Hot Links

[lovebenton0]

My apologies, theabroma. I must have slid right by your post on Elgin Southside, then I couldn't edit mine. I must owe you a hot link after that

[Lucille]

Fifi,

Been gone a while...but

I bought some Pitts Links, cooked them...(smelled good)

Took my first bite...YUCK! I spit that stuff out so fast....then I looked a the ingredients...

File 13...............blech!

p.s. It was not hot at all. But I survived to ask you...YOU LIKE THIS STUFF?

[fifi]

Doesn't sound like I would like it. I haven't gotten on the hunt for them here in Houston yet. But, sounds like I won't be ordering or looking for Pitts. If they weren't hot they weren't right. My memory says that they are all beef, rather coarsely ground. I may be wrong about that. What ingredients were blech?

You didn't say how you cooked them. They are normally cooked in the pit with the rest of the BBQ.

[Lucille]

I followed the directions and cooked them in the oven.

Beef Lymphnodes......

[fifi]

They told you to cook them in the oven?

Lymphnodes?

GET A ROPE!

[fifi]

This just in from my nephew...

The closest hot links that he has found to what he remembers as a kid are made by J&B Sausage, Waelder TX. You can find them at HEB and sometimes Kroger. We know J&B pretty well since my mom and dad had a country place near there for years. They knew the owners of J&B pretty well and dad was satisfied with the quality of their products. Dad was notoriously picky. Nephew says the package labeled HOT is probably closer to memory. He also warns that it is REALLY hot. He hasn't seen them at BBQ joints around here either. His read on the sausages that you get at most places are "mixed meat with cereal filler crap".

[QuinaQuen]

fifi: Why don't you go to Central Market and ask to speak to the sausage maker? I bet they could make you some.

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Central Market might be the finest thing ever to employ a UPC scanner, but they are the last place you want to go for goodlovin'righteous sassidge.

Hot Links are the exclusive domain of Southeast Central Texas, and they do distribute their product as best they can. Even Kroger can dish it out.

Look for Earl Campbell's hot links if you can't find anything else. If you go to the right Fiesta, you might even find the f'real stuff from Taylor or Elgin.

Heck, anywhere you go ain't but two or six hours from where you're at. You can't be that far from Taylor (hot links), Elgin (sassidge), or Lockhart (everything else).

That's why the good lord created the V6.

P.S. Is Jim Goode a fakey-@#$ punk, or what?

[QuinaQuen]

This just in from my nephew...

The closest hot links that he has found to what he remembers as a kid are made by J&B Sausage, Waelder TX. You can find them at HEB and sometimes Kroger. We know J&B pretty well since my mom and dad had a country place near there for years. They knew the owners of J&B pretty well and dad was satisfied with the quality of their products. Dad was notoriously picky. Nephew says the package labeled HOT is probably closer to memory. He also warns that it is REALLY hot. He hasn't seen them at BBQ joints around here either. His read on the sausages that you get at most places are "mixed meat with cereal filler crap".

J&B is alright, but no one can touch Chapell Hill. Don't believe me? They're right next to each other at the store. Do a side-by-side.

[fifi]

Uuuumm... My sister has had a country place at Chappel Hills for 25 years or more and we go there on week ends. We love Chappel Hills sausage and buy it all the time. But for getting closer to what we had 30 years ago, J&B seems to be closer. The CH garlic is really good if you put it on the smoker and let it almost go to jerky. We cut it up into chunks for nibbles with cold beer.

[jscarbor]

I was in Guys Meat Market getting myself a smoked cheeseburger and chili cheese fritos and noticed a big pile of hot links (uncooked) for sale.

[fifi]

Thanks for that. I haven't been to Guy's in years. Sounds like a road trip is in order.

[jscarbor]

They are short fat red links.

[fifi]

YES! The ones my grandfather would get at Otto's about 50 years ago were short and fat if I remember right.

[theabroma]

Southside Market in Elgin. Giddings Market in Giddings, and Nemecek's in West ... especially Nemecek's. And, if it's still there, Bertsch's Market in Fayetville. Also Smitty's BBQ in Lockhart.

Sorry, that's as close to Houston as I know!

Theabroma

[fifi]

*bump*

Update on the sausage from Chappell Hills. The favorite (Why didn't I know this?) is actually from a little place, not the big Chappell Hills sausage company. The place is on 290 next to the Exxon station. It used to be called Floyd's but is now Chappell Hill Grocery or Cafe or something like that. They make a coarse ground beef and pork sausage with lots of garlic and black pepper. They only make 3500 pounds on Tuesdays. They aren't hot links but the grind and the casing is right. We are thinking of asking if they will make a custom batch.

[jscarbor]

Fifi, did you ever make it to Guys Meat Mkt to see if the red hots are the same as you remember at Otto's?

Edited November 29, 2005 by jscarbor (log)

[fifi]

Fifi, did you ever make it to Guys Meat Mkt to see if the red hots are the same as you remember at Otto's?

←

Yeah, I did. Close, but no cigar. A little bland and the casing didn't "snap" after a sojourn in the smoker. But then, my memory may be clouded by sentiment.

[jscarbor]

It was worth a shot? They look like Hot Links though?

Fifi, did you ever make it to Guys Meat Mkt to see if the red hots are the same as you remember at Otto's?

←

Yeah, I did. Close, but no cigar. A little bland and the casing didn't "snap" after a sojourn in the smoker. But then, my memory may be clouded by sentiment.

←

[Rebecca263]

All beef? Custom batch? How does a long distance sufferer get in on this?

[MSchmidt909]

I know this an old thread, but I saw some new post.

You guys are talking apples and oranges, the hot links you refer to are the bright red ones seen in Texas and parts of Oklahoma. They are very different from the East Texas links made in Pittsburg (parts is parts) or the Texas Rings made around Lockhart or even the smoked sausage from Southside in Elgin. East Texas links have roots that go back to the black settlers in east Texas, the are basically made from the leftovers of butchering, they were about 3 inches long and sold in lengths of 6 or 12. When you go to Hardeman's BBQ off MLK in Dallas you order the way they used to in East Texas; "one dozen, Hot with crackers" by hot, they mean with hot sauce. Usually I was the only white boy in the place, most of the other ones I did see ordered 1/2 dozen with white bread? I guess it's an East Texas thing. The Texas Rings (Lockhart rings) are usually made with beef and are 8 to 10 inch individual rings, and usually hot smoked. In Luling at City Market you can get them wet or dry, wet being right off the pit still ozing with fat, dry are ones that have been under a heat lamp drying out a bit. I guess this like the "fat brisket, lean brisket " thing, fat is flavor was around way before the "Bam" guy. Some of the recipes for Lockhart rings date back to Mexican settlers in the area.

The Southside sausage is mostly Eastern European/Polish/German variety adapted to the region. All good, all different.

The red ones "hot links" were and are made with dyed red caseings full of parts is parts red pepper and black pepper, as a kid I would pan fry them and eat them on toast with yellow mustard (the things kids used to do ??). Growing up between Farmers Branch, TX and Liverpool UK (Dad - East Texas, Mom - Liverpool)

I have many memories of East Texas BBQ while in Texas, Black Pudding for breakfast with a side of bangers, back bacon, eggs and tomatoes all cooked in the same pan, while in the UK. It's a wonder I became a chef with tthat cultural food upbringing. Later as I got older, many day trips to Lockhart, Luling, Taylor, Mason, Elgin and all the little mom and pop places inbetween.

Hope this clears up some sausage confusion

P.S. Cooper's in Llano = Bad, Cooper's in Mason = Good

[BigboyDan]

The main thing for us here in Central Texas is that the uniqueness of the sausage product that came from the mixing of the German, Czech, Mexican, and Southern Black (something that could only happen in Central Texas) is so good... everything else seems second-best.

(Well, until you get to Louisiana...)

[fifi]

I know this an old thread, but I saw some new post.

. . . The Texas Rings (Lockhart rings) are usually made with beef and are 8 to 10 inch individual rings, and usually hot smoked. In Luling at City Market you can get them wet or dry, wet being right off the pit still ozing with fat, dry are ones that have been under a heat lamp drying out a bit. I guess this like the "fat brisket, lean brisket " thing, fat is flavor was around way before the "Bam" guy. Some of the recipes for Lockhart rings date back to Mexican settlers in the area.

The Southside sausage is mostly Eastern European/Polish/German variety adapted to the region. . . .

. . . . .

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We love digging up old threads.

Thank you so much for this information. That is terrific background. I am just about sure that the hot links of my childhood are about as you describe Lockhart Rings. You do have to take into account that what I remember is 50 years ago!

I did try the links at Luling City Market last May when I got disappointed with the brisket. I think they have dumbed them down and the texture wasn't coarse enough. Of course, that was from the batch on that particular day. Another day may be another story.