Smoked Habanero Fontina Sausage Recipes

CAJUN HABANERO SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Grind pork butt with 1/4" plate.
• Mix all ingredients really well. Let stand in refrigerator over night.
• Stuff into casings forming 6" links. Let hang for 1 hour before cooking.
• Place in frying pan with 1/2" water, cover and cook on medium for 15 minutes.
• Remove cover and continue cooking until water is gone and sausages are browned.
• Or cook on grill over medium coals until brown.
• Note: If you have a smoker, these are great smoked.

SAUSAGE, FONTINA, AND BELL PEPPER STRATA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 13x9x2- inch ceramic or glass baking dish. Whisk first 7 ingredients in large bowl; sprinkle generously with pepper. Set aside.
• Place sausage in large nonstick skillet; push to 1 side. Add bell pepper to other side of skillet. Sauteacute; over high heat, breaking up sausage with fork, until sausage is cooked through and bell peppers are brown in spots, about 7 minutes.
• Arrange half of bread slices in prepared dish. Pour half of egg mixture over. Sprinkle with half of cheese, then half of sausagepepper mixture. Repeat layering. Let stand 20 minutes, occasionally pressing on bread to submerge. Bake strata until puffed and brown, about 1 hour. Cool slightly.

LINGUICA (SMOKED PORTUGUESE SAUSAGE)

Steps:

• Rinse fatback thoroughly and soak in warm water for 30 minutes. Remove and chop into small pieces.
• Pour olive oil in a small pan and saute garlic for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Do not let it brown. Remove from pan and put into a large bowl. Add fatback, pork butt, wine, paprika, milk, vinegar, salt, sugar, liquid smoke, marjoram, white pepper, black pepper, and red pepper and mix until everything is well combined. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight.
• Test the sausage flavor by frying a small bit of it in a pan and tasting it. Adjust spices if needed and place back in the refrigerator, covered, for 2 more hours.
• Run water through hog casings and rinse out as well as possible. Soak in warm water for 30 minutes.
• Set up sausage stuffing attachment on KitchenAid®. Squeeze out water from a length of casing. Tie one end in a knot, then roll onto sausage making fitting like a condom. Turn KitchenAid® onto medium speed. Feed cold sausage mixture a little at a time into the funnel. Use one hand to keep casing tight and one to feed meat mixture. Twist off links as you get to desired length. Repeat with remaining hog casings and sausage mixture.
• Add several handfuls of hot coal into a smoker to get a base temperature going, then let the temperature die down to about 140 degrees F 60 degrees C). You need a cold smoke to smoke the sausages so it doesn't cook and the skin doesn't get browned.
• When smoker has the right temperature, add hickory wood chunks. The temperature will spike again, so let it cool back down to 140 degrees F (60 degrees C).
• Using toothpicks, hang sausages in the smoker as far away from the direct heat source as possible. Maintain temperature at 140 degrees F (60 degrees C) as best as possible. It's difficult - don't sweat it if you get spikes. Just open the smoker door and let heat escape accordingly.
• Smoke until links are deep red and skin is starting to firm, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Remove from smoker and let rest for 30 minutes. Cook like any other sausage before, either pan-fry or grill, before serving.