Hot Links

[reinhard1]

For those who like it hot, this is for you.  You can make this fresh without cure or with cure and smoke it.  A friend of mine dropped off 5 pounds of pork butt for me to make him these hot links that he had before.   He wanted them lightly smoked.  He's not a fan of heavy smoked stuff like I am but everyone has different tastes.   I also have a recipe that has fresh jalapeno peppers in it [or you can use the pickled ones also] on my blog in the Homemade Sausage page www.sausageheavenoutdoors.com.  Besides having some heat there is flavor as well.  I have used these links in the past for some soups, chili, on buns, or made fresh in bulk for breakfast patties.   Here is what I used:

5 pounds pork butt

2 T black pepper

2 T crushed red pepper flakes

2 T cayenne pepper

2 T paprika

3 T kosher salt

2 T mustard seeds

1/4 cup diced garlic

1 tsp cure #1  [if you are going to smoke it]

1 tsp coriander

12 ounces of good beer

1 cup powdered milk

 

First I ground the pork through the medium plate once.  Then I sprinkled the powdered milk and mustard seeds on the meat.  Put the rest of the ingredients and cure in tall container and mixed it up well.  Then poured that over the meat also.  Mixed it all up good and put the sausage mix in the fridge overnight so the seasonings and cure can meld in.  Next day I got the pork casings ready and then started to stuff away.  Got the smoker ready and set it at 130 for the first hour so the casings can dry some more.  No water pan used and vents open all the way.  Then I cranked the smoker up to 140 and started the smoke using a mix of oak and maple.  Normally I use a longer smoke time at that temp but since he wanted a light smoke I only used one load and then put the temp up to 200 with no smoke until the internal went to 150 or so.  Then pulled them out and put them into ice water to stop the cooking process.  This also helps in reducing shrinkage.    Here are some pics: good luck.