m ready for it to be warmer. Us old southern boys don’t do as well in the cold as us young northern boys used to do :)

Have a great day,

Larry

Kentucky Hot Brown Scramble

Other than my basic lack of culinary skills, one of the major inhibitors to my being a good cook is difficulty varying from a recipe. After a lifetime in the engineering world where bridges collapse and planes crash when the plan is not strictly adhered to it is difficult for me not to follow a recipe explicitly - so today’s meal is practice at being more creative. When we decided to smoke a turkey breast for making Hot Brown’s (see yesterday), I’d also looked around and found a recipe for a Hot Brown Frittatta on the Food Network which sounded very good so I book marked it for use with the extra turkey, which I was sure we would have. Sunday morning I was ready to make it, but decided I did not to want to wait for nearly an hour while it baked, so I decided to use the concept to make a scramble instead (deviation 1).

I made half the recipe (deviation 2) and only used about ½ cup of cream (deviation 3) so it wouldn’t be too watery. While visiting my son before the holidays, we’d visited a store run by a small Mennonite community in the area and one of their offerings was a cheddar cheese that also contained the bacteria that makes blue cheese, so we bought a wedge of it and I used it in this dish (deviation 4). We are also big fans on Guggisberg cheeses from Ohio Amish country and when my neighbor placed an order recently I got three kinds as well – one of which is Farmers which I used in here (deviation 5).

I didn’t measure the onion but used a piece we had in the frig that looked close enough (deviation 6) and I diced the fresh tomatoes we had left from the Hot Browns rather than using canned (deviation 7). Here’s a pic of the ingredients ready to go.



Bev likes to buy particular eggs at Walmart called All Natural that have Omega-3 and and something else that’s supposed to be good for us -one of the things we like is the more orange color of the yolk. I used three of them and three brown eggs, which many folks assume are the richer, and this shot shows the difference – the brown eggs are the lighter colored.


I first sautéed the onion and tomatoes in a butter/olive oil mix ( rather than the specified bacon grease- deviation 8) to remove some of the water.


Then added the turkey to begin warming up.


Next added the cheese and bacon. Since we like our eggs scrambled moist, I wanted to give the cheese a chance to warm up and start melting prior to egg addition.



Lastly, added the eggs and scrambled them.


Here’s a shot of Bevs before the Mornay sauce, she wanted hers on the toast.


Here’s my plate and close-up, finished up with leftover Mornay sauce and a little parsley - ready to devour.



It was delicious and the only thing I’d do differently is use a little less of this cheddar as it had just a tad too much bite for my taste – those who like blue cheese sauce on steak would have likely thought it perfect. This meal will definitely happen again whether we have leftovers from Hot Browns or not – we almost always have some smoked chicken (possible deviation) in the freezer. I made at least 8 recipe deviations and got an excellent result and since I didn’t measure anything, I’ll have to wing-it next time – maybe there’s hope for me yet.

PS – It’s also delicious without the sauce – another deviation? – I think I may be getting out of control here.

Have a great day and stay warm – it's finally supposed to get above freezing today. I sure hate it for all the folks whose livelyhood has been impacted by the cold.

Larry

Smoked Turkey and Kentucky Hot Browns

Since I've had several posts waiting, I can do more than one topic in a post, so this one contains two. In my Jan 1 post, I’d mentioned that in addition to our holiday meal rib roast, I’d also smoked a turkey breast on Dec 30. Normally, I smoke turkeys at a higher temperature than beef, but this one was cooked just like the roast, which meant around 225* for about 4 ½ hours. I pulled it at an internal temperature of 160*, immediately wrapped in foil and stuck it in a cooler for a few hours – then cooled it and put in the frig. The higher temp cooking is done, in part to achieve a crispy skin.

We finally got around to trying the turkey on New Years day and it was my best ever. I cooked it skin side down to allow the flavors and juices from the cavity to permeate the meat and while the skin was tough and rubbery, the meat was tender, juicy and full of flavor – I don’t eat the skin anyway. Many years ago, I’d smoked a turkey on my first cooker which was a Brinkman vertical water pan smoker and after 10 hours, it came out very moist and tender and the dark meat was more pink than brown. Over the years, I’d gotten away from the lower temp cooking, but after this one, I’m definitely going back and when I want a crispy skin, I can stick it in a hot oven for a few minutes – this way I’ll get the best of both worlds.

Having said all that, let me tell what we did with it. I’m not really a big fan of plain roasted turkey, smoked or otherwise, but I love turkey salad and other turkey dishes. This breast was smoked primarily to make into Kentucky Hot Browns, which I’d seen on a Bobby Flay Throwdown, Fat Johnnie's Front Porch, and Nibble Me This a while back and have been wanting to try. Chris’s post includes a history of the sandwich. I used the basic recipe from Louisville’s Brown Hotel but altered the assembly a little based on those the other two guys made and Bevs opinion. We like to get some of every ingredient in every bite and have it be easy to eat – especially for the MIL. So our primary deviation was to chop the tomatoes and bacon and sprinkle them on top of the mornay sauce prior to broiling.

The last time we put a ceramic dish under the broiler, it broke in half and the only other thing we could think to use was our cast iron sizzling plates (normally for steaks and fajitas) and they worked great – pre-warmed them a little before building the sandwich.

The Texas toast


Then two layers of pre-warmed turkey.


The Mornay Sauce - almost a cup per sandwich.


Then the tomato and bacon.


And the finished dish with a little chopped parsley added.


The four of us who ate it thought it was delicious and something we definitely will have again. I'd smoke another turkey breast just for this dish - although I'm not sure I could tell it was smoked with all the other flavors.

We couldn't remember making a Mornay sauce before, but all agreed that if we tossed in a little garlic and the extra chopped parsley, we'd be ready for an excellent pasta sauce. I did a little web surfing and as best I can determine, the primary difference between Alfredo and Mornay sauce is Alfredo is butter and cheese (parmesan)and Mornay is flour, cream and cheese (usually guyere).

Have a great day.

Larry

Prime Rib Makes Pretty Good Leftovers

The prime rib we had for our holiday meal was outstanding, but alas, what to do with the leftovers - I believe an open faced sandwich will work well. We actually ate this meal on Jan 2.

I trimmed and sliced the roast while still cold to make it easier to slice thin. I then stacked up the slices, wrapped in plastic and allowed it to come to room temperature for about 90 minutes. An hour before dinner, I wrapped it in foil and warmed in a 250* oven to a 120* internal temp – just stuck a remote probe down in the middle of the stack. I put the leftover au jus in a large skillet and brought it to a simmer and dunked the beef slices in it for a few seconds (sucked the pink color out of it as expected) then on to the thick sliced homemade bread (lightly toasted) and topped with a little more au jus.


During a trip to visit with our son in Harrogate, Tn early last month we got takeout from a local BBQ joint and while the meat was nothing special, they had a potato salad made with sour cream, bacon and green onions that we really liked. I did a little web surfing and came up with a recipe that was made with both sour cream and mayo (which their’s had and I wanted), so Bev whipped up a batch to go with our prime rib. It is called Loaded Baked Potato Salad and it was very good warm and at room temperature, except we didn’t bake it per the recipe but rather just mixed all the ingredients like normal potato salad. I tried it cold for lunch the next day and while still tasty, I prefer it warm best. A different kind of potato salad worth giving a try.


We also some horseradish sauce made from this recipe which I also liked.

It was a great way to polish off the leftover meat. Here’s a pic of my plate


Have a great day.

Larry

Sausage Bean Chowder – Way Good Cold Weather Grub

Now that we’re through all of the big time holiday eating and associated leftovers and since it’s cold enough that the lake coves are freezing, it’s time for some stick to your ribs soup - so last night we made some. One of our favorites for these situations is sausage bean chowder from the following recipe – it came to us from a co-worker many years ago and we still make it several times each winter. It’s hard to believe anything this easy to make could be so good.

SAUSAGE AND BEAN CHOWDER

3 lb. Bulk sausage browned and drained
4 ea 1 lb. Cans kidney beans
2 ea 28 oz. Cans of diced tomatoes
4 cups water
3 med bay leaves
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ -teaspoon ground thyme (or 1 ½ tsp dried leaf)
2 medium onions chopped

Cover and cook for 1 to 1-1/2 hours on simmer

Taste and correct seasoning if necessary.

Add the following:

2-1/2 cups diced potatoes
1 green pepper diced

Cook another 30 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.

Bev did the cooking today and made a recipe and a half to have some to share with friends and family and still have plenty of leftovers. It’s real basic so we didn’t take any pictures of the cooking process, but here's one of my FIRST bowl full.


If you like chili and don’t try this recipe, you’re missing out. If you decide to make it and kick it up a notch (which I know many of you good cooks are apt to do:), please let me know what you did.

We ended up with less than a half inch of snow, but still enough to close school and create a run on grocery stores yesterday - remember, this is the South and after living here for 40 years, this store behavior still cracks me up. Have a great one and try to stay warm where ever you are.

Larry

Philly Style Cheese Steaks

Tuesday I posted about cutting up a whole boneless rib eye and part of the process was to cut off some thin slices for cheese steak sandwiches. Here’s a picture of the pile of meat - I had 2 3/4 pounds for 5 sandwiches (about 9 oz per which was about right for the bun size.


The kitchen got all spit-shinned today and I didn’t want to trash it cooking, so I used the grill. We have a two-burner griddle for the stove so I just used it on the grill. I put 3 of the 5 burners on high and pretended I was at the stove, except it was about 40 degrees cooler outside – perfect weather for being up close to a hot grill. Here’s some pics of the cooking process and as I got some done I just moved it over to the warming pan. I’m finding ever more uses for the grill for when I want to keep the inside cook top clean. I also cooked the onions and peppers on the grill side burner for the same reason – I may keep this grill (I think I’ve had it for more than 5 years). Here's the onions and peppers - I used one small onion per sandwich and a quart and a half bag of frozen peppers from last summers garden.


The meat cooking on the griddle - it took 2 batches.


When it was browned on both sides, I stacked it up and cut into 1/2" wide pieces.


After I got all of the meat cut up, I put it into piles on the griddle for each sandwich and topped with a couple of slices of smoked provolone cheese to melt into the meat – I know, I know at Pat’s and Geno’s they use white American and Cheese Whiz, but in South Jersey, where I was introduced to the sandwich, it was provolone.


One sandwich being prepared - I'd pre-sliced the buns and had them on the warming rack for most of the cooking process - which made them a little too crusty.


The tray of sandwiches is headed for the table.


My sandwich was so full I spread the meat and veggies over the bread more evenly than shown in the picture and ate it open faced with a knife and fork - it was tooooo good.


We used to make these from Steakums and thought they were good, but after discovering the places in Philly use rib eye, we have seen the light and they are definately better with just a little more effort.

A little snow predicted here today - I hope we get enough to make it pretty. I know many of you are really tired of the white stuff by now. Have a great day.

Larry