I smoked up a couple dozen wings today, and just for fun did some
sausage. Rather than begin the great sausage experiment with something
I'd made, I just got some of the bulk sausage sold at our Albertson's
grocery store in the meat counter. That makes a good benchmark. I
don't know about all Albertson's, but ours sells Italian sausages in a
natural casing in either "Hot" or "Sweet." Both sausages weigh about a
pound and are uncooked. We've bought a lot of them, and they're great
with spaghetti squash or other Italian dishes.

In this experiment, I tossed a couple hot and a couple of the sweet on a
rack with the wings and they were smoked for 5 hours at 210f. I don't
know the internal temperature, but the wings came out perfect. I did no
preparation, marinade or rub on the sausages.

The results were very good and a great improvement over just grilling or
stewing in marinara, as done before. Wow- I have a meat grinder I'm
dying to play with, but wonder if I can really improve over what I can
get in bulk at Albertson's meat counter?
--
---Nonnymus---
In the periodic table, as in politics,
the unstable elements tend to hang out on
the far left, with some to the right as well.

Nonnymus wrote:

The results were very good and a great improvement over just grilling or
stewing in marinara, as done before. Wow- I have a meat grinder I'm
dying to play with, but wonder if I can really improve over what I can
get in bulk at Albertson's meat counter?
--
---Nonnymus---


Nonnymus,
Are you trying to say that there's a possibility that the stuff at
Albertsons is as good as it gets? ??
caugh

You got a grinder, it probably came with a recipe book, there are good
books out there which have been recently recommended to you. What are
you waiting for? The Messiah?

Pierre

Pierre wrote:
Nonnymus wrote:
The results were very good and a great improvement over just grilling or
stewing in marinara, as done before. Wow- I have a meat grinder I'm
dying to play with, but wonder if I can really improve over what I can
get in bulk at Albertson's meat counter?
--
---Nonnymus---


Nonnymus,
Are you trying to say that there's a possibility that the stuff at
Albertsons is as good as it gets? ??
caugh

You got a grinder, it probably came with a recipe book, there are good
books out there which have been recently recommended to you. What are
you waiting for? The Messiah?

Pierre


You certainly have a point. The Italian sausages were an afterthought
and I just tossed them in with the wings to see what would happen. I
know that home made anything is usually better than store bought
anything, but I am being honest when I tell you that the results of
smoking the Albertson's sausages was not disappointing.

--
---Nonnymus---
In the periodic table, as in politics,
the unstable elements tend to hang out on
the far left, with some to the right as well.

Nonnymus wrote:

You certainly have a point. The Italian sausages were an afterthought
and I just tossed them in with the wings to see what would happen. I
know that home made anything is usually better than store bought
anything, but I am being honest when I tell you that the results of
smoking the Albertson's sausages was not disappointing.

--
---Nonnymus---
In the periodic table, as in politics,
the unstable elements tend to hang out on
the far left, with some to the right as well.

Nonny,

Nothing wrong with the smoked Albies sausages, they are quite good.
Back in PA, the local Farmers' Market had the "Turkey Lady" who did
various turkey sausages. Blow any of the Albies stuff off the grill.

Smoked Albertson's sausage = good
Smoked most anything hand made= better

Jason

Nonnymus wrote:

Wow- I have a meat grinder I'm
dying to play with, but wonder if I can really improve over what I can
get in bulk at Albertson's meat counter?

I certainly hope you are kidding. If you can't to better, you'd better stick
with Wonder Bread and Oscar Meyer. Anything else would startle your taste
buds.

Steve Wertz said

Most grocery stores let their butchers have free reign on the
in-store sausage-making.

True. My local Marsh has great Hot Italian suasage - sometimes. The
taste varies all over the map. It's hard to cook with.

Maybe Santa will bring me a "caser" this year? ;-)



--
Better living through smoking.

"Steve Wertz" wrote in message
Most grocery stores let their butchers have free reign on the
in-store sausage-making. So some Albertsons might be
significantly better than others.

-sw

Most? From what I've seen most just add a pre-mixed spice blend to a given
amount of ground pork and stuff away. That does not make it bad, just
common. The real trick to a great sausage is adding the spices you like.
I've made some great sausages using a commercial spice base, but then adding
extra garlic, rosemary, cheese, etc.

There are some specialty sausages (at special prices too) that are better
and stand out from the common breakfast or Italian at the store.