There is no such thing as a lean sausage - we don't make dry grainy tasteless links

Well marbled pork shoulder

Diced back fat

Sausages are at their best when you have the opportunity to make them yourself. With home made sausages you can control the quality of the meats used, and specially the amount of fat you add. But yes, you will need to add fat to ensure your sausages are juicy and pumped when grilled. Home made sausages do have a lower fat ratio than commercial links, but they still need fat. You can accomplish this by either using well marbled meats or by adding back fat. This should not be of concern, since the amounts to be used are still very low when compared to commercial sausages. I would not recommend to remove the fat from your sausages, as this will make the dry, grainy and just yukky.

Spices

Smoked sausage cut to reveals spices

High quality spices will go a long way to give your sausages a rainbow of flavor, not to forget that they will look great when you cut them, and you can see them perfectly arranged inside the meat. Mustard and coriander seeds are perfect, they stay whole when mixed and look great on your links.

meat & spices

Well mixed ingredients

Add the spices to your meats prior grinding, and if possible let them marinate overnight prior grinding. Thorough mixture of your spices with your meats and back fat is critical to ensure even taste for all your links. If you plan to smoke your sausages adding a binder, such as soy powder, helps ensure the links will retain their moisture when grilled. Small portions of liquid are essential, and any liquid will do from water to rum.

Stuffing machine

Stuffing the tripe

The use of the right equipment is essential. From the grinder and the mixer to the stuffing machine, you want to make sure you are using the right tools when making home made sausages. Keeping the stuffing machine and your meats very cold throughout the process will make the grinding and stuffing processes easier, and will maintain the integrity of the food. A little water on the receiving tray will go a long way to help the tripe slide.

Hot smoked links

Sausages in the smoker

Stuff all your tripe first, then you can make the links by either twisting them, or tying them with cords. The length is up to you. We prefer animal tripe (fresh or dry) to synthetic casings. 

Whether you are making fresh sausages or you will smoke them, home made sausages are the best you can have. Smoking sausages gives them  a very nice color, not to mention the added flavor. Apple & cherry wood are the best for these links, and remember to spray them with apple juice every now and then while in the smoker.

When your links are ready give the a quick bath in icy water, this will stop the cooking process and ensure your links are not overcooked.

Enjoy!

Taking on Crawfish

Cannot live in SE TX, next door to Louisiana, and not venture with crawfish. We experimented with  two typical dishes which main ingredient is crawfish: Cajun boil and Etouffee. Both were delicious and quite simple to make. We are sharing our experience with the Cajun Boil.

This is an outdoor activity, for both cooking and eating. You will need a big pot, large enough to hold all the ingredients, a high BTU burner to ensure you can properly boil the water, and a lot of news paper to cover the surface you plan to use for eating. This is a "hands-on" meal and its is very messy but all worth it.

We boiled about 13 pounds of crawfish (about half a sac), enough to satisfy our cravings and use the rest for the Etouffee. 13 pounds of boiled crawfish will feed 8-10 people, depending on their hunger.

We recommend using fresh live crawfish and the best veggies you can get.

For spices we used Old Bay and Louisiana brands. You can also use Zatarain.

It is important to boil the potatoes almost to a done state, as the crawfish will be done only in 5-7 min. How much you boil the ears will depend on how soft you like your corn. We placed ours when the potatoes were half done. Total boiling time for the potatoes and corn was about 20-22 min.

Because you need to perform these tasks prior using the crawfish, it is very important that you keep your little critters nice and cool. We kept them in an ice box with ice.

Lastly, we added the crawfish and cooked them for about 7 min counted from the time the water boiled again. As they cook you can see them turn to a nice and bright red. You get to eat the corn ears and potatoes, which are great sides to accompany this dish.

Once cooked we scooped them out with the ears and potatoes, leaving the rest of the items in the pot. The liquid should be discarted.

We served them in separate plates with lemon wedges...Enjoy!

You can add fresh shrimp, heads on, to the mix and make this a Seafood Boil too.

Duck liver pâté Au Cognac

Have you ever made Duck liver pâté? We have not, only made chicken liver terrines.
I personally love liver pâtés and have had in my sight to try to make both duck and goose pâté. Looked at various pâté recipes, including terrines and mousses, but none of them were appealing. I am not a fan of baking the dish, much less grounding the raw livers.
Decided to modify my chicken liver terrine and it was a success. The delicate flavor of the liver combined with black truffles and Madeira was perfect. Use mascarpone for consistency and finish with a splash of cognac! This is one going to the recipe book. Next try to make goose pâté. Needed to try with a less costly ingredient, you have to have some experience before you experiment with a 65$/lb dish :D