-Take your beef and pat it dryyy
-Cube it into chunks small enough to fit into your meat grinder. Place the meat into the freezer until chilled—this helps with a clean grind.
-While the meat chills, combine all the spices and milk powder in a large bowl to make your dry seasoning mix.
-Once the meat and fat are well-chilled, grind everything using a coarse grind plate (one pass).
-Add the dry seasoning mix to the ground meat and mix thoroughly with your hands until everything is evenly distributed.
-Pour in the cold water and continue mixing with your hands until the mixture becomes tacky and cohesive.
-Fold in the high-temp cheddar cheese, ensuring even distribution throughout the sausage mix.
-Load your sausage stuffer with the meat mixture and case your sausages into links. Place the cased sausages on a wire rack, uncovered, and refrigerate overnight to cure.
-The next day, remove the sausages from the fridge and separate the links.
-Set your smoker up for cold smoking with a pellet tube smoker. Place the sausages on the top shelf of your smoker, light the smoke tube, and cold smoke for about 4 hours, flipping halfway through.
-After cold smoking, fire up your smoker and cook the sausages until they reach an internal temperature of 150°F.
-Transfer the sausages to an ice bath for 10–15 minutes to stop the cooking process, then remove and pat them dry.
-At this stage, you can vacuum seal and freeze them for later, or cook and enjoy immediately.
-To enjoy right away, fire up your smoke 250°F and cook the sausages for about 30 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 160–165°F.
-Let cool slightly before slicing in and serving.
