Fred Slyfield

John-

Heck yeah we could be talked into a trade. That's a great Mako....love the teefs

If you find the place I'd be interested in knowing where it is so I could give them a call....

Dani
 
Thanks guys....grind coarse.....gotcha....let it sit overnight to chill and marinate....gotcha....

Matt, if I just add pork fat I could do that with what about 20% fat to 80% gator or do you think that's too dry?

and so what makes a brat a brat? vs an italian sausage for example?

thanks again y'all

Dani
 
Damn, y'all are making me hungry!

I've got a sausage kit from Bass Pro at home, I need to breakdown and buy 5 pounds of pork shoulder and make some sausage, maybe this weekend!

Dani, let me know how the gator sausage comes out. I am thinking about getting a tag next year and might just need some recipes. Our tag success would probably be 100% here if guys weren't all looking for 10-12' monsters and killed one of the thousands of 6-7 footers that are everywhere....
 
You should be fine with 80% Gator and 20% fat. You can always do your marinade say, 9% water- 5% seasoning -1% corn starch by the weight of the meat. This will help add and retain moisture.

As far a brats and Italian sausage, it can be classified by the meatblock, seasoning, and region it is made. They are all a form of sausage that has been made in a certain region, added a certain spice, or certain way of processing to label it as that "certain" type of sausage.

I have only had gator a couple of times in my life, but it is a lot like white chicken meat or even snake meat. Tastes horrible by itself but can carry other flavors with it very well. I would at least do a 5-10% of pork or chicken dark meat to help carry the flavors even more.
 
Try small batches and experiment. I make venison sausage and use beef fat. Doesn't burn like pork. I use Leggs sausage mix and 1/5 beef fat. The mix is for about a spackle bucket of meat. I roll it out and use a circle cookie cutter to cut them out.
John, nice fish. How much did it weigh? Nice steaks...
 
Matt, I've got a bunch of gator that I'm interested in making some sausage out of. It's very very lean (great care is taken to remove all the fat possible), and care must be taken when cooking it or it's very dry. I was wondering what percentages I might be looking at for adding fat/pork to and what I might add to it, spice wise. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Dani
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Dani - This is not exactly a sausage recipe but I believe the company does sell all of that too, but maybe not specifically for gators.

I have been making jerky for 25 years using Hi Mountain Jerky Seasoning and have used venison,white tail, elk, moose, caribou) all sorts of waterfowl (ducks and geese both) and damn near anything else someone brings me asking for jerky. I can't think of why it wouldn't work on gator too.

My snack stick sausage simply uses the ground up version of the meat shaped into 1/2" round x 8" sticks. I just treat them like sliced meat according to the recipe.

Hi Mountain used to be a couple of guys working out their garage I think, now its a pretty big operation and their products can be found in a lot of stores.

FYI http://www.himtnjerky.com/
 
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
 
Thanks Scott....I'll take a look at the website.

I love me some duck jerky but am still working on the length of time in the dehydrator. The flavor has always been excellent. The chewiness has sometimes been hard as a rock.

Thanks again y'all for y'alls help and advice

Dani
 
Dani-

What I meant by the gator or chicken comment is that it does not have much flavor by itself but can carry flavor well. I've eaten a lot of rattlesnake and frog legs in my day and they are the same way.

If it was me I'd smoke them at lowest temp you can possibly smoke. You can either fully cook them, 145 F internal temp, or cold smoke to add smoke flavor and then either freeze or cook with your preferred cooking method. You can also freeze right after stuffing. If you have a vacuum sealer that would be best for packaging before freezing.
 
oh....and I was reading the recipe instructions that went with the bratwurst spices this evening before mixing...there was something about cure (said it wasn't needed for bratwurst). What is the cure for? How do you know when you need it?

thanks again

dani
 
You mainly cure when it's all pork. Longer shelf life and other reasons that we don't have to get in to. If you tried curing with gator it would just dry it out.

I would fully cook it before freezing and that will kill anything you don't want and just make it easier to re-cook when you go to prepare a meal.
 
Ok Matt....another question

Let's say you think the sausage is too salty or too spicy. Can you add more meat to dilute the flavor or has the spice settled into the meat and you're pretty much stuck with it? I don't have anymore meat that is thawed or ready for grinding is why I ask. It would be tomorrow before I could do it and the two bags are sitting in the fridge i'm sure marinating the meat.

I have always heard it's not good to freeze, thaw then re-freeze meat, but if you freeze and use partially frozen meat and then re-freeze it's "ok". So, since all the rest of the meat I have is frozen, would I be able to safely dilute the flavor by adding more meat?

Thanks again

Dani
 
You mainly cure when it's all pork. Longer shelf life and other reasons that we don't have to get in to. If you tried curing with gator it would just dry it out.

I would fully cook it before freezing and that will kill anything you don't want and just make it easier to re-cook when you go to prepare a meal.


And if they are pre-cooked you can vacuum seal with better success. Raw brats are best if frozen before vacuum sealing them or they sort of squish... if you are going that way.

Tim
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thanks tim for that tip....hadn't thought of that. squished brats is not what i'm looking for

Matt, if you don't have a smoker how would you cook them instead?

Dani
 
You can boil brats and then just have to grill them to heat them up at a later date. Just don't do either too long.

Tim
 
You can dilute it with more meat. And as far as the freeze thaw debate as long as you use good clean practices and common sense you'll be fine.

In the food industry, which you might not want to know, is they actually freeze meat when price is low and when market value rises they thaw it out, process it by fully cooking or par-cook, and then freeze it again.
 
interesting....

and I remain confused on the "why" we'd cook before freezing. And also what to do instead of smoking if I don't have a smoker. I buy brats and Italian sausage from the store all the time, leave it in the package, freeze it and then cook it when we're gonna have sausage. Is it supposed to be cooked before freezing and am I just playing with fire by not doing so?
 
No not necessarily. Just the food nerd in me, when you have to produce millions of pounds to be as safe as humanly possible those practices go home with you sometimes.

You'll be fine to freeze right after stuffing. Layout on a cookie sheet in your freezer, after they are froze then package them for storage.
 
interesting....

and I remain confused on the "why" we'd cook before freezing. And also what to do instead of smoking if I don't have a smoker. I buy brats and Italian sausage from the store all the time, leave it in the package, freeze it and then cook it when we're gonna have sausage. Is it supposed to be cooked before freezing and am I just playing with fire by not doing so?

I missed the part about smoking them later. I was assuming you were going to make brats with the brat spiced ones. With brats that you are going to grill and have on a bun I'd boil first just to make it easier later on but there is no reason you can't freeze them raw and fully cook them later. I just know cooked or frozen ones work better if you vacuum seal them.

You can put them in an oven about as low as you can get it until they get over 165 (check that temp for pork) and you will get something with a texture sort of like smoked sausage. The problem is the smoke flavor. Liquid smoke can work in the right amount. It is a very small amount usually so I don't even want to guess what it would take to smoke flavor gator.

edit: Oh and you have to add that before you put it in casing. Or you can put a chunk of smoldering wood in your oven when you slow bake it.
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ok...clearly i'm missing something.....why would you cook it before freezing it? then when it thaws you cook it again. How is that any different from multiple cooked sausages that turn rubbery from being reheated?

I know meat can grow bacteria...so is that why? is it a safety issue? if that's the case then why don't we cook slabs of meat prior to freezing then cook them again? what's different about sausage?

I plan on using the brats as brats....I love me some brats...and the bit I had sure was tasty....but there is going to be lots that gets frozen
 
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