Mild Southwestern Brats! This week we thought we would take a trip into the southwest with a mild Southwestern flavor using Chef of the Future’s Southwestern Rub and Seasoning. I am working on a brat that I can make my house brat. Meaning there is always some in the fridge for snacks and sandwiches. So, we did this one using both natural casing and collagen casing. Then both smoking and grilling some.
Sausage making is easier than you might think, keep in mind that man has been making some 3000 years before Christ. They had only stone tools then and today you can get a decent grinder/stuffer for less than $100. There are no rules as to the flavor profile you can go. In the U.S. alone there are over 200 styles of sausage. The only rules you need to pay attention to are the “Kitchen Police”.
“Keep Things Clean and Cold” …
Patti and I have set one night a week just for us. It’s our date night. We usually put something special on our Green Mountain Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker but sometimes we cook inside. We always eat outside on our patio where it is very comfortable with a rainforest theme. Wood Pellet Patio Heater, little lights, candles, lanterns and surround sound. We enjoy a little wine, or strawberry margaritas using frozen strawberries for ice, good food, music and sometimes a dance or two…
Mild Southwestern Brats
A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
Prep Time: 1 1/2 hrs., and 1 ½ hrs. if you cold smoke the meat
Cook Time: 20 minutes @350* (177c) grill or 1 ½ hrs. smoke
Grill: Green Mountain Wood Pellet Grill
Pellets: Green Mountain’s Texas Blend BBQ Pellets
Ingredients: Mild Southwestern Brats
- 5-lb fine ground pork butt, (we cold smoked the pork)
- 1-lb bacon, we used “Ends & Pieces”
- 4 TBSP Chef of the Future’s Southwestern Rub and Seasoning
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 large sweet onion finely chopped
- 10 cloves of garlic, (we cold smoked the garlic)
- 1 TBSP Red Pepper Flakes
- Casing of choice for stuffing
Mild Southwestern Brats
A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
Cooking Directions: Mild Southwestern Brats
I found that 5 pounds boneless pork butt works out great for sausage making. Just the right amount of fat for a lower fat sausage. For this sausage I needed a little more fat for a juicier sausage. So, I added a pound of bacon. It is easier if you freeze the bacon a bit to frim it up a bit. Then cut it into 1-inch pieces and run it threw a food processor. It goes through the meat grinder better with the pork and its easer to blend together.
Trim fat from the pork to your fat preference and remove all the silver skin you can. Slice into cubes that will feed into your meat grinder about 1 ½ inches work well with my grinder.
For that “Kiss of Smoke” in this sausage you can “Cold Smoke” the pork and at the same time did some garlic. We cold smoked this for 1 ½ hours on our Bull Racks with a Wedgie for that “Kiss of Smoke”.
TIP: #1 The meat will cut easier if you partly freeze it.
#2 I keep steel bowls in the freezer to place the meat in for each step to help keep it cold.
Mild Southwestern Brats
A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
For this batch I put the meat, onions, garlic and seasoning all together in a bowl and ran it threw my grinder. Thinking this makes blending everything together a bit easier.
Grind the meat using the large cutting disc running the meat into a “COLD” bowl. Place into the fridge in between steps. Mix the seasoning thoroughly to ensure the ingredients are spread evenly throughout the meat and back into the fridge as you set up the stuffer. You can let the seasonings blend overnight if you like.
I like to do a taste test of your seasoned meat to see if you want to make any adjustments by placing a tablespoonful of meat into a skillet and cooking it.
If your taste test was good, load the casing onto the stuffing tube with the directions for the casing you are using. I used both hog and collagen casing today. Start the stuffer and get all the air out of the stuffing tube.
Tie a knot in the casing and start stuffing them. Try to keep the air out of the sausage you can, or it will explode as it’s cooking. You can buy a sausage pick for $10 or just use an ice pick, paper clip, tooth pick or a knife tip. Do this when you tie off your casing and/or twist into links.
To serve we are testing how we like them cooked, so we smoked some and we grilled a few. Hard call, they were all good…
We loaded some up onto a Bull Rack and smoked them for 1 ½ hrs. until I had an internal temperature of 165* (77c).
Also on the grill for an internal temperature of 165* (77c).
I use a Maverick ProTemp Instant Read Thermometer (Our Store) for checking meat temps.
Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need to follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like. Also, you are only smoking at temps less than 250 degrees (122c), anything higher is cooking and there will not be much if any smoke, so it does not matter what kind of pellet you are using.
Mild Southwestern Brats
A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
Mild Southwestern Brats
A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
Mild Southwestern Brats
A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
Mild Southwestern Brats
A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
Mild Southwestern Brats
A Wood Pellet Grill Recipe
About our Recipes
We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Green Mountain, Sawtooth, Louisiana, Royall, Memphis, Traeger pellet grills, Char Griller side box smoker, Saber, Charmglow, Char-Broil, The Big Easy, Pacific Living Outdoor Oven, Lodge Sportsman’s, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles are healthy and low fat and will fit pelletheads, gas, natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.
The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.
Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste. Take it and run with it….
Live your Passion and Do What you Love,
Ken & Patti
http://datenightdoins.com
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Our Thanks To:
Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce
www.countrybobs.com
Maverick Industries, Inc.
1-800-526-0954
help@maverickhousewares.com
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Grill Grates
http://www.grillgrate.com/
Q-Stoves Outdoor Wood Pellet Patio Heaters
http://www.qstoves.com/
206-909-0397
vp@qstoves.com
Green Mountain Grills LLC
1 800 603 3398
Email: info@greenmountaingrills.com
http://greenmountaingrills.com/contact/
Chef Of The Future Brand Seasoning
https://www.chef-ofthefuture.com/
973 780 5895
info@chef-ofthefuture.com
Bull Rack System
EarthWorks Supply
503-678-7744
http://www.earthworkssupply.com/
Maverick ProTemp Instant Read Thermometer (Our Store)
The Smoking Wedgie
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