Making smoked Javelina Sausage

Javelina - new world pig Tayassuidae 01/13/14 Archery Hunt Arizona

After well over 100 miles of backpacking and 13 days of archery hunting, I was able to call a herd of Javelina out of the 4 feet tall catclaw brush thickets with an old walnut Lohman mouth call.

Gear – PSE Pro-Series Diablo bow, Carbon Express Maxima Hunter 350 arrows, NAP Nitron 100 gr. broadheads, T.R.U. Ball release, Leica Ultravid 10X42 binoculars, Eberlestock Dragonfly 2900 CI to 7900 CI Rock Veil pack and Natural Gear camouflage clothes.

Javelina have poor eye sight and will come in close. They may be deep voice huffing and snapping their teeth as they come in. Be careful that you don’t get attacked. If they think they are trapped or cornered they will attack. They have a better sense of smell than a whitetail deer and have good hearing.

  

Watch out for cactus needles in the fur. Javelina eat cactus. Wearing nitrile gloves, sock skin the Javelina as soon as you have tagged and taken pictures of your pig. Do not touch the fir and then the meat. The musk on the fir will ruin the meat. (See last year’s post)  After skinning to the head and front feet, remove gloves and change knives. Now you gut, remove head and front hooves. 

As you can see the meat is all removed from the bone. Keep an eye out for agave needles, broadheads, pellets, buck shot and bullets in the meat. This pig was shot before by two different hunters and healed up completely from both. Trophy Elk are almost all packing broadheads or bullets. My friend’s bull Elk 11/13 was healing up from a bullet cut below the breast bone from a few weeks before.  

Save the tenderloins, chops and sirloins. The rest of the meat is tough on mature Javelina. I usually grind it as I do on trophy Elk, Coues Whitetail Deer and Mule Deer. It can be smoked until tender like Beef Brisket. This year’s Javelina was about 50 pounds on the hoof and was several years old. I got over 13 pounds of meat for grinding.

I use a Hamilton Beach coffee grinder that has a removal hopper to grind the sea salt and seed spices because it can be washed. I use the 4.5 mm grinding plate so the spices blend better.

Cure Recipe:

½ cup Italian Seasonings

¼ cup black pepper

¼ cup onion powder

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup sea salt (grind fine)

1 Tbsp. garlic

1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper (grind fine)

1 tsp. coriander (grind fine)

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup water

Put all the cure ingredients in a sauce pan and heat over low until very warm. This rehydrates the spices quicker so you don’t have to wait as long to smoke the sausage. I let it set for at least an hour while I grind the meat and get the smoker out.

My Cabela’s Pro 500 watt grinder overheated and quit running while grinding Elk. My wife’s KitchenAid mixer adapter grinder was better. I bought the Cabela’s ¾ Horse Commercial Grinder on sale for $380. This grinder is a beast. It is quiet and does not bog down when feeding it as fast as I can. I put pieces 2” by 12” long and it pushed them through with no strain.

Mix the cure into 13+ pounds of meat very very well. This year’s Javelina had enough fat that I did not need any lard. I’m only talking 1% fat. 

I diced up ½ pound of provolone cheese and added it to the last 3 pounds of sausage meat. This is the 1^st time I have made sausage with cheese. We have been talking about trying it for years.

I let the mixed raw sausage sit in the bowl for over an hour in the refrigerator. I got the fibrous casings out and getting them soaked for over an hour.

I like the fibrous casings that are pre-tied with a loop on one end. They need to be crimped or tied on the other end after filling. Fibrous casing store longer than natural casings.

Filling the casings is a lot easier with 2 people. I have done it alone but it is a pain. The blood dripping into the bowl is coming out of the casing as it fills.

I put the sirloins, tenderloins and the remaining chops roast rubbed with a 50% each black pepper, cayenne powder, onion powder and garlic powder seasoning in the smoker also.

Make sure that there is air space between the sausages. I had extra space in the smoker so I put 4 large washed potatoes on the top rack.

I started the smoker at 150* F vent open with mesquite chips and added chips after an hour and at 3 hours.

At two hours I increased the temperature to 200* F

At 3 hours I pulled the steak roasts. They had an internal temperature of 140* F. They were cooked through and still juicy.

At 4 hours I pulled the potatoes. They passed the toothpick test, but were not quite done to texture. I should have let them go for an hour more. I was sidetracked boiling out the Javelina skull which was just finishing the first boiling and needed to be stripped for the second boiling. The refries are great this morning.

At 5 hours I pulled the sausage and hung it on a rod held by 2 old ‘70s camera tripods. I put a pan underneath and poked a hole in the bottom of the casings to drain the excess liquid. It makes a better slicing sausage if you drain them. 

 

The sausage came out awesome. We cut into the cheese mix log last night and it will be a regular ingredient from now on.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Electric Smoke of 2013

I’ve been working a lot of overtime and have not had time to do a smoke for a while.

Now on 3/24/13 we went shopping and found salmon, pork butt, chicken thighs and hot Italian sausage on sale at Fry’s Foods (Kroger).

8.24 lbs. Pork Butt Roast – Smothered in Bill Johnson’s BBQ Sauce

4.75 lbs. Kroger Chicken Thighs – Smothered in Bill Johnson’s BBQ Sauce

2.46 lbs. and 2.30 lbs. Atlantic Salmon skin on fillets – no salt or seasoning

10 pack Hot Italian Sausage Denmark Foods from Phoenix, AZ   

I started the pre-heat at 4:00pm set at 225*F.

At 4:30 I put everything in, left the vent closed and added two trays of Cherry Wood Chips.

At 6:45 I pulled the Salmon and removed it from the skin. I forgot to salt the Salmon, but it came out fantastic. I guess Wild Salmon must have salt in the meat. The picture colors did not come out correctly it has pink meat.

At 7:30 I pulled the Chicken Thighs and Hot Sausage. The Pork Butt is at 140*F per the wireless probe.

At 9:30pm the Pork Butt had been 170*F for ½ hour. I pulled it and turned off the smoker.

 

 

Smoking Javelina Sausage

 

Javelina are 50-60 pound hooved animals that have a pigs nose. They are from the Tayassuidae family, or New World pigs. They are also known as Collared Peccary. Its stomach has three chambers. They eat prickly pear cacti (stickers, roots and all), tuberous roots, nuts, berries, and grains. They sport long sharp top and bottom canines that they use for protection. They will kill a big dog if attacked. They have poor eyesight like a bear, but have excellent hearing and smell.

They live in herds of 6 to 60. They will fight to the death to protect their young. They usually won’t attack unless provoked. People feeding wild Javelina often lead to fatal outcomes for the pigs.

As you can see in the picture they have no fat and are all tough muscle. Thus, save the chops and loins, and grind the rest.

!!!!!! Use nitrile gloves to sock skin the pig first. !!!!!! Then remove the gloves and gut the pig. !!!!!! Do not get the musk from the skin onto the meat. I do this on rutting elk and deer also.

My Recipe for Smoked Sausage Javelina

18 ¾ lbs. Meat - 2 Javelina ground using the 4.5mm plate (3/16^th)

½ cup Lard softened to liquid warm - Not Hot – drizzled over meat

1 ½ cups Evaporated Canned Milk (whole can) Bonding Agent

4 Tbs. Ground Sea Salt (non-iodized) Same Sodium as Boars Head

6 Tbs. Black Pepper Coarse Ground

5 Tbs. Granulated Onion

5 Tbs. Granulated Garlic

3 Tbs. Granulated Cayenne Pepper

3 Tbs. Coriander Seed Ground

1 Tbs. Mustard Dried Ground

1 Tbs. Fennel Seed Ground

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Mix spices and salt together. Sprinkle over fine ground meat in wide topped bowl. Pour canned milk evenly over top of meat. Drizzle warmed liquid, not hot, lard over top.

Mix thoroughly – may take 20 minutes – make sure that center bottom of bowl is mixed in also.

Cover with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator overnight.

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Next day presoak casings. Mix meat some more. Stuff into Collagen Casings 65mm (2 ½ inch) or form 40mm (1.5 inch) logs with the stuffer tube if you don’t have casings. Of course we did not have any casings, so we are making logs. It took 12 minutes using the Cabela’s Pro Series 500 watt Grinder model IK-523860. Put in ear plugs because this thing is loud.

Hang casings from top rack or lay logs on smoker racks. Remember to leave air space.

Open Vent and add NO water to pan. Fill smoker with meat. Turn on Masterbuilt Electric Smoker 30” Black at 140*F. Add Mesquite Chips at start and at 1 hour. I just set the time at 12 hours even though I know it will be nowhere near that long.

I am trying a No-Pre-Heat since I am doing Sausage. The first stage in sausage smoking is a warm up and dry. This might be good for salmon also.

At 2 hours raise smoker temperature to 200*F, close vent ¾ way and add last Mesquite Chips. Meat is at 140*F at this time. Mesquite is has strong smoke so don’t add too much. Insert temperature probe in top of casing and set at 170*F for done.

I pulled meat after 45 minutes of smoker set at 200*F. Internal temperature of the sausage is 170*F. Total smoke time is 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Christmas Party Smoking 2012 times 2 Smokes

A good smoke does take some planning. You need to buy quality meats and vegetables. You need to get the right spices and sauces for the results that you want. The wood that you use needs to the right wood for the results that you are wanting.

Below are pictures of Gambles Oak. I simply cut 1½ inch thick bocks from a piece of log that was split for the wood heating stoves.  

 

I then split them into chips. I bagged them for future smokes also.

 

Make sure your smoker is level. I use an App on my cell phone. Preheating your smoker takes at least a half hour. If it is windy or very cold you will want to shelter your smoker. Remember the grease tray in the back. You may want to protect the surface under the smoker.

Now let’s go into the kitchen. The menu today for our first smoke is 2 Fillets of Salmon lightly salted to taste with skin on. Leave salmon on the counter to pellicle for 2 hours. 6 Chicken Thighs and 4 COSTCO Pork Spare Ribs. The picture below was before I salted the salmon and smothered Stubbs Original BBQ Sauce on everything else. Remember to do both sides.

 

 

I started the preheat at 225*F ½ hour before the meat was put in. I started the chicken and ribs 5 hours before dinner time (pic below at 12:00 noon). The vent is closed and 2 cups of water are in the pan.

I used Gamble Oak chip at start and at every hour.

The salmon was put in the smoker after 2 hours (2:00pm). Everything was pulled at 5:00pm.

Salmon on platter (picture). The smoker rack was flipped over on a cookie sheet and the skin lifted off. It was then flipped back over onto the platter. It is moist and tender. The oak has a nutty flavored smoke.

As you can see the BBQ sauce on the ribs keeps the moisture in. Also you can see how the meat has shrunken back on the bones and 2 wires narrower on the rack (below).

The chicken thighs shrink about to 2/3rds of the original size.

Now for a second back-to-back smoking.

The menu is 4 small Elk Steaks, 4 Chicken Thighs and 3 more Pork Ribs. I pulled the first smoke at 5:00pm and started the second at 5:05pm. Of course, I added oak chips every hour and the temp at 225*F.

At one hour I pulled the small elk steaks (6:05pm)

I had a trouble call power outage at 9:00pm. Everything else was pulled at 10:30pm by my wife, 5 hour 25 minutes. It was a little overdone and drier than I like. I also forgot to add water to the pan. I think it was a combination of water and 25 minutes too long of smoking. I have pulled rib at 4 hour 45 minutes with great results also.

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.

 

 

Fourteenth Electric Smoke

This is our first try at an Electric Smoked Turkey. We want to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving in a few weeks. We could only find a frozen salt injected bird. We bought a 12.66 pound Kroger. We put it in the refrigerator on Tuesday to thaw.

We started the Masterbuilt Electric Smoker pre-heat at 7:21am on Saturday 10/27/12. The temperature was set at 225*F with no water in the pan and vent closed.

We started the preparation of the Turkey at 7:30. I put the bird on a cookie sheet to collect some of the juices. The Smoking was started at 8:00am with 2 trays of Cherry Wood Chips.

A tray of Cherry Wood was added at 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00am. I did not baste the Turkey. I let the skin turn to bark.

 

At 2:00pm we started 4 huge Idaho Potatoes. We are talking 1½ pound spuds.

I put the temperature probe in the Turkey. Wow, it is at 164*F. So much for the guy on the net who says that, “it takes 10 to 12 hours to smoke a Turkey at 235*F”.

I checked the temperature at 2:30pm and it was already past well done at 169*F. I pulled the Turkey at 6½ hours smoke time. I did a wiggle test on a Turkey leg to see if it is done.

 

At 4:00pm I put 4 un-shucked ears of Corn, 3 Goose Neck Squash and 4 Zucchini.  Look at those potatoes. They have been in there for 2 hours and are the size of a Nerf Football.

 

 

I pulled the Vegetables at 6:00pm.

Awesome Turkey. The meat is tender and juicy. It is just falling off the bones and the bones are coming apart.