Cheesy Sausage Biscuit Bites & Pig Shots

This cook (bake) was done on my Green Mountain Daniel Boone pellet grill running at about 400 degrees. This appetizer bake consisted of forty of the biscuit bites and about sixteen of the pig shots.



Preparation of the Easy Cheesy Biscuit Bites:

Ingredients

2 )10 count) cans of flaky biscuits (Grands Jr)
1 lb sausage (I used the hot sausage)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
jalapeno slices

Preheat cooker to about 400 degrees
Mix uncooked sausage and cheese gently until well blended. Shape into 40 balls of equal size.
Remove biscuits from cans and separate each biscuit into two layers, making 40 total biscuit layers. Pam your mini-cupcake pan and press one layer of the biscuit into each hole. Repeat with the remaining dough or biscuit layers.
Place sausage-cheese ball into each biscuit cup and add a jalapeno slice. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until biscuits are browned and sausage balls are bubbly.

The pig shots are just a piece of rope sausage with a piece of bacon wrapped around them leaving about half the bacon on the sausage piece and the other half forming a pocket for the goodies. Use a toothpick to hold the bacon in place. Stuff the cavities with cream cheese and sprinkle on a light rub and then fill the remaining space in the cavity with brown sugar. Bake these until the bacon is done.



Loaded into the Daniel Boone cooker running around 400 degrees.



I had only one of the mini-muffin tins so I had to do these in two rounds. After I got the first round of the biscuits off the cooker, the pig shots were done shortly thereafter.



Second round of the biscuit bites going on the cooker.







My completed appetizers.

Sausage, Egg, and Cheese, Blueberry McBiscuit

This cook was done on my little GMG Davy Crockett (Tailgater Size) pellet cooker using hickory pellets.

I started with a tube of Pillsbury Grands Blueberry Biscuits on a sheet pan.



I got the cooker up to about 365 degrees measured on my baking surface and loaded the biscuits on my raised grid for baking. 

About 20 minutes later, my biscuits browned up nicely and were ready for my treat. 



I cut a couple of them into two pieces as I wanted the inside toasted for my sandwiches. 



I put the two biscuits on my hot griddle and it took a few minutes to toast them like I wanted.



Next step was to put my hash brown potatoes inside an egg ring on the griddle for the first part of the cook. I also placed my two sausage patties on the griddle at the same time. 



When that got done, I started my eggs in a couple of egg rings and after the first side was done, I turned them over and added the cheese.



Sure was a nice morning for cooking and baking my breakfast and it came out great.



Here it is ready for the plate. 



Added some breakfast fruit and it is ready to eat. 



Some good stuff....

Hasty Bake 10 Hour Fuse Burn

This fuse burn cook was done to just see how much time I could get out of a load of fuel running at about 225-250 degrees measured at the cooking grid with a standard load of food.



I started with 3 pork half loins each weighing about 4-5 pounds. I trimmed some of the heavier fat from the fat side and then sprinkled on a good spicy rub and they were ready for the grill.



Wife made up about 10 one third pound burgers and I also got out some of my homemade Texas Hot Links. I also did a full package of the bun length hot dogs, some chicken wings, and a small meat loaf which are not shown in this article.



I filled the charcoal basket with a full bag (11 pounds) of the all natural Wicked Good Bricketts and then placed some hickory chunks around the edges of the charcoal box. 



Charcoal box ready for the cooker.



Started the fire with a propane torch this time on the one side of the fuse. Let it run for about 40 minutes and loaded some of the meat. I also used the heat deflector to make this an indirect cook.



Picture shows the loins and burgers on the grill.



Burgers just off the grill.



The loins just off the grill at about 140 internal and this took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. 



My hot links.



The hot dogs.

I just kept adding and removing the meat until I got it all done and I was able to get a full 10 hours of cooking time at about 225 to 250 degrees measured at the cooking grids. This was also just using the intake and exhaust vents on the cooker to fine tune my cook.

Sausage Tutorial

While I am not any kind of expert in making sausage, I do make it several times a year. We use my super spicy Italian in many different dishes and I probably make over 60 pounds a year of this great treat. We also like a good sage breakfast sausage, my home made brats, and my Texas Hot Links. This article is about all but the Italian as I have plenty of it in the freezer.

I will make this as simple and easy as I can and maybe we can get some new folks interested in this fun hobby. It sure goes good with BBQ!

Equipment

You will need a grinder of some type and they can be as simple as a hand grinder which starts at about $40 dollars to a larger electric grinder that will start at about $100 dollars. Many of the better electric grinders will also work for stuffing sausage.
A heavy duty food processor might work and a simple Kitchen-Aid mixer with the grinding attachment will do a fine job with the smaller amounts (5-20 lbs) of meat. The Kitchen-Aid is nice in that you can use the mixer to blend all your meat with the spices in the mixing bowl. However, the sausage stuffing attachment for this mixer is not very good. It will work but it’s a two person operation.



For this batch, I will use my larger electric grinder.

The next piece of equipment you will need is a sausage stuffer. There are many types and sizes out there from about 40 dollars to well over $400 depending on the size. A good sausage stuffer makes this hobby mucho fun. A lousy stuffer will have you talking to yourself and pulling your hair out. If you decide to spend any money on this hobby, start with a good stuffer.



I prefer a tin can stuffer and this one will do 5 pounds at a time. That is about right in that many recipes will call for 4-5 pounds of meat. This fine stuffer runs about $100 dollars.

You will need some kind of scale to weigh your meat for the recipes.



I use a small electronic scale that works up to about 22 pounds.

Nuff introduction...lets make some sausage.

Old Dave’s Breakfast Sausage

4 pounds of ground pork butt
1 TBL red pepper flakes
4 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp splenda
2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/2 cup cooking wine or water
medium natural hog casings
grind thru a 1/4 inch plate



These are two pork butts from Sam’s Club that weighed 17.4 pounds.



My grinder has a throat that will take meat up to about 1-1/2 by 1-1/2 so I kinda start slabbing the meat off of the butt.



Then I cut the slabs down to fit my grinder.



This is both of the butts ready for the grinder. (TIP) Place the meat into the freezer for about 30 minutes or the fridge for an hour or two before you run it thru the grinder for best results. You want the meat cold but not frozen.




This is the ground pork butt all weighed out into bowls for my three recipes. I netted 15-3/4 pounds of meat from the 17.4 pound of butts.

(TIP) Any pork sausage recipe that uses pork butts can be improved by adding about 20% more pork fat as the butts are really too lean for the best sausage. If you can get it, pork back fat is best if you can find it.



Measure out your wine or water or beer in a bowl or large cup and then add your spices to it and mix it up about an hour before you mix up the recipe. Let this mixture soak and dissolve.



If using the Kitchen-Aid, put the meat into the bowl and then add the spice mixture and mix it up. Usually for a small amount, I just use a larger bowl and put all the ingredients in it and have the old woman mix it up as I don’t want to get my hands dirty.




It is now ready to stuff in casings.

You need to wash your gut well and I find the best way for this is to lay it out in the sink and then hook it up to the faucet and run some hot water thru it.



Slide the gut onto the hog casing stuffing tube and tie off the end. We are now ready to stuff the casings.



I usually let my lady drive the stuffer (turn the crank) and I run the tube end of the operation.



The plate of the left is my 4 pounds of breakfast sausage, the other plate is my 5 pounds of brats all ready to be linked. I didn’t get any pictures of the linking process but you just use your thumb and forefinger and pinch off the length you want and turn it a couple of times to seal it up.



This is a picture of the links from a previous round.



This is a picture of Jan mixing my Hot Links...notice the dark red color on the meat. This come from all the hot and spicy stuff that we put into the meat. If you like hot, this is to die for!



This is 8 pounds of my Texas hot sausage ready to be linked.

This is the recipe for my brats and it is a mild flavor and the best I have ever eaten. It is a work in process with my friend Jim Ferguson.

Old Dave’s & Jim’s Mild Brat Recipe

4 pounds ground pork butt
1 pound ground chuck roast or just ground beef
3 TBL salt
1 tsp mace
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 cup non-fat dry milk
1 cup wine or water
grind thru a 1/4 inch plate.

This is the hot link recipe that I use and it comes from a fellow in Texas.

Bigwheel’s World Famous Genuine Texas Hotlinks (version Nov 2002)

6-7 pounds of ground pork butt
1 bottle of beer
2 TBL course ground black pepper
2 TBL crushed red pepper
2 TBL ground cayenne pepper
2 TBL Hungarian paprika
1 TBL Morton Tender Quick
2 TBL Kosher salt
2 TBL whole mustard seed
1/4 cup minced fresh garlic
1 TBL granulated garlic
! TBL MSG
1 tsp ground bay leaves
1 tbs whole anise seeds
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp ground thyme
grind thru a 1/4 inch plate

Use the same method as above for the breakfast sausage to make the other two recipes.

Making sausage is a lot of fun and you can make a better product that you can buy in my opinion. Give it a try!

The Ultimate Hot Fattie

This treat has been all over the web and on the cooking shows and other TV shows and I believe it was invented by The BBQ Addicts and posted on their blog back in 2008. They call it "The Bacon Explosion".

Probably a gazillion versions of this treat out there and this is another with my changes as this chili-head does like this kind of food hot.

Had some other items to grill along with this Ultimate Fattie so I fired up the Weber kettle and got it ready for my version of this treat.



I started with these ingredients:

2 pound bacon
1 pound of Bob Evans hot sausage
onion
bell pepper
Jalapeno peppers
shreadded up about 1-1/2 cups of the very hot Three Alarm Colby Jack Cheese with Habanero, Chipotle, and Jalapeno peppers from Sam's Club.
rub
cayenne pepper

I need to stop right here and make a statement about the very hot Three Alarm Colby Jack Cheese as used in the above recipe.



This stuff is "killer". It's great shreadded up and then mixed with your regular cheese for pizza, calzones, lasagna and other Italian treats. Also wonderful just sliced for crackers.



I started by making up the bacon weave and did it on a piece of wax paper. I used 14 pieces of bacon.

I then cut up the rest of the ingredients and shreaded the super hot cheese. Fried up about 10 slices of bacon on the stove and broke it into small pieces.



Next, I sprayed some Pam into a 1 gallon Zip-Lock bag and placed the sausage inside the bag and then pressed it out with my hands to form a nice square piece of sausage. I cut the top off the bag and then cut down the two sides and laid the bag open to get at the sausage. Placed a piece of waxed paper on top and then turned it over and removed the rest of the bag.



Started the stuffing process with the onions, bell peppers and Jalapeno peppers.



Next came the bacon pieces and the shreadded cheese.



I then used the wax paper to help roll up the stuffed sausage roll and placed it on my bacon weave.



Using the wax paper again, I rolled up the sausage and bacon weave and then sprinkled on some rub and cayenne pepper and it was ready for the cooker.



Placed it on the kettle at about 275 degrees and let it cook until the internal got to 165 degrees. As you can see, I didn't get the seam of the bacon all the way under the roll. It came loose at about the time it was done and was easily fixed.



Had a problem here as the inside was done and the outside bacon wasn't as crisp as I like and I didn't want to overcook it. The picture makes it look like it was done enough but it wasn't so I let it rest until it cooled down some and then placed it in the oven under the broiler for about 10 minutes turning it a few times and man, that did it without overcooking the stuffing.



Cut it up for serving.

Just take a buttermilk biscuit, butter it and spread a glob of some good blackberry jelly on it and place one of these Bacon Explosion slices on it and enjoy. Also great on an English muffin with a big slab of tomato and some Mayo.