Andouille

I made some smoky, garlicky *HOT* andouille sausages. I used the medium grinder plate on my Kitchen Aid and ground a five pound pork butt. Pork butt is too lean in and of itself to be used straight up in sausage so I used a pound of pork fat back in the grind as well. After grinding the meat I mixed in the spices, chilled it to ice cold and stuffed it in to 1 1/2 inch natural casings. I linked it and ended up with 15 fat links. After resting them a full night to allow the flavors to meld, I hung them in my smoker and used apple wood to smoke them. I like to make my andouille three alarm hot with a serious dose of smokiness.

Mauricio and I constantly fantasize about taking over the old Bobby Lee's location in Hayward. With my culinary background and his butchering background we think we could make a serious go of it. We've actually tossed the idea around with a couple of his butcher buddies. For now we'll just have to add this to our growing list of culinary fantasy careers.