Sunday, December 16, 2012

Excellent Sausage - Sunset Farm Foods out of Georgia


Southern Smoked Link Sausages from Sunset Farm Foods of Georgia

I'm a sausage fan as most of my readers know, and it's hard to find good sausages in the South. I buy a local bulk sausage (Frank Corriher) which I grill on a griddle or salt block, but it's hard to find anything other than very generic link sausages. I season and smoke them up, and they're really yummy. But, the meat really isn't center stage.

When Joy with Sunset Farm Foods out of Georgia offered to send samples of link sausage out of Georgia I wondered how those would taste. I said I'd give them a try. I didn't know if they would be much different from what I can get here, but I was hoping.

This semester I taught a freshman seminar class on barbecue. Since the class is only an hour and a half, I can't do actual barbecue in that time. So, I decided to surprise the class and do grilled sausages. That would be a good test for these Georgia sausages, becauce there are fifteen kids in the class.

  
Catawba College First Year Seminar Barbecue Class

I got up early and packed my tailgate O grill, grill wok, and sausages. I had a large bulk pack of IGA grocery sausages with a group this size and saved the Sunset Farm Foods sausages for last. The two flavors were cracked pepper and jalapeno. I did warn the students that the last batches would be spicy, and everyone in the class likes zippy foods so that was good.


Getting Sausages Ready to Grill

I told my students how to grill sausages. Basically, you just slice them up, put them in a zip lock bag with some seasoning (Dizzy Pig rub in this case), and then load them in the grill wok until they are hot and some crispy, since many people like the crispy outside.


Grilled Sausages from Sunset Farm Foods in a Grill Wok

My students took turns checking and turning the sausages. They caught on fast. This is a really easy grilled appetizer that tastes great. I told them that sausages are great for tailgating. They're done quick and are hard to mess up.


Yes. Those Sausages Rock.

The students devoured the sausages and really enjoyed them. It was universal that the Sunset Farm Foods sausages were better than the bulk grocery sausages (although the low priced sausages were tasty too).

Sunset Farm Foods has all natural sausages. Some readers may not care one way or the other on that. But, the taste is better too. I was glad I had these side by side, because it made for a good comparison. There was an extra pop to the sausages out of Georgia. Part of that was the pepper and jalapeno - but not all of it. The meat was just better. The texture on the Sunset Farm sausages was firmer too while the less expensive have kind of the bologna texture.


Grilled Sausages from Sunset Farm Foods

I had one package left of Sunset Farm Foods sausages after the school grill out, and I wanted all my family to get to try them. This was the mild package, and I used Tatonka Dust on them.

The guys ate the whole package, so you can be sure that they went over great at home too.

If you're looking for some really wonderful sausage, then Sunset Farm Foods has a very impressive product. The meat is wonderful. If you like spicy foods, then you'll find that the cracked pepper and jalapeno are excellent as well. Some of the meats with stuff added are not very good. In this case, the additions were balanced and went with the meat. If I had to pick, I'd say the cracked pepper were my favorite, but I'd take a plate of Sunset Farm sausages any day in any flavor.

3 comments:

Alyssa Ast said...

Love that you added the pictures. I'll have to look for some of this sausage.

www.bbqgrillsandislands.com

Chris said...

Sausages can be hit and miss, so it's good to find a quality supplier like this, isn't it.

I remember once a guy had me sample some of his homemade sausages that he was so proud of. It was at an Eggfest and I could barely choke it down in front of him. My eyes were probably watering, I wanted to spit it out, lol.

CA said...

That's what happened when they gave me Scrapple at a grocery store. I know it's a northern favorite. But, I ducked around the corner and spit it in the napkin. Whew. Hated that stuff. And, I've had a couple of icky sausages as well.