Description
This smoked cheddar sausage recipe is a must-try for any home cook who loves a good sausage and wants to impress their friends. The combination of the sharp cheddar and smoky flavor gives this recipe its signature taste.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 32 – 35mm natural hog casings (about 10 feet)
- 4–pound boneless pork shoulder, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 pound pork back fat, cubed
- 2 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon Prague powder #1
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika powder
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons dry ground mustard
- 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
- 1/2 cup ice water
- 1 pound cheddar cheese, diced into 1/8 inch cubes
Instructions
- Place the diced pork meat in the fridge for at least 45 minutes. When it cools to 40°F or below, you can get it out (35°F is ideal).
- Set your large bowl on top of an ice bath when grinding the meat.
- Take your grinder and place your meat and fat through a 1/4-inch die.
- Grind your meat two times.
- Place the ground meat in the refrigerator to chill some more.
- Take a small bowl and mix all the dry ingredients in it.
- Take the ground meat out of the fridge and put it in a stand mixer.
- Add your dry mix, milk powder, and ice water.
- Mix this with a paddle attachment for about 4 minutes until the meat is stringy.
- Add more water if you think the mixture is still too dry.
- Mix the diced cheddar into the meat.
- Taste your mixture by placing it in a pan and frying a small portion of it- season the meat according to preference.
- Once seasoned, place the mixture in the fridge again to chill.
- Once thoroughly chilled, take the meat mixture out of the fridge and place it in the sausage stuffer. Place casings on the sausage stuffer and carefully and slowly stuff them with this mixture.
- Ensure you don’t stuff your casings too much.
- Twist into links every 6 inches.
- If you have a sausage pricker, use one to remove air bubbles from the sausage links.
- Chill sausages overnight.
- The next day, preheat the smoker to 185°F. Use your favorite wood chips – for a strong flavor, go with hickory, but if you want something milder, apple works wonderfully with pork meat too. Throughout the cooking process, you will have to add additional wood chips.
- Take the sausages out of the fridge.
- Place sausages in the preheated smoker.
- Smoke sausages until they reach an internal temperature of 160°F. Make sure to check the temperature by using a meat thermometer.
- Take sausages out of the smoker and place them in the ice bath or spritz them with cold water in the sink to cool them down very quickly. This is a crucial step in the smoking process in order for them to keep their casings smooth, so don’t skip it! Ideally, they would have to reach an internal temperature of 120°F after cooling them with water.
- Let sausages dry for up to 2 hours. Then enjoy!
Notes
- These sausages can last about 3 to 4 days in the fridge or 3 months if frozen in a vacuum-sealed bag.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Rest Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 sausage
- Calories: 338kcal
- Sugar: 2g
- Sodium: 902mg
- Fat: 26g
- Saturated Fat: 11g
- Carbohydrates: 2g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 23g
- Cholesterol: 77mg