Cajun Sausage Making

Use Luquette’s Cajun Sausage Seasoning with pork, beef, deer, wild hog, poultry or game. One bag (454 g / 1 lb) seasons about 27 kg (roughly 60 lb) of meat. Grind it, mix it, stuff it, and cook it fresh or smoke it. All amounts are in grams; pounds are shown for reference.

Yield: 2,268 g (5 lb) of sausage, about 20 links; easily scaled

Time: About 1½ hours, plus chilling

Seasoning: 16.8 g per kg of meat (38 g per 2,268 g batch)

1. Basic Cajun Pork Sausage

Scale you need: A digital kitchen scale reading to 1 g for the meat, seasoning, water and add-ins, and a jeweler’s or pocket scale reading to 0.1 g for Cure #1.

Ingredients (2,268 g / 5 lb batch)

• 2,268 g (5 lb) boneless pork butt (shoulder), 70/30 to 80/20 lean to fat, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 38 g Luquette’s Cajun Sausage Seasoning (16.8 g per kg of meat; 17 g per kg with a sweet add-in)
• 227 g (227 ml) ice water (100 g per kg of meat)
• About 4.5 m (15 ft) natural hog casings (32–35 mm)
• Optional add-ins (see Flavored Variations)

Seasoning dose: Our formula: 16.8 g per kg of meat (0.0168 lb per lb, about 7.6 g per lb). When adding a sweet add-in like syrup or fruit, use 17 g per kg. One 454 g bag seasons about 27 kg (roughly 60 lb). Fry a small test patty, taste, and adjust before stuffing.

Equipment

• Digital kitchen scale (1 g)
• Meat grinder with a ⅜-inch (coarse) or ¼-inch (medium) plate
• Sausage stuffer with a ¾-inch tube
• Large chilled bowl or tub and a sheet pan
• Instant-read thermometer
• Sausage pricker or clean pin

Directions

1. Keep everything cold. Chill the cubed meat, grinder head, blade, plate and bowl in the freezer about 30–45 minutes, until the meat is firm at the edges but not frozen. Cold meat grinds clean and keeps the fat from smearing.
2. Prep the casings. Rinse the salt off the hog casings and soak them in warm water at least 30 minutes. Run water through each casing to flush it and check for holes.
3. Weigh and grind. Weigh the meat, then weigh out 16.8 g of seasoning and 100 g of ice water per kg. Grind the meat through the ⅜-inch plate for a coarse Cajun-style sausage, or the ¼-inch plate for a finer one, into the chilled bowl set over ice.
4. Mix. Sprinkle the seasoning over the ground meat, add the ice water and any add-ins, and mix by hand or with a paddle 2–3 minutes, until the meat turns sticky and tacky. That bind keeps the links juicy.
5. Test and adjust. Fry a small patty, taste, and adjust the seasoning now. Once it’s stuffed, it’s set.
6. Stuff. Slide a casing onto the stuffer tube, leaving a few inches hanging, and fill evenly without packing too tight. Prick any air pockets with the pricker.
7. Link. Pinch at about 6-inch (15 cm) lengths and twist, alternating directions each link. Tie off the ends. Rest the links uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to dry and firm up.
8. Cook. Grill, pan-fry, bake, or simmer over medium-low heat, turning often, until the internal temperature reaches 160°F (71°C) for pork (165°F / 74°C for poultry). Low and slow keeps the casings from bursting.
9. Store. Refrigerate fresh sausage up to 2 days, or vacuum-seal and freeze up to 3 months.

2. Flavored Variations

Add-ins per 2,268 g (5 lb) of meat. Mix them in with the seasoning and ice water. Keep wet add-ins well drained and use only one or two at a time.

• Green onion: 100 g thinly sliced green onions (about 1 cup)
• Jalapeño (fresh): 75 g seeded, finely diced fresh jalapeños (about 4)
• Jalapeño (pickled): 75 g drained, chopped pickled jalapeños
• Jalapeño & cheese: 75 g diced jalapeños + 454 g high-temperature cheddar or pepper jack (¼-inch cubes); add the cheese after the seasoning is mixed in
• Maple: 105 g pure maple syrup (about ⅓ cup)
• Steen’s cane syrup: 110 g Steen’s 100% Pure Cane Syrup (about ⅓ cup)
• Pineapple: 165 g finely diced fresh or well-drained canned pineapple
• Apple: 125 g finely diced, peeled apple (Granny Smith or Honeycrisp)
• Garlic: 17 g minced fresh garlic (about 6 cloves)
• Crawfish: 454 g Louisiana crawfish tail meat, rough-chopped, plus 50 g green onions
• Boudin-style rice: 480 g cooked, cooled rice + 50 g green onions + 15 g parsley; add 60 g more ice water
• Onion & bell pepper: 75 g each finely diced onion and bell pepper, sautéed and cooled
• Smoked andouille-style: Smoke per the section below; grind coarse through the ⅜-inch plate
• Beer: Replace the ice water with 227 g (227 ml) cold Louisiana lager

3. Smoked Sausage

1. Add the cure. If smoking, add Cure #1 (pink curing salt, 6.25% sodium nitrite) at 2.5 g per kg of meat (the USDA level, about 1.1 g per lb): 5.7 g for a 2,268 g batch. Weigh it on a 0.1 g scale and dissolve it in the ice water so it spreads evenly, then mix as usual.
2. Rest cold overnight. Stuff and link, then refrigerate uncovered overnight at 40°F (4°C) or below so the cure works and the casings dry.
3. Dry at 120°F. Hang or lay the links in the smoker at 120°F (49°C) for 45 minutes to dry the casings.
4. Smoke at 140°F. Add smoke (pecan, hickory or oak) and smoke at 140°F (60°C) for 2 hours.
5. Finish at 175°F. Raise the smoker to 175°F (79°C) for 2 hours, or until the sausage reaches 155–160°F (68–71°C) internal (poultry 165°F / 74°C).
6. Ice bath. Plunge the links into ice water about 5–10 minutes to stop the cooking and set the casings.
7. Bloom. Hang at room temperature 1–2 hours to dry and deepen in color, then refrigerate. Keeps 1 week refrigerated or 3 months frozen.

Safety: Never exceed the cure dose: 2.5 g per kg of meat. Weigh it on a 0.1 g scale, keep it away from the table salt, and store it out of reach of children. Cure #1 is required for any sausage smoked below 200°F (93°C).

4. Mix & Match Meats

Seasoning Scaling (16.8 g per kg; 1 bag = 454 g = about 27 kg of meat)