BBQ BACON CHEESEBURGER SAUSAGE

Freedom Meat Lockers is one of our favorite destinations on our regular rotation of Meat Adventures. Today's sausage is just one of the many unique and fun offerings from Freedom. Ms. Goofy's keen eyesight spotted these babies in their vast selection. The descriptive title of 'BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Sausage' sounds like the whole package. The ingredients are beef, bacon, cheddar cheese, bbq sauce, etc and Monosodium Glutamate.(MSG) Now before you panic about the last ingredient, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration says MSG is generally recognized as safe. I personally have no qualms about this addition and believe its use can improve and enhance food. I do remember the public panic from the past.   Read FDA article here

How did it taste, you might ask? The first bite revealed the casing snap that so many people crave. Beefy flavor with a salty juicy bacon  addition danced on our awaiting palette. . You had to careful of the molten hot cheddar cheese in the center of these dogs. This sausage was the whole package.as promised. Freedom Meat Lockers does not disappoint  BLT's are in the near future.It is only June and we have our first ripe tomatoes .

SAUSAGE GALORE

To be a guest at the exclusive club, “Under the Bridge”, was a welcome invitation. Meetings are held once a month at the ‘Crockett Bass Club”, located right under the Carquinez Bridge. Fishing, food, adult beverages, sports, camaraderie and more food is the purpose of this Men’s only fraternity. Usually there is a food theme for each meeting. This month home made sausage was the goal. After receiving my ticket to this event the sausage stuffer was put into action. My contribution was a pork sausage with roasted ‘New Hatch’ peppers.

It just so happened that pork shoulder was on sale at Wally-Mart. Shoulder has the perfect fat to meat ration for sausage. This meat was run through the Kitchen-Aid meat grinder on a course grind. Some roasted ‘New Hatch New Mexican’ green chile was taken out of the ‘Chilebrown Ice Cave’ and thawed. Cilantro and garlic was pureed with the peppers that had the skins, stems and some seeds removed. This was all mixed together with spices and stuffed into casings.

Once at the meeting, I found out the members were actually making sausage at the club. They had a meat grinder and sausage stuffer working at full speed. The kitchen had been transformed into a sausage factory. We had quit the assortment of meats and spices. Some of the meats were: wild turkey, chicken, prime rib, pork, and tri-tip. This was a hands on experience. Everybody pitched in to the process. We mixed and matched different meats and spices to create numerous varieties of sausage. It is a good thing there were a lot of cold beverages to keep us hydrated.

It was time to fire up the grill. The menu was simple. Numerous sausages, mustard and rolls were it. I did bring a couple of spears of asparagus to throw on the grill. One can only eat so much but we tried to exceed that limit. With a beautiful blue sky framing the Bridge it was a great day being under it. My invitation has been extended to next month and the theme is Pizza. Oh Yeah!

SPLASH DOGS

We have been following the Splash Dog competition. This is a fun sport for your canine companion. You take a ball or floating device and throw it off a dock as far as you can. Your dog runs down the pier and jumps as far as he/she can. The jump is measured and winners are determined. This is great fun for everyone. We are hoping to get a puppy in the next couple of months and have plans to participate in this sport. After watching these hot dogs we got a hankerin for some dogs of our own. Dogs of the jalapeno and cheese polish (Willowside), Atomic and bratwurst (Butler) kind. What a dog day afternoon!

JALAPENO PORK SAUSAGE

We have made jalapeno pork sausage several times here at Mad Meat Genius, but today’s version will have a special Chilebrown twist. We are going to use pork fat from the Mangalista pig in our sausage preparation. We prepared a Mangalista pork shoulder last month and reserved the fat cap. This fat is very special. It is almost pure white. It has a very low melting point and just tastes fantastic. The Mangalista pig is well known for their superior fat. This lard will be our key ingredient in these stuffed meat tubes of joy.

Pork loin will be the meat combined with our special lard. A couple of Jalapenos, fresh garlic, cilantro, a splash of sugar & salt with a dash of our not so secret rub are our ingredients. The fat was semi frozen to enable it to go through the cutting blades without melting. All the ingredients went through our Kitchen Aid sausage grinder attachment. The mixture was thoroughly mixed and refrigerated for a couple of hours. We then stuffed our meat mixture into casings.

This sausage was coiled and skewered for easy manipulation on the grill. It was cooked indirectly with a medium heat. These sausages had a high fat content and would explode or flame up on a direct fire. They were cooked until the internal temperature hit 150 degrees. They were rested and then sliced. This was a taste treat. The jalapenos did not add heat but a slight pepper flavor profile. The star of this super juicy and flavorful sausage was the pork. The Mangalista fat flavored and coddled our pork loin with porky goodness. Oh was this a success. We got a chuckle that our fat component cost four times as much as our meat (pork loin). It sure was worth it.

BACON REVUE (SCHALLER & WEBER)

Today on stage is a double smoked bacon from Schaller and Weber. Schaller and Weber is a company based in New York. We found this smoked goodie at Drewes Bros. meat shop in San Francisco. This bacon must of had wings to make this cross country trip. Seeing double smoked on the label was the selling hook that we needed.

We opened the wrapper and a beautiful smoke aroma filled the air. It smelled delicious. A couple of pieces were sliced and thrown into a cast iron vessel. This is a good looking bacon. The meat to fat ration is perfectly proportioned. This bacon has a smoke ring from the double smoking. It had an exquisite shiny sheen surrounding the slab. It crisped up nicely. We thought the salt and sugar had great proportion. This has the balance we crave. It definitely had smoke flavor, but it was not overpowering. Lets try the bacon on some meatballs stuffed with cheese.

We took some Dakota sausage and added some chopped jalapenos. We cubed some aged gouda cheese that we purchased from the Oakdale Cheese Co. We formed the sausage around the cheese cubes. A slice of Schaller & Weber Bacon was wrapped around these meatballs and secured with a toothpick. They were placed in a lightly oiled foil pan. This pan was place in a covered Weber. There was a medium hot fire to cook these beauty's. They were cooked for 40 minutes. At the halfway mark the meatballs were turned.

These bacon wrapped spicy meatballs were 'oh so awesome'. Sometimes you just hit the mark with great ingredients. Today we enjoyed some great eats. Schaller & Weber will receive a rating of 4 stars out of 5. It sort of hurts a little to give Kudos to a company from New York. This is some quality bacon.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Cost: 6.99/pound

Where: Can be found at Drewes Bros or check their website. Schaller & Weber

CHIPOTLE, GARLIC SAUSAGE

We had tickets for an Oakland Athletics game last Monday. We needed something to bring to our tailgate. Why not make some home made sausage. Pork Shoulder just so happened to be on sale at the local Wally-Mart. The pantry was checked for ingredients. Some home smoked chipotle and garlic seemed to on the right track. A quick trip to the backyard found some fresh herbs. The casings were being held in the ice cave. All we need to do is fire up the Kitchen-Aide.

Pork shoulder has just the right combination of fat to meat, for sausage making. The kitchen-aide has an attachment for grinding the sausage. It makes quick work grinding up an 8 pound roast. A whole bulb of garlic was also ground up with the meat. A cup of chipotle peppers, minus the stems and seeds, were chopped fine. The seeds and chopped peppers were added to the meat. A healthy dose of salt was then added. A combination of fresh parsley, rosemary, and oregano were chopped and added to this mixture. Everything was mixed and then stuck in the ice cave overnight to have the flavors meld together. The next day the sausage was stuffed into their meat holding cocoons.

The tailgate was a success. These meat tubes had a healthy flavoring of garlic. The chipotle was not a heavy hitter this batch. They were served with some home made mustard and some fresh tortillas that were transformed into quesadillas.

HOT DOG EATING CONTEST

Most people associate barbeque, fireworks and picnics with the 4th of July. Chilebrown thinks of Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. This trencherman's delight takes place at Coney Island, Brooklyn New York. This year will feature Joey 'Jaws' Chestnut and his arch rival Takeru 'Tsunami' Kobayashi. "Jaw's will be defending last years record of 64 hot dogs in 10 minutes and 50 second. These two masticating warriors will take stage to wage a test of gastronomical greatness. Someday, Chilebrown may throw his hat into the ring and challenge these gormandizing athletes. Today will be the start of my training. Some Chicken apple sausage with some cider braised leeks will be on the bill. The leeks are from the garden and some home made apple sauce is from Zoomie. Let the training begin.

Cider Braised Leeks

1. 2 cups of thinly sliced leeks
2. 1/c applesauce
3. 1/2 cups apple cider
4. salt and pepper
5. 2 tablepsoons of butter

Melt butter in skillet and add leeks. Cook for 6 minutes over medium heat. Add applesauce and cider and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer till most of the liquid is gone. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Grill your dogs on barbeque and serve with a mustard slathered roll. Top with cider braised leeks. These were some screaming good dogs. 'Jaws' and 'Tsunami' may have met their match.