This week on Swaggertown…
Another late post, but I suppose this is the best time to type something up! It’s after midnight, I’m at Stella’s, briskets and pork are in the smoker, ribs are trimmed up, sausages are smoked…I mean…this is great! I feel like I went all out this week on the best dishes I’ve got. Brisket is always the staple and I have yet to have something better in this area, but I get particular compliments on the sausage and the mac n cheese so I’m really excited to share these dishes with everyone.
I’ve mentioned before that the sausage takes a week to make, but I haven’t really mentioned why! I feel like this blog is the place where I can share some of these inside “secrets” because I think the process makes the product that much better. I started making sausage years ago using some online recipe and pre-ground meat. I went for the basic Italian sausage and just wanted to see if there was a difference in seasoning and stuffing sausage yourself. There was. Mine was WAY worse than store bought. I then discovered Texas style BBQ, I studied recipes, I tasted every restaurant that I could get to, I watched videos and read books, and then I kept trying and iterating my own recipe. They still sucked…for a bit…but then they started not to. Finally, I think I ended up on a recipe and process I’ve stuck with for a while and I love it. I know you all will to!
So! Here it is in a nutshell. These are pork sausages, so I start with pork. Pork butt. But you need more fat, so I add fat. You also need salt, so I add salt. Both of those, you can get in chunks of (already cured) salt pork and bacon. Simple process: find things that taste amazing and put them in your recipe and it can taste amazing too. The pork butt is uncured, so in order for the enzymes to better break down and the flavor to intensify, I need to cure it. I coat all of the meats in my favorite spice blend, which includes some pink curing salt, and let it cure over night. From there, it’s pretty simple. Grind. Mix with cheddar and jalapeno. Stuff mix into casings. These casings then need to dry out and tighten up. That takes another day. We’re 3 days in now. Everyone knows a good sausage has chunks of fat and chunks of cheese, so how does this not melt when it cooks? The trick is to “cold smoke”, i.e. smoke them around 165 degrees F, which basically congeals the fats so they wont melt. The only way this is possible, is because the meats are cured with pink curing salt, which prevents bacteria from growing. Finally, the sausage has to shock, cool, then get ready to hot smoke like anything else you’d throw on the cooker. So that’s it in a nutshell! Your best bet for good sausage is not to copy my recipe, but to just keep trying what you like. It’s why I love sharing my recipes and tips. What makes food so good is the individuality of it all and the learning process to get to that revelation of your “secret” recipe. I hope all of you that cook take this blog to heart and just enjoy the process! Thank you all so much for reading this and I hope you come to try my food as inspiration this weekend!
I’m also thinking of kicking up my social media game, especially in the TikTok and Instagram reels realm. It’s definitely a lot more on my plate and not exactly my area of expertise, but it’s a fun new challenge. If any social media experts (cough cough…gen Z) read this and want to shoot me some tips and tricks, that’d be pretty cool. Definitely follow @swaggertown.smoke on Instagram and @swaggertownsmoke on TikTok to keep following my journey.
In more relevant news, I’m watching Suits tonight while I cook. I’ll usually watch a show, read a book, listen to a podcast, pump some jams, or just nap and watch the fire. This all makes time go much faster and the cooks much easier. Always taking recommendations here too.
Well, as always, that’s my jumble of late night thoughts. Thank you so much for reading this and for following my journey. July is almost over and that means I’m almost on a break from every weekend at Stella’s. I’ll be back, but I’ll be away most of August. Not done yet, but it’s already been such a great experience thanks to everyone who’s been a part of growing this - that’s all of you that have eaten the food, cheered me on, hosted me, hired me, or even just followed any of my socials. Cheers to you!
Love and Barbecue,
Adam @ Swaggertown Smoke