Matt, clearly you've not had gator cooked well. It's very lean so easy to over cook. But Steve made a loin the other night, rolled it in Tony Cacheres, Everglades seasoning and olive oil...grill about 15 minutes per pound, turning once half way through.....the gator loin tapers off (looks kinda like a big slug actually) and the shape means the tapered end will be overcooked if you cook it the whole time. Steve turned the meat, cut the tapered end off and we enjoyed a sweet tasty little appetizer. Interestingly, Steve said that the thicker part of the tenderloin swelled during cooking. Strange, but didn't bother the flavor any. Absolutely delicious.
If you still think gator is OOOOOKIE after that....well, there's just somethin wrong with you hahahhaha
tonight I went and got some pork side (looks like bacon, more fat than meat and thick) and went to work grinding the meat. I love my little meat grinder. A Waring Pro that made quick work of the grinding, of course I took y'alls advice and made sure the cubes were smallish to start with so that helped.
I was going through my cupboard because I recall having an extra packet of spices leftover from a venison sausage escapade years ago and found it. It was bratwurst spices. I also was looking through my venison cookbook I was give for Christmas one year and there's a sausage recipe and I was comparing it to the blackened venison recipe that I like out of that book. Not super different and I had blackened seasoning premixed and ready to go, so figured why not.
After grinding the fat and gator together, it was measured out to be approx. 7.5 lbs (small batch to try and see if we like it). Then after reading the instructions for the brat spices, I decided to use all the meat with all the spices....then the rest was for the spicy. The final weight was actually at 7.8 lbs
I took a bit of each and made some patties and fried them up real quick, splitting them in half to share with my dad. We both decided the brats are delicious but could use a cut in the salt, and the spicy might be a bit overpowering in the spicy, but it was still delicious. The pork was about 25% fat to meat...so perhaps a little much, but I didn't know what to do with an extra one piece of meat and figgered just throw it in.
Tomorrow we'll get them stuffed into their casings. Which begs another question. Steve asked me this and I don't have a clue. He asked what do you do after you put them in their casings? I replied twist them off and freeze them I guess.
He said that some folk cook them or smoke them after wards. Soooooo my next question is why would you smoke a sausage? Is that for like little pepperoni sticks or is it semi smoked and then freeze it and later cook it? Or something totally different?
Dani