Texas Hot Links Recipes

TEXAS HOT WIENER SAUCE

Steps:

• Stir water, ground hot dogs, vinegar, paprika, chili powder, sea salt, red pepper flakes, onion powder, oregano, cinnamon, white pepper, thyme, and black pepper together in a large stockpot; bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 45 minutes.
• Stir cornstarch with just enough cold water to dissolve completely; stream into the hot dog mixture while stirring. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 15 minutes more. Adjust salt and pepper to taste before serving.

TEXAS HOT LINKS

Steps:

• Cut the venison and pork into chunks that will fit into your grinder. Mix well with the salt and sugar. Let this sit in the fridge for as long as you can stand, up to overnight if you have time; it helps the sausage bind to itself better.
• Get out about 10 to 15 feet of hog casings and soak them in warm water.
• Mix the spices and garlic with the meat and fat and grind though a coarse die, about 10 mm. If you don't have that, grind with as coarse a die as you have. If your room is warmer than about 70°F, grind into a container that is set in ice, to keep things very cold.
• If the meat is still below 40°F, go ahead and grind again through a 6 mm die or similar. TIP: If you have some bread around, rip off a piece and make that the last thing in the grinder: It pushes out all of the rest of the meat so you don't waste any. If the meat is above 40°F, put it in the freezer for 30 minutes while you clean up everything.
• Add the beer (or water) to the sausage mixer and mix well with your (clean) hands, or a mixer with a paddle attachment set on low, for about 2 minutes. The sausage will adhere to itself and you will see whitish streaks in the bowl. Put the sausage in a sausage stuffer.
• Thread a casing onto the stuffer, leaving a few inches as a "tail" so you can tie it off later. Stuff the whole casing at once, again leaving a tail at the other end. Repeat until you've stuffed all the sausage.
• Make links by pinching them off and spinning them, first one way, then the other. This prevents them from unraveling when you hang the links to dry. You can also tie them off with twine. Here's a quick video on making the links. Tie off the ends of the casings.
• Carefully compress the links to reveal air pockets, and prick the links with a needle to remove them, gently compressing the meat.
• Hang your sausages to dry, for an hour at room temperature, or up to a day if you can do so in 40°F or below.
• Smoke your hot links at 200°F or thereabouts until they reach about 150°F internal temperature. Then, either eat them or plunge them into a bath of ice water to stop the cooking. Dry them off and store in the fridge for a week, or freeze.

TEXAS HOT LINKS

Steps:

• The night before, soak the hog casings in a bowl of cold water and refrigerate overnight.
• Assemble all of the dry ingredients in a container. (This step need not be done the night before, but it's crucial that it be completed before you start grinding the meat.)
• The next day, untangle the casings and begin to open them to make the stuffing process easier. Hold one end of each piece of casing up to the nozzle of the sink faucet and support it with your other hand. Gently turn on the water and let it run through the casings to check for holes. If there are any holes in the casings, cut out the pieces with the holes. Hold the casings in a bowl of ice water or refrigerate until stuffing time.
• With a sharp boning knife or your knife of choice, remove the meat and fat from the bones, if necessary. Open-freeze the meat, uncovered, for 30 to 60 minutes, until the surface of the meat is crunchy to the touch and the interior is very cold, but not frozen.​
• Cut the beef into 1-inch cubes or a size slightly smaller than the opening of the meat grinder. Open-freeze the meat again, uncovered, for 30 to 60 minutes, until the surface of the meat is crunchy to the touch and the interior is very cold, but not frozen.
• When you are ready to grind, prepare a perfectly clean and chilled meat grinder for grinding, and fit it with the medium plate. Start the auger and, without using the supplied pusher, let the auger gently grab each cube of meat and bring it forward toward the blade and through the grinding plate. Continue grinding until all of the meat has been processed.
• Place it in a clean, cold non-reactive bowl or tub and again open-freeze, uncovered, for 30 to 60 minutes, until the surface is crunchy to the touch and the interior is very cold, but not frozen.
• In a medium nonreactive bowl, combine the dry ingredients with the ice water and yellow mustard and whisk together until completely blended and the dry ingredients have dissolved (the "slurry").
• In a large, wide basin or bowl that will give you plenty of room to mix the meat and seasonings, combine the cold meat with the slurry. Roll up your sleeves and with perfectly clean hands, begin kneading and turning the mixture as you would a large quantity of bread dough. Eventually, you will begin to notice that the mixture has acquired a somewhat creamy texture. This is caused by the warmth of your hands and is a sign that you have finished mixing. Spoon out a few tablespoons of the mixture, and return the remainder to the refrigerator.
• In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, lightly fry a test portion of sausage mixture until cooked through but not caramelized (which would change the flavor profile). Taste for seasoning. Based on this taste test, you can adjust the salt in the main portion of sausage, if desired.
• Prepare a perfectly clean and chilled sausage stuffer and place the water-filled bowl of casings next to it. You will also need a landing surface of clean trays or parchment paper-lined baking sheets for your finished sausages.
• Load the sausage mixture into the canister of the sausage stuffer, compacting it very lightly with a spatula to be sure there are no air pockets. Replace the lid.
• Thread a length of casing all the way onto the stuffing horn and start cranking just enough to move a little of the ground meat mixture into the casing. As soon as you can see the meat poking through the nose of the stuffer, stop and crank backward slightly to halt the forward movement. Pinch the casing where the meat starts (to extrude all the air), and tie into a knot.
• Now start cranking again with one hand while you support the emerging sausage with the other. Move the casing out slowly to allow it to fill fully but not too tightly so that there will be some give in the sausage when it comes time to tie the links. When you get close to the end, leave 6 inches of unstuffed casing and stop cranking.
• Go back to the original knot and measure 6 inches of sausage. Pinch the sausage gently to form your first link, and twist forward for about seven rotations. Move another 6 inches down the sausage, and this time, pinch firmly and twist backward.
• Repeat this process every 6 inches, alternating forward and backward, until you reach the open end of the casing. Twist the open end right at the last bit of sausage to seal off the whole coil, and then tie a knot.
• Ideally, hang the sausage overnight in a refrigerator, or refrigerate on parchment paper-lined baking sheets covered with plastic wrap, to allow the casing to form fully to the meat, and the sausage to settle. (Or, if desired, you can cook the sausages by smoking slow-and-low right away.) The next day, cut between each link and cook as desired.