Elk Sausage Electric Smoking:

 

We finally finished the butchering of the two Cow Elk on Saturday. See my Thanksgiving post for more information.

I don’t like the way butchers rush through meat processing, missing hairs, burning hair off with torches and wasting meat. I de-bone everything, cut it into the common cuts and vacuum seal the meat before freezing it.

I am putting way too much wear on Rhonda’s KitchenAid Pro 6 when grinding the meat so I just bought a Cabela’s Pro Series Grinder  IK-523860.

We used the Cabela’s Snack Stick Kit with 17 pounds of freshly 4.5mm ground Elk. The kit comes with seasonings and cure for two 15 pound batches of sausage. We already used half of the kit before, but only had enough casings for 10 pounds of meat this time. Follow the directions from the kit for casing prep and Sausage mixing.

Elk has no fat in the meat but does have a little on the rump and chest. We mixed 98% meat to 2% fat.

When we ran out of casings I just put the big stuffer tube and extruded sausage rolls.

We just fed the snack links casings through a rack from my Masterbuilt Electric Smoker. Do not put any through the last side holes because they touch the side of the smoker. We did not leave enough air space for equal drying.

I started the pre-heat at 7:00pm with the smoker temp at 140*F with the vent open.

At 7:30pm I put in the meat and added a tray of Mesquite Wood Chips.

I put a cookie sheet under the Sausage Roles because I thought they would fall apart. You can skip the sheet. More air is better.

At 8:30pm I closed the vent to 1/8^th open and added mesquite. The temp is still at 140*F.

I added mesquite wood again at 9:00 and 10:00pm.

At 11:00 I added mesquite and increased the temp to 160*F.

At 12:00 midnight I installed a Wireless Meat Thermometer Probe into the center sausage role. The meat temp was at 130*F. I closed the vent and raised the smoker temp to 170*F.

At 12:30 the probe was at 137*F so I increased the smoker temp to 180*F as per the directions in the Cabela’s kit.

At 1:00am the probe was at 144*F and at 1:30am it was at 146*F so I increased the smoker temp to 190*F.

At 2:00am the probe temp was 144*F. With a drop of 2*F, I jumped the smoker temp to 200*F. I watched the probe temp start up again.

Wow, at 2:47am the probe finally reached 156*F. The kit said that was the minimum temp needed.

I rinsed the casing snack links under cool water and stacked to air dry and cool a bit more before Ziploc bagging them for the refrigerator.

 

Excellent flavor throughout, but I did have a few dry spots.

The next day, I sealed 2 of the Sausage Roles per 8 inch wide vacuum bags. I put a handful in the 8 inch wide bags for the Snack links. I froze all but a couple of bags.

Thanksgiving Electric Smoking:

It has been a busy few weeks. Stewart and I both harvested Antlerless Elk during the week prior to Thanksgiving. Times are hard in Arizona, but the true American spirit cannot be broken by the White House.

During our hunt we past this camp of fellow hard working Americans who are making the best of things. God Bless America !!!!! 

We were drawn for a muzzleloader hunt and ended up with two young yet mature cow (female) elk. We filled the freezer with organic extremely low fat, low cholesterol meat. As you can see when I field dress an elk the ravens and coyotes don’t even get a meal.

We butcher our own meat and vacuum seal it before freezing it. I did save some good roasts for the smoker. The picture below was Monday before Thanksgiving.

Our old Seal-A-Meal finally died during the first quarter. Rhonda had predicted its demise and had already bought a FoodSaver V3230. I highly recommend both brands and they will pay for themselves even if you don’t hunt.

 

The picture below is of the pies Rhonda baked Wednesday, all from scratch. We buy pie pumpkins to make pumpkin pies. The crusts are all flaky.

Yes we did smoke a 12.95 pound Kroger Frozen Turkey and a 10.34 pound Cook’s Ham Butt Cut.

I started the pre-heat at 5:30am with the temperature set at 225*F with the vent closed on my Masterbuilt Electric Smoker.

I went back in and got the turkey ready. I put it on a small cookie sheet that fits into my smoker. I throw the nasty chemicals marinade packets that come with the bird away. With the vent closed the turkeys get so tender that they fall apart.

I started the Turkey smoking at 6:00am with two loads of cherry wood chips. I added another tray of chips at 7:00am.

At 8:00 I started the Ham and another load of cherry chips. I added cherry chips at 9:00 and 11:00.

I pulled the Turkey and Ham at 12:30 and brought them in to rest before carving. The internal temperature of the Turkey was 175*F. I used a Backyard Grill wireless thermometer.

I cooked another Turkey and Ham in our inside ovens also.

Even with a feast of several side dishes all made from scratch, the meat from the smoker was devoured. Our 31 guests were amazed with the tenderness and flavor of the smoked meats.

I did not have time to take pictures and wash my hands so I never got a picture of the final masterpieces.