Bean & Cheese Sausage

Cook the Beans:

In a saucepan, add the dry pinto beans, kosher salt, granulated garlic, coriander, cumin, and chili powder. Top off with enough water to cover the beans. Boil the beans until they are nice and tender. Once cooked, strain the beans and transfer them to a sheet tray. Spread them out and place them in the freezer to harden, preventing them from becoming mushy when mixed into the sausage.

Prepare the Pork:

Chill the pork butt in the freezer for a little while to make it easier to cut. Once chilled, cut the pork into strips and transfer them into a bowl. Put the bowl back in the freezer while you prepare the spice mix.

Make the Spice Mix:

In a bowl, mix kosher salt, pink curing salt, oregano, coriander, granulated garlic, cayenne, ancho chili powder, cumin, black pepper, paprika, and the C-bind (binder).

Grind the Pork:

Take the chilled pork out of the freezer and send it through a meat grinder. The meat should be nice and hard but not fully frozen to achieve a pebbly grind. Pour the spice mix over the ground meat and mix until evenly incorporated.

Add Beans and Cheese:

Pour 375g of water over the spiced ground meat and mix with your hands until you get a nice tacky texture. Add the cubed high-temp cheddar cheese (360g) and the chilled pinto beans (360g). Mix everything with your hands, ensuring that the beans and cheese are evenly incorporated.

Stuff the Sausages:

Load the mixture into a sausage stuffer and attach the sausage casings. Link the sausages as big or as small as you desire.

Smoke the Sausages:

Fire up the smoker to about 150 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (65 to 93 degrees Celsius). Smoke the sausages for the next 3.5 to 4 hours.

Finish and Store:

After 4 hours, remove the sausages from the smoker and immediately place them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. At this point, you can vacuum-seal and freeze the sausages or refrigerate them for later use.

Cooking and Serving:

When ready to eat, fire up the smoker to about 275 degrees Fahrenheit (135 degrees Celsius) and cook the sausages for about 20-30 minutes. Allow the sausages to cool down a bit before slicing and serving.