Cheddar Hot Gut Sausage

Today on the Pellet Grill Series, I cold smoke some all beef Texas style cheddar hot gut sausage! Cheesy, smoky, juicy, nice & plump, what’s not to like?! I highly recommend giving this one a try!

Unit of Measurement: Grams (g) Pounds/Ounces (lb/oz)

Amount of Meat: g

 Ingredients:

• Beef: 5
• Kosher Salt: 45
• Pink Curing Salt #1: 6
• Granulated Garlic: 12
• Black Pepper: 10
• Mustard Powder: 10
• Paprika: 5
• Cayenne Pepper: 5
• Red Pepper Flakes: 4
• Turmeric: 3
• Milk Powder: 90
• Cold Water: 226
• High-Temp Cheddar: 340

Instructions:

1. Cube the beef into chunks small enough to fit into your meat grinder. Place the meat into the freezer until chilled—this helps with a clean grind.
2. Once the meat and fat are well-chilled, grind it using a coarse grind plate.
3. Add the dry seasoning mix to the ground meat and mix thoroughly with your hands until everything is evenly distributed.
4. Pour in the cold water and continue mixing with your hands for a long time until the mixture becomes tacky and cohesive.
5. Fold in the high-temp cheddar cheese, ensuring even distribution throughout the sausage mix.
6. Load your sausage stuffer with the meat mixture, ensuring there are no air bubbles and case your sausages into links. Place the cased sausages on a wire rack, uncovered, and refrigerate overnight to cure and dry out the casings.
7. The next day, remove the sausages from the fridge and snip the links apart.
8. Set your smoker up for cold smoking with a pellet tube smoker. Place the sausages on the top shelf of your smoker, light the smoke tube, and cold smoke for about 4 hours, flipping halfway through.
9. After cold smoking, fire up your smoker and cook the sausages until they reach an internal temperature of 150°F.
10. Transfer the sausages to an ice bath for 10–15 minutes to stop the cooking process, then remove and pat them dry.
11. At this stage, you can vacuum seal and freeze them for later, or cook and enjoy immediately.
12. When ready to eat, fire up your smoke 250°F and cook the sausages for about 30 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 160–165°F.
13. Let cool slightly before slicing and serving.