LINGUICA (SMOKED PORTUGUESE SAUSAGE)

Linguica (Smoked Portuguese Sausage) image

A sweet, smoked Portuguese sausage.

Provided by Brian Genest

Time 12h30m

Yield 10

Number Of Ingredients 20

Ingredients

½ pound Pork, fresh, backfat, raw
1 tablespoon olive oil
7 cloves garlic, minced
1 (4 pound) pork butt, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup red table wine
1 cup sweet paprika
⅓ cup powdered milk
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon hickory-flavored liquid smoke
2 tablespoons dried marjoram
2 tablespoons ground white pepper
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
4 feet hog casing
lump charcoal
hickory wood chunks
toothpicks

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.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 431.4 calories, Carbohydrate 7.7 g, Cholesterol 81.1 mg, Fat 30.5 g, Fiber 0.8 g, Protein 25.9 g, SaturatedFat 10.4 g, Sodium 2164.3 mg, Sugar 4.8 g