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PBS station. - Welcome to BBQ with Franklin. Sausage is part of a
long chain of history, and standard at many
barbecue joints. And today on this
episode we're gonna And today on this
episode we're gonna and look at some
of the various ways people are making it
here in Central Texas. But first, sausage
is one of the world's oldest prepared foods, and you
can find a variety of sausage in just about every
country of the world. And the spirit of giving every
country's sausage its due here are as many sausages
as I can name in 30 seconds: Square sausage, selsig
morgannwg, chorizo, cervelat, wiesswurst, landjaeger,
leberwurst, braunschweiger, wurstel, siskonmakkara,
meetvursti, swojska, kranjska, kolbasz, salami,
lucania, mortadella, kolbas, sosis, boerewors,
sujuk, lap cheong, kun chiang, sai krok
isan, sundae, kamaboko, longaniza, butifarra,
morcilla, linguica, chorizo, processed meat
stick, hot dog, soysage. See, and that's just a few. Sausage is everywhere, but
in Texas it's really big. So much that we've actually
got a city designated "The Sausage Capital
of Texas", Elgin, where some places have been making sausage for
over 100 years. (slow guitar) (slow country music) - So in my mind sausage
is center of the plate. A lot of folks sell sausage
on the side menu, but here in Elgin
we have a saying that, you know, we sell sausage and things that go
good with sausage. Our business was started in 1882 by a man named William Moon. My family's run the business
for the last 46 years, and we're actually
the third generation of our family to work in the
business and run Southside. So, the roots of this business, we're simply a small town
butcher shop, really, that sold barbecue on the side. But barbecue, and sausage,
has always been about, kind of salvaging the cuts of meat
that nobody wanted to eat. Not the steaks and
things like that, but what do you do with
all the other pieces. So the barbecue and the
sausage is simply a derivative of having fresh meat
available, no refrigeration so either sold it fresh or
smoked it and sold it like that. Over time we've kind of
evolved into a barbecue joint that sells fresh
meat on the side. We still have a butcher shop, but we really see
ourselves as stewards of the legacy of this business. It's been around
for 132 years and I'm just the guy trying
not to screw it up today. We do have a USDA inspected
processing facility here at our restaurant in Elgin. It's on the back side
of our restaurant so we've got about
15,000 square feet under refrigeration
where we make all of our sausage
and barbecue products. And that inspection
gives us the ability to ship it across state lines. You know, I think our
sausage is special just because it's simple. It's not over engineered. When you read our
ingredient statement you can understand exactly
what's in the sausage. We use beef navel,
which is right on the back end of the
brisket, so we've got a lot of the same muscles
and a lot of the same fat that you would
have in a brisket. So we just coarse grind that. Just an all-beef product. We use natural casing, which is the only pork in the sausage. We've got our all-beef
original sausage. Here in the last five
years we've introduced a jalapeno cheese
sausage as well. We also distribute
a Polish sausage, a country-style sausage,
a garlic sausage. A few years ago when
we turned 125 years old we came out with a 1882
version of our original sausage that just hearkened
back to the old days and put the heat back into it. (country music) So I think barbecue is
more than just a food. I think it is a culture, and
I think it's a way of life. You know, when you think
about Texas barbecue you think simple,
you think pure. True, authentic
Texas barbecue is really just four main
ingredients, in my opinion. You've got fresh,
good quality meat, which is normally beef. You've got a dry rub,
you've got post oak wood to make your fire
to cook the meat. And then, just time. You know, it's just
simple and we try to do it the same way it was
done back in 1882. We've just quietly sat back
over the last 132 years and done what we
do, and we feel like it's kind of come
back around to us and we fit right into the mix with the new barbecue movement. Barbecue is cool now, and
that's good for everybody. (slow guitar) - [Aaron] Sausage is one
of the few barbecue dishes that it's okay to
buy pre-cooked. It can be made on a large scale and still keep with tradition. But there's something special about putting your
own twist on sausage. You can still smoke it to
give it a little extra flavor. So we're gonna
cook some sausage. I prefer an indirect offset
cooker, as I do with everything. A lot of people
grill this stuff, but I really prefer it to
be far away from the fire. Now this sausage is pre-cooked, so we're only going to do
it for about 30 minutes until the casings
are just right. We're gonna keep it at 275 and real smoky. So, when cooking sausage the most important thing
is temperature control. So I'm looking to keep the
fire real steady, 275 degrees. You don't want to go too hot,
because you'll pop the casings and you don't want
to go too low, because you'll end up
with chewy casings. So what I've got here is a real nice, raging hot
coal bed at 275 degrees, and then I've got
one really dense log sitting on the side,
just for smoke. So you want a really
slow, smoky fire. You're only going to cook
these for about 30 minutes, so it's good to get as
much smoke as you can. But not dirty smoke,
just good smoke. Dirty smoke is from an
incomplete combustion. Maybe the wood's too green, maybe it doesn't
have enough air, but it can create creosote
and that makes bad barbecue. So if you're seeing that
white, billowy smoke coming out of that smokestack make sure your
firebox door is open, and make sure you've got
some nice, dry firewood. (country music) So we're about 30
minutes in right now. Some of these should be over,
some of these should be under and hopefully one of
them's just right. Let's see what we've got. So what i'm looking for is these little splotches
of fat in there. I want those to start cooking
the casing from the inside. There's a really,
really small window. You want to get the
casing as cooked and crispy as possible from
the inside without popping it. This one looks
nice on the casing. It's pretty taut, it
hasn't really popped yet. This one looks real
nice, like the way the fat kind of cooked
in there and stuff. So if you look at this one, obviously it went a
little bit too far. The casing's kind of shrively, it got a little
too hot, it popped. It's still delicious,
but the casing is gonna be a little
bit different. You know, some are
better than others, some are perfect, some
are far less than perfect. But, that's how it goes. (country music) (guitar music) (lively music) Considering the wide
world of sausage It's no surprise that
there's more and more places that are willing to try
some pretty different stuff with their own sausage. - Okay here we go,
smokey the boar. You know, barbecue and sausage is one of those
things that go back from beginning of
time, you know. When man discovered fire, that's when man
discovered barbecue. It's when they started
cooking over an open flame. It's survival, you know. You took the parts that fell out you shoved it into a casing
and you cooked it up. You took the other parts and you threw it directly on the fire
and cooked it up, you know. And that's how it
all falls together, at least that's
how I look at it. (lively music) - The focus with the
menu here at Bangers you know, is, first and foremost to pay tribute to what really is a beautiful and ancient art form of sausage making and
charcuterie. And to me that means,
the way that you do it. We try to do as much
as we can by hand. There's nothing mechanized here. It's paying respect
to the amount of time that that process
is supposed to take. Allowing things to
cure, allowing things to you know, flavors and spices
to get to know themselves. (bright music) - The meat's got to be
a certain temperature. Your fat's got to be a
certain amount going into it. It's all got to be kept cold. And then what you're
doing is you're creating an emulsion in
between the meat and the fat, and you're binding
those proteins together. And you've got to use
fresh product, man. You can't be using
some swag nonsense. It's like, you know,
people think like "Oh sausage, it's all stuff
that hits the ground". No, man, sausage is beautiful. Fills the bun man,
no matter what you always have
sausage with the bun. It's a beautiful thing. And we cover the
classicals you know, the bratwurt, your bockwurst,
you know your currywurst. We use old school techniques, but throw a new
curve ball to it, and change it up a little bit. (bright music) Well, we got Texas
antelope and venison. We make Korean style sausage. Pretty much, if it's got a face we're gonna grind it
up, we're gonna put it in a casing and serve it to you. Some of the wilder stuff
gonna be the vegetarian stuff. I find that to be just far
twisted, wild, you know. You know, you've got
vegetarian sausage, you know. Soysage. (laughs) Yeah, do me a favor
and go ahead and get me a couple of tray jacks set up. When cooking sausage
man, it all comes down to slow down in life man,
cook it low and slow. You want that casing
to just pick up a beautiful, golden brown color, and you want it to snap. If you go too hot, too fast
man you're gonna split it. If you split that skin they
all just bust on themselves and just climb out and you've
got to start over again. We're gonna pull
our currywurst out. This is, you know, kind of
like a German street food. Very heavy curry
flavored sausage. Alright, this is
a curry ketchup, made here in-house. And, you know, this
is street food. It's supposed to be sloppy,
you know what I mean? (bright music) - We do a fried chicken sausage, which is basically us, you
know grinding chicken thighs as you would any
other chicken sausage. Seasoning it, but then rather
than putting it in a casing we actually wrap
it in chicken skin and then deep fry
the whole thing. It's a fun way to
play on, again, and old, ancient classic. So, it's pretty cool. (bright music) - Meat is my true love. Like, the art of butchery,
the art of charcuterie, the art of making sausage,
this is my passion. And this is what I
truly love doing. (bright music) Tell me you wouldn't love
that coming out to your table? Come on now. (bright music) (guitar music) At Franklin Barbecue we've
got a ton of meat scraps. And one really old school
way to get rid of those is to make sausage. I've got my hog casings
soaking in warm water and I've got my meat scraps
sitting in the freezer getting really, really cold. And every time you make sausage you always want to keep
everything as cold as possible. If the fat starts getting
warm it gets sticky, it clogs up the grinder. So the bottom line is to
keep everything ice cold. So, in the meantime, I'm
going to make the seasoning. So I'm gonna start
off with the pepper and kosher salt. Garlic powder, onion powder, Hungarian paprika, and dry mustard. Alrighty. Kind of mix it up. That's just about perfect. Ah, brisket trimmings
from the restaurant. So all sausage has to
have a little bit of fat. If you don't have fat it's just gonna be too lean,
it's gonna be dry. So this sausage I'm looking
for 20% fat, 65% lean beef. I'm gonna cut real
uniform little cubes. (hums song) And then 15% pork. Alrighty. So the next step. We're gonna dump all of our
meat on the cutting board. So right now I'm just kind
of looking at this stuff. I'm gonna mix it in by hand. I want the fat, the
beef, and the pork to be evenly distributed
throughout the pile, then I'm gonna mix
in the seasonings and just make sure it's really
worked in there pretty good before I put it
back in the freezer. (country music) Adding a little water
helps keep the mix moist. Really just kind of
working everything in. Make sure the salt and the
pepper look even across it. You don't want it splotchy. You know it's a real
bummer when the fat and the meat get warm
while making sausage. So keep everything ice cold, including the parts
to the grinder. Alright, so get the auger on. Put the tray on, plunger. And this is the
sausage stuffing tube, so I'm gonna unscrew this. So you can get any size
grinding plate you want. I prefer a 10 millimeter. You could go smaller,
you could go bigger. Any way you like. So, sausage stuffing tube. Now for the casings. These are hog casings,
30/32 is the size. So they've been
soaking in warm water so they're super pliable. Got to wet the
tube a little bit. At this point you just
have to spend some time working it on there. So our meats got the
seasoning set on it, it's been in the freezer
for a little bit. Super-duper chilled. So load up the tray. Turn on the grinder. Got my hand here. I'm gonna keep the
stuffer pretty close because I'm probably
gonna need this thing. So I'm gonna hold my
right hand right here, kind of to tension the
casing a little bit. I'm gonna take my left
hand and I'm just gonna kind of hold it like that. You don't want to tie this off
first and get a pocket of air so I'm gonna leave
it open until later. But as I start feeding
meat through the auger I'm gonna hold it, and
then as the casing fills I'll kind of gradually
control the speed of it with my hands. You know, it might be nice
to have a helping hand sometimes when
you're doing this. Oh, here it goes. So notice how fast
it's coming out. Too fast, and then pinch it off. Give it a good twist. (laughs) Slide it off, twist it. You can tie rings,
you can do links, you could done one continuous
link if you want. If it gets a little lumpy you might want to slow down the
casing with your right hand. Get a good twist. If it stops or if
it starts again, you get a little air pocket, you can kind of work
it out with your hand as it's coming out. Alrighty, and that's
it for that casing. Thank you helping hand. Maybe check your twists. Twist them up by
hand if you want. If you missed a couple of them. So I'll cut them
into lengths of four. One, two, three, four. That way I can get them on the
cooker a little bit easier, I can store them a
little bit easier, it's just kind of how I like it. You can do anything you want. It doesn't matter. At this point you
want to put these in the refrigerator
for 24 hours. Let the casings dry
out a little bit let the flavors meld, and
then it's time to smoke them. (relaxed country music) Here in Central Texas
you're bound to see a ton of different ways
people cook sausage. A lot of places cook
their sausage on racks. It's a great way to cook a
lot of sausage all at once. But I prefer to cook sausage
on a grate in an offset cooker. Keep it low and slow, and make
sure the casings don't pop. (relaxed country music) So now that our sausage
has been in the fridge for a couple of days drying
out, it's time to cook it. And what better way to do that? Go to Ginny's Little
Longhorn Saloon on a Sunday for
chicken(bleep) bingo. We've got a festive
crowd of people out here and a lot of sausage, so I think it's time
to get to cooking. ♪ Hope your wheels
keep on rollin' ♪ And your bandage
stays on tight ♪ Hope the wind is at your back ♪ And there ain't
a bear in sight ♪ Hope your load is on the money ♪ And you get some sleep tonight ♪ Good luck and good
truckin' tonight ♪ Hope the chicken
coops are closed ♪ And you can ride
without a care ♪ - So chicken(bleep)
bingo is a tradition here at Ginny's Little
Longhorn Saloon. Every Sunday at four,
they put a grid of numbers up on a table, put a
chicken on top of that. You get a number. If the chicken (bleep)s on your
number, you become a winner. - Get a ticket, be a winner. - Chicken(bleep) bingo
is an Austin tradition. And Dale Watson is a
country music institution. He's been playing
Sundays at Ginny's for as long as I can remember. - We'll be right back. - Dale Watson everybody,
one time, give it up. - And I thank you. (country music in background) - Sausage is sort of
the ultimate party food. It's self contained, and
it's pretty easy to cook. (country music in background) - So you're from Franklin's? - I'm Franklin. - Oh, you are the Franklin? - And that guy is Benji, he's
my manager and best friend. (country music in
background, people talking) - Oh, get in there! - [Aaron] I bet
about 10 minutes. (country music in
background, people talking) I'm gonna make you
guys sausage wraps, so you're just gonna have
sausage on the smoker. Take it, grab some sauce. There's espresso, there's the
Texas-y, kind of sweet stuff. And there's mustard
for the sausage wraps. (crowd cheers) Once you get that
sausage all cooked up throw it on a piece
of white bread, and here in Texas that
qualifies as a full meal. (country music in
background, people talking) You know one thing, when people find out you've got
barbecue, look out. While we're out here
feeding the public, inside they're waiting for that
chicken to "pick" a winner. (chuckles) (country music in background) (country music in
background, people talking) (country music in
background, people talking) It's always a good idea to have
a lot more than
you think you need. Because no matter
how much you've got, it's never enough and
someone's always gonna get
disappointed. This is the last
one. (crowd groans) - [Woman in crowd] I
want it Aaron, I want it! (crowd yelling) (woman cheering) - Dale, just so you know
there's a winner already. - There's a winner? I gotta get back in there. (country music) (crowd cheering) And it is (singing) number... - Two. - (fast, like an
auctioneer) Two is a winner. Number two is a
winner, number two. (band joins in
singing) Number Two. Who's number two? Two is a winner 'cuz
a chicken did... ♪ Number two, and the
winner is number two ♪(continues riffing
on two is the winner)♪ Alright, what is your name sir? - James. - James. I detect a little bit
of accent there James. Where you from James? - Australia. - Australia. - [Aaron] So we're
clean out of sausage and the hen has made her mark. (country music) ■ - Yeah, y'all got a brick
pit back there right? (country music, people talking) Man alive, that was nuts. Turns out people
really like sausage, and beer, and country music. So how about we go inside
and work off those links? ♪ Adios ♪ Auf wiedersehen ♪ Arrivederci, au
revoir, and ciao ♪ Goodbye Alright, now you ain't
got to go anywhere y'all can stick around
and drink a little bit. illed. (very relaxed) Bro,
so laid back man. Now this sausage
is pre-cooked. - [Voiceover] Too
close to the camera. Sorry man, reset. - By right
(speaking gibberish) - [Voiceover]
Start like you're evening them out
or something, yeah. - May the sausage
begin. Oh no no. (laughs) Thank you. - It's just glitter. (electronic music) (chime flourish) (upbeat rock music)
