How to Make Cracker Barrel Smoked Sausage at Home

Cracker Barrel restaurants are loved for their comforting country cooking. One popular menu item is their delicious smoked sausage patties. The sausage has a subtle smoky flavor, hints of maple, sage, and other aromatic spices, and a nice pink smoke ring. While you can’t exactly replicate Cracker Barrel’s secret commercial recipe, you can make a fantastic homemade version with a little trial and error.

Choose the Right Meat

Cracker Barrel likely uses pork for their smoked sausage patties. Choose fresh pork with a mix of fat and lean meat – around 80/20 works well. The fat provides flavor and moisture. For 5 pounds of sausage get a pork shoulder or butt and cut it into 1 inch cubes. Grind through a coarse die first then grind again through a smaller die. The double grind helps achieve the ideal texture.

Add Curing Salt

To get the classic smokehouse sausage color and flavor, you need to add curing salt also called Prague Powder #1 or Pink Salt #1. This contains sodium nitrite which not only lends a pink hue, but also protects against bacteria during smoking. For 5 pounds of meat use 1 tablespoon of cure #1 dissolved in 1/4 cup of water first.

Season Generously

Cracker Barrel sausage has bold seasoning. Start with about 3-4 tablespoons of kosher salt. For spices, use sage, black pepper, crushed red pepper, maple sugar, garlic powder, onion powder and smoked paprika. Play with the measurements until you achieve the flavors you like. Mix the dry cure and spices into the ground meat well until evenly incorporated.

Keep it Cold

It’s important to keep the sausage cold while mixing and stuffing. Work with partially frozen meat and use ice water when mixing to prevent fat smearing. Keep all equipment and surfaces chilled. Once the sausage is mixed, stuff into hog casings and form into links or patties. Tie off with twine or seal with metal clips.

Allow Time to Cure

Before smoking, the sausage needs time to cure This allows the salt, cure and spices to evenly penetrate the meat Place the stuffed sausages in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. Flip the sausages a few times during the curing process so the cure penetrates well. This also gives time for the casings to dry.

Choose Your Wood

The smoke flavor is what makes this sausage taste like Cracker Barrel’s. Use a mix of maple and hickory wood chips or pellets to generate smoke. Maple gives a mellow, sweet flavor while the hickory provides a more robust, savory taste. Soak chips in water for 30 minutes before smoking to prevent burning.

Smoke Low and Slow

Cold smoking at temps below 80°F for 4-12 hours produces the best results. If possible, smoke between 60-70°F. The lower temperature dries the casings nicely without cooking the sausage. Shoot for light, thin smoke the entire time. Rotate the sausage every 1-2 hours for even exposure.

Cook Thoroughly

After smoking for the desired time, the sausage needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F to ensure safety. You can finish cooking in your smoker, oven, grill, skillet or pot of simmering water. Avoid high direct heat to prevent splitting casings. It takes 30-60 minutes to fully cook depending on size.

Shock and Chill

Once the smoked sausage reaches 160°F, it’s important to quickly chill it to prevent bacteria growth. Create an ice bath in your sink or a large pot or bowl. Place the cooked sausage in the ice bath for about 30 minutes until completely cooled. Pat dry, wrap well and refrigerate.

Test for Flavor and Texture

It may take a few tries to perfect your recipe. Cook a patty or two, let cool, then sample. Make notes on how to adjust the seasoning or smoke level before your next batch. Cracker Barrel’s sausage is mildly smoky with notes of sage, black pepper and other spices. Adjust ingredients as needed.

Enjoy on Biscuits

Serve your homemade smoked sausage patties with homemade buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy for a classic Cracker Barrel-style Southern breakfast. The sausage is also great chopped up in scrambles, as a breakfast sandwich meat, or crumbled into beans or greens.

Experiment with Flavors

Once you master the basic smoking process, get creative with flavors. Try different wood types like apple, cherry or pecan wood. Spice it up with jalapeño, cayenne and chili powder or go savory with thyme, rosemary and fennel. Brown sugar or honey lend sweetness while beer or bourbon add depth.

Make Ahead and Freeze

Fully cooked smoked sausage holds well in the freezer for 2-3 months. Allow to cool completely after cooking, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap followed by foil. Exclude as much air as possible. Portion into usable amounts and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator before using.

Troubleshoot Your Sausage

Smoked sausage sometimes runs into issues. If your sausage comes out dry, try adding more fat to the meat blend and smoking at lower temperatures. For split or blown casings, ensure casings are thoroughly dried before smoking and avoid direct high heat during cooking. An acidic tang points to spoilage from bacteria – be diligent with curing, chilling and sanitation.

Invest in a Sausage Stuffer

While you can stuff sausages using a pastry bag or by hand, a true sausage stuffer makes the job easier with better results. Vertical stuffers allow you to use one hand to feed the casing while cranking with the other hand. Horizontal styles take up less space. Choose stainless steel and double check capacity.

Use a Sausage Pricker

A sausage pricker is a tool that pricks tiny holes all over your stuffed sausage. This helps release air pockets and allows smoke to better penetrate. Prick sausages after stuffing and before smoking or cooking. Uniform tiny holes prevent splitting casings later. It only takes a few minutes.

Source Quality Casings

The casing determines the final shape and texture of your smoked sausage. Natural casings like hog, sheep or beef add authenticity but must be handled carefully. Collagen casings are convenient and easy to use. For patties, look for fibrous casings designed to peel off cleanly after smoking. Shop at butcher shops or online.

Hang Sausage to Dry

After stuffing and pricking, hang sausages or place on a rack in the refrigerator uncovered overnight. This helps dry and firm up the casings so they take smoke better. Tie sausages or clip them to hooks so air can circulate all around. A fan directed on the sausages speeds the drying time if needed.

Try a Sausage Blender

Electric sausage blenders take the effort out of mixing and emulsifying sausage meat. They chop and blend meat and fat while simultaneously mixing in spices and liquids. This produces a super smooth, uniform texture and evenly distributes ingredients. Cleanup is easy too.

Play with Different Grinds

Grinding meat through different dies produces unique textures. A coarse grind leaves nice fat chunks for flavor and moisture. Fine grinding makes for dense, smooth sausage. Mix it up by doing a coarse grind on half the meat and a fine grind on the remainder before mixing. Get the right die plates for your grinder.

Brine for Extra Juiciness

For ultra moist and flavorful sausage, try brining the meat before grinding. Dissolve salt, sugar and spices in water or other liquid. Submerge cubed pork in the brine and refrigerate 12-24 hours. The meat absorbs the brine, seasoning from within. Rinse before grinding if the brine is very concentrated.

Brown Your Sausage

Browning smoked sausage in a skillet or on the grill adds texture and deeper flavor. Cook over medium heat in a bit of oil to gently caramelize the exterior casing. Brown patties on both sides. Browning before adding to soups or beans is a nice touch. Just be careful not to burst the casings.

Make Your Own Cure Blend

While premixed cure #1 provides convenience and easy measuring, you can blend your own custom cure ratios. Use 1 part sodium nitrite to 16 parts salt as a basic guide. This allows you to control salt amounts and add other spices like garlic powder, black pepper or brown sugar.

Stuff into Hog Casings

The size of your sausage links or patties depends on the casing size you choose. For the Cracker Barrel look, hog casings are ideal. Hog casings give you nice plump but not giant smoked sausage. Sheep casings make petite links while beef rounds create huge honking sausage.

Use Sausage as a Topping

In addition to breakfast, try crumbled smoked sausage as a topping on flatbreads, grain bowls, salads, soups, baked potatoes, nachos and more. Sprinkle on some extra spices or sauce to compliment the dish. Smoked sausage adds tasty protein and texture to all kinds of meals.

Make Smoked Sausage Meatballs

For a fun twist, try forming your sausage mixture into meatballs before smoking. Follow your normal sausage recipe but form into 1