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[dk117]

I really have no desire in making my own sausage, but if I could source a nice German Texas beef sausage, I'd like to cook it properly.

Boil then grill (probably not with this crowd)?   Smoke?  But for how long and what temps?   I have to wonder if I'm either cooking my sausage too long or too low of temps as they turn out dry.  It's been ages since I've tried raw sausage on the Traeger and would like to try again after having the best sausage I've ever had at Smokin' Oak in Vancouver Washington of all places (trumps the few places I've tried in Dallas for sausage.)

Thanks in advance.

DK

[Bentley]

If your sausage is in a natural casing and it puckers, that is over cooked to me, and it seems like 90 of places cook it that way!

Brats, I was taught by Phrett & Jeri that you boil in beer, butter & onion solution and finish on hot grill, excellent technique. Your German Texas beef sausage, I guess I am not real familiar with it, if it is like a brat, I highly encourage you to use that technique.   A good old hot dog, I am a boil or steam guy, but grill is not far behind.   Not sure if either of the next two are like the sausage you are referring to?  I made a TX Hill Country Sausage once, it adapted well to being quick grilled.  I have heard of a Texas Hot Gut sausage, not sure if I have ever had it, but I think I did when we were in Lockhart, TX at the Chisolm Trail BBQ.  To me, it lent itself to a Smoke Temperature, about 200° till cooked and the insides mostly firm.  But it also seemed to be a sausage that the casing was not eaten, almost squeezed out.  That probably make no sense.

[dk117]

I might not have the name right, let's just call it Lockhart sausage or Texas sausage.  I've been trying to figure out how the German got in there.  Assuming immigrants)  Kreuz / Lockhart etc. 

Either way I suspect you've answered my question, yes on the boil, and yes on the cook hotter / faster.  I'll try that and report back.

DK

[mowin]

If you grill or fry, it's easy to overcook which will cause most of the fat to melt out resulting in a dry sausage.

I like the boil or steam, then a quick spin in a hot fry pan to brown them up.

When smoking, I go the low and slow method.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I make my sausage at around 250° temp on upper grates of my pellet grill until sausage is firm and usually about 160° internal temp.  Never dried out in fact the opposite.  I usually end up burning the inside of my mouth from the hot juices.  And the casing stays intact with snap to it when you eat it.

[Bobitis]

Not much help here...

The two camps I've seen are boil first then bbq (for lack of a better term), or bbq prior to boiling. It's a raging debate at times that I don't understand.
Why wood one 'bbg' first and then wash off all that goodness in a pot of boiling/steeping liquid? 

Cooked is cooked. Don't matter how it's accomplished. It's the end result/taste that matters. If I threw a couple brats in a bag and sous vided them, I could eat them. But there are so many better alternatives.
 
I add my brats to a boiling pot of dark beer and onions (no butter), and turn off the heat and cover.  I leave it on the stove (covered) and stir occasionally till it gets to room temp. They won't get fully cooked, but will absorb that nutty taste from the beer. Then it's off to the smoker/grill.

[sleebus.jones]

Oh dear god, please don't boil Texas sausage.   

If you want to smoke it, I'd do it at no lower than 170°, as it is a fresh, uncured product.  Keep going until it has the color you like.  However, fresh sausage generally isn't smoked on purpose, it just picks up the smoke from the cooking process.  I prefer to cook at more along the lines of grilling temps, which is 350°.  Throw the sausage on there, cook for 10 mins, flip, cook another 10 mins and pull.  IT should be at least 145°, and it'll likely be there or a bit higher after the 20 min cooking process.

But yeah, no boiling.  It's not a Wisconsin brat.

[LowSlowJoe]

I cook brats at about 250F for like a hour on my pellet grill , flipping once if on my Davy Crockett... just letting it go on my PG500. 

[dk117]

Thank you everyone.  I feel somewhat vindicated in my ignorance given the wide variety of suggestions here.

My problem is multilayered

1) sourcing the sausage.   Those that guessed Wisconsin brat were right.  That's basically what I've found at the grocery store.
2) However I'm looking for a Texas beef sausage I can smoke myself, but I cannot source anything raw.    I'd be basically warming up sausage from Amazon.com.  Will hit the butchers to check on their options. 
3)   Finally the how-to-cook. 

Next step.   Practice.

DK

[Bar-B-Lew]

Sam's Club has a jalapeno beef sausage that you may want to look into.

[LowSlowJoe]

I think from a technical perspective... real fresh/raw sausage needs to be cooked in a manner that makes sure the internal temperature doesn't stay  bellow 140F for more than about 2 or 3 hours time tops... That is, whatever you do, don't let the sausage linger in the 'danger zone' , for too long , while your cooking it ( or before you cook it for that matter ).   

 That is, assuming "RAW" means uncured sausage...

  If the sausage is cured, then you could smoke for longer periods of time while the meat remained in the 'danger zone'... the cure's job is to inhibit the growth of bad stuff...

   I'm not sure you can easily find sausage that has been cured, which also needs to be cooked... at least not from a commercial supplier.  Typically you will find sausage that's cured and has already been fully cooked... or sausage that is fermented and doesn't have to be fully cooked ( and you'd probably not want to cook that type of sausage anyway)...

   

[sleebus.jones]

Thank you everyone.  I feel somewhat vindicated in my ignorance given the wide variety of suggestions here.

My problem is multilayered

1) sourcing the sausage. 

Well, you can always make your own if you want to go down that rabbithole!     I have a good recipe I will share with you that will make the sausage you are after.

Now there is a local place that I get my fresh sausage from if I'm not in the mood to make any, and it is completely Texas Legit.  https://www.bellvillemeatmarket.com/  However, I don't think they ship fresh sausage.  Fresh sausage is meant to be cooked/consumed on the day it is made.  It is completely uncured (none of this celery seed nonsense) so it turns grey/brown when cooked; it doesn't stay red.  It's tasty, that's for sure.

[hughver]

I've been following this thread with interest since every time I've tried it, the casings became tough and not very satisfying to eat. I've tried brats, andouille, Italian and most any other you can name with no luck. I'll now try boiling in beer followed by low and slow smoke to IT of 160° and see what happens.   

[Bentley]

It is kind of ambiguous to try to do a search on it, so much comes up.  If you ever come across a recipe, post it, I would make it and try it.  I have made some beef sausage, just not sure if there is an ingredient that makes it "Texas" sausage!

However I'm looking for a Texas beef sausage

[dk117]

It is kind of ambiguous to try to do a search on it, so much comes up.  If you ever come across a recipe, post it, I would make it and try it.  I have made some beef sausage, just not sure if there is an ingredient that makes it "Texas" sausage!

However I'm looking for a Texas beef sausage

that's fair as I'm chasing two meals I experienced and don't know how to get there on my own.   I think it's this, the German variety:

Texas-Czech sausages all contain garlic in one form or another, but Texas-German sausages are simpler: beef (primarily) coarsely ground and seasoned with salt, black pepper, and maybe some cayenne, stuffed into natural hog casings and smoked.

Not much else to go on.

DK