Russ' thread inspired me to post some pics of my modest kitchen attempts. I thought I remembered posting this KAW a while back, but it didn't turn up on a Google search, so maybe I just thought about it. As I said in his thread, we make gumbo for Thanksgiving, as the family travels that day, and they come in at all different times. We reserve the traditional Thanksgiving dinner for Friday.

On to the KAW- I've had a hard time finding good andouille sausage, and it varies widely in flavor and heat. I remember buying some in VT that was so hot it made the entire pot of gumbo nearly inedible! The andouille I've had in New Orleans is spicy and garlicky, but not extremely hot. Some heat, yes, but not weapons-grade heat. Sausage is actually very easy to make (it's just ground meat and spices), but people seem to be impressed that you made the effort. I feel so 'Martha Stewart' doing all of this to make a good pot of gumbo. We'll make stock from smoked chicken bones, too. With my homemade bread, it's a pretty nice meal.

I start with a pork shoulder, or Boston butt. They usually run about 6-8 lbs., and this one netted about 6 lbs of meat. I cut the meat into chunks, and put them in the freezer for about an hour to firm up.

Once ground, you add the spices, mix thoroughly, and cover and refrigerate over night. Some recipes say to dice half of the meat and grind the rest- meh- too much like work. No one has ever complained about the sausage we serve.

The fun part- stuffing the sausage! Our old KitchenAid mixer does a great job of grinding the meat and stuffing the sausage.

Ready for the smoker! I've heard of letting the sausage sit in the fridge to dry a bit before smoking, but I don't bother.

On the smoker for a couple hours, as low a temperature as I can get it- about 200 F.

One trick I learned is to immerse the smoked sausage in ice water right off of the smoker- keeps the skins tight instead of wrinkled.

Recipe:

5-6 pounds of pork, cut in chunks that will fit your meat grinder. Many recipes call for added pork fat, but I can't find a place that will sell it to me.

2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 TBL paprika

1/4 cup minced garlic

2 TBL black pepper

3 TBL kosher salt

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp crushed red pepper

2 TBL non-fat milk powder

1/2 cup ice water

(optional) 1 tsp pink curing salt (Prague Powder) I don't always use this, and can't tell the difference.

I add the spices to the meat chunks before putting them in the freezer, which I think does a better job of distributing them through the meat as you grind it. I use a coarse disk on our KA meat grinder attachment. Cover and refrigerate overnight, then stuff the casings. You don't HAVE to stuff sausage; one of our favorites is a Greek Chicken sausage that I form into patties and freeze.