Is there a good base recipe someone can point me to for making a traditional German/Czech/Polish sausage you would find in the sausage section at HEB?

Something with beef and pork, black pepper, some garlic, maybe a little red pepper that you can throw on the smoker.

The sausage recipes I've found are usually for things like kiolbasa or bratwurst, but not what I think of as Texas-style sausage. I'm sure they are delicious, but not really what I'm looking for.

After you grind your meat take a small portion and season how you want it. Make a patty and fry it in the skillet. Adjust seasoning to your taste accordingly.

Yeah that's the usual practice for adjusting seasoning, but I'd like somewhere to start, rather than grinding a bunch of meat and then trying to work backwards a tiny portion at a time.

Most German style hot links are 85 to 95% beef, 5 to 15% pork. Salt and pepper.

schmendeler said:

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Yeah that's the usual practice for adjusting seasoning, but I'd like somewhere to start, rather than grinding a bunch of meat and then trying to work backwards a tiny portion at a time.

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Start at a ratio of 65% fatty pork and 35% beef. The seasoning is usually pretty simple: salt, medium ground black pepper, garlic powder, and jalapeno (optional). Grind the meat once through the fine plate, and you'll have to mix it by hand to distribute the fat and lean. Start with a ratio of 60:1 meat to salt. If you start with that, you will have something edible as long as you don't go overboard on the other seasonings. Then adjust everything else, changing one variable at a time, until you have it how you want it.

Make something you like, not what some recipe says you should like.

Thanks for the info. Sounds reasonable.

Google "Texas bowhunter Mesquite country sausage recipes"

They are very good recipes to start with and adjust as desired.

Will do!

Technique is just as important as the recipe. Make sure everything is ice cold as you're grinding and mixing. Put meat in the freezer between steps and I even will put a little crushed ice in there as well. I also like to use a binder. My preference is fat substitute from sausagemaker.com. If you don't get the fat bound right, you'll end up with sausage that is dry and crumbly.

Ruhlman's Charcuterie book has you add a little water or wine after grinding and then blend it with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer for a minute or so. Supposedly this helps set the emulsion as the myosin gets released more.