How good is Italian Sausage on a Pellet Grill/Smoker?

How good is Italian Sausage off a Pellet Grill/Smoker?

It's GOOD!!!

See the full video here: https://youtu.be/bNTocZpGCms

When I was in the market for a Pellet Grill, I often wondered what certain foods would be like coming off a Pellet Grill.  I watched countess hours of YouTube videos and found lots of great information.  I hope my channel provides the same help to people who are also in the market with questions like I had.  

One of the biggest surprises for our family was how GOOD regular sausage was off the grill.  It's absolutely a world a difference between that and a standard gas grill.  On the Pellet Smoker, you can cook the sausage at a lower temperature as well as infuse some smoke flavor, what a difference!  

When you cut into one of these (as you'll see in my video) there's an amazing amount of juice that is retained in the meat which adds so much flavor that it's indescribable. I hope you'll give it a try and see what I mean!

INFORMATION ON CHRIS & BLIND GRILLIN

Please visit blindgrilling.com

and his YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxXPP9jk32xHna_bJGnupaw

I met Chris on a facebook group that several other YouTube cooking channels are members of.  Long story short, Chris is an awesome guy with a heart of gold.  Chris has a condition which has caused him to lose eyesight over time.  Blind Grillin is a charitable 501C3 nonprofit that provides grill packages to veterans and other first responders.  

I STRONGLY SUPPORT charities of this type.  I'd like to share all the information that Chris gave me below with you all.  I will copy and paste it as he sent it to me.  Please show support for his charity and other of it's kind.  We need to support those that serve and protect us, they do a job that most of us would never do.  They're brave hero's that deserve support and recognition!

Chris's email to me:

"Michael, 

I appreciate what you are doing for Blind Grilling.  Below is a story I wrote when I began hunting again after losing my sight. It tells how I lost my sight.  After that elk hunt I began working for the hunting outfitter managing social media for the CO lodge and fishing resort in MN.  Once the owner Dick Dodds retired I wanted to do something else with social media so I started posting cooking videos on my personal page in 2014.  I then created Blind Grilling on FaceBook in the fall of 2015 and on YouTube Spring of 2016.  

After several messages and phone calls from folks who were losing their sight and a local police officer getting shot in the head and losing one eye and partial vision in the other, I decided to turn Blind Grilling into a 501C3 nonprofit.  Our mission is to provide Big Green Egg grilling packages along with adaptive technology and training to help veterans, first responders and others who have suffered vision loss through injury or disease so that they may once again be independent while preparing meals for themselves, family and friends.  I hope to help instill in them a sense of self worth and show them they still have the ability to be productive contributors for their family and community. 

We just delivered our first package to a corrections officer from IL who lost his sight 5 years ago at age 35.  I am hopeful we can have that video put together and uploaded by the end of the weekend. 

Let me know if you want any other info.  Please do not hesitate to ask any questions because I will not be offended.  I am currently working with someone to get a website built with a .org but currently our website which is in need of serious help is blindgrilling.com 

Thanks again.

Chris"

Chris's story:

“We can do This”

A blind man really can hunt

by Chris Peltz

Some of my fondest memories growing up in Missouri’s Ozark Mountains are of deer camps, gun ranges and being in the woods with my Grandpa Simmerman, mom, dad and brother.  But when I was 10 years old I knew there was a problem with my vision. My dad and I were coon hunting one night and had just turned the coon hounds loose.  I waited by the truck and listened to the hounds make their beautiful music in the crisp night air, but realized I couldn’t see a thing.  That week began the horrible task of doctor visits and tests to find out what was happening to my sight.  I was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP); a degenerative eye disease.  From 1984 to 1990 I lost 80% of my vision.  My night vision loss was the most noticeable and my peripheral vision gave way to tunnel vision.  I always compare it to looking through two straws.  While this was certainly traumatic to a young child, I cannot recall a time I was told to stay home because I couldn’t see good enough.  In fact, I was simply told to hold on tight so I wouldn’t be left behind.  

By the time I was sixteen, I had lost enough vision to keep me from obtaining a driver’s license.  This didn’t stop me from riding 3-wheelers and 4-wheelers all over the country near my parents’ home.  I can still tell you the location of a few trees which I became all too familiar with.  As my teenage years were swiftly passing I grew in my appreciation for the outdoors and all the critters that call it home.  I still recall the words of a family friend, Sam Wilson, telling us boys to “turn that light out so I can hear something.”   Even in the middle of the day I am able to hear the distinct prance, step and turn of a whitetail as its hooves dig in the mud.  Or hear the scurry and quick, sudden movements of a squirrel in the fall leaves and its small nails grabbing the bark of an oak tree as it played with another squirrel.  There is a beauty to the song of leaves gently falling as the acorns create a rhythm and beat as they hit soft layers of moss, blankets of leaves and downed logs.  Even the smell of damp rotting wood and the heavy musk from a skunk became pleasant and comforting. There is so much that fully sighted folks are missing out on. 

Now I am grown, married and have three wonderful kids.  Although I have never laid hands on the antlers of a buck I harvested myself, I never once thought of myself as unsuccessful.  All I think about is doing what I can to share the outdoors with my family. I hope they will grow to have the same love and appreciation I do for God’s creation.  I only hope their fondest childhood memories will be sitting with me in tree stands, ground blinds and trekking through the high country sharing our time together.  I thought I would never hunt again myself.  I had accepted this perceived reality, but it would not stop me from doing what I could for my kids.  All hunters will tell you how huge a thrill it is when your child harvests their first animal.  Every hunter would gladly lay down their bow or gun for a season to take their child on an outdoor adventure.  I am thrilled to do the same for my children permanently.  I was also blessed to have friends like Dale Price, Mark Alexander, Virgil Gooselaw and Robert Adkins who invite me to tag along and share in their hunting experiences.  

Then, in December 2010, I met Dick Dodds.  Dick is the owner of Elkhorn Outfitters in Craig, Colorado.  After asking Dick about youth hunts, he spoke briefly with my son, Jacob, and then turned his attention to me.  By this time I had lost all the vision in my left eye and had minimal light perception in my right eye.  In other words, I really am blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other.  Dick asked me if I would like to hunt.  It seemed like time stood still; a deafening silence in my mind like a moment of dramatic emphasis in a critical movie scene.  The next part of the conversation I remember is Dick saying, “We can do this.”  These words rang through my head over and over.  From December of 2010 to October of 2011 I was like a five year old boy waiting for Christmas.  Not only was I going to be the hunter, I was going to hunt something I had never hunted before, ELK.  Let’s pause for just a moment so I can explain exactly what took place.  This was not just an outfitter letting some blind guy kill an elk.  My family and I were made a part of the Elkhorn family.  It is not possible to express within one article every aspect of our adventure together or the development of our relationship without gross understatement but I will do my best to get across just how successful this season has been. 

With such an awesome opportunity before me, I asked my brother, Joe, to come with me.  Joe and I had not been in the woods together in over 20 years.  We arrived Sunday night, October 2, and got settled into the lodge.  I would be surprised if I slept one hour in anticipation of 4 a.m. and what lay in store for the first day.  Dick set up a Thompson Center 7mm mag. with a red dot scope for our hunt.  While I shoulder the gun, Dick stands behind me, looks through the scope and lines up the target.  Once we arrived at our destination, I placed my hands on Dick’s shoulders and followed step for step.  It felt so great moving through the sage, scrub oak and aspens.  The elk were bugling hard and we soon found ourselves close to a mad, screaming bull doing all he could to protect his harem of cows.  Of all the hunting shows I have watched over the years, none of them did justice to the actual experience.  As we maneuvered through the rugged terrain, Dick and I developed a rhythm.  I could feel his shoulders when he was lifting or holding branches at head level so I could raise my elbow to block them from hitting my face.  With each step he took, I knew if we were going up or down.  Dick would simply hesitate slightly and lightly tap his left leg on a down log as he stepped over to let me know what I was about to find with my feet.  Without a word we moved as we stalked my first potential bull.  After about 2 hours we set up for a shot.  The gun shouldered and on shooting sticks, Dick stood behind me and calls as the bull charges within 15 yards.  The bull steps forward so his neck is within a small window of opportunity in the brush.  Dick lines me up and tells me to shoot.  Here I am in a moment I never imagined myself in again.  My heart is racing and as I squeeze the trigger and the gun fires.  I immediately turn to Dick to find out if I just harvested my first elk.  For the first time in my life I was not disappointed to hear that I missed my target.  That may sound strange to many, but I had just had the time of my life.  We began our hike back to the Bobcat and discuss what we just accomplished together.  The adventure was truly just beginning.  

We returned to the lodge for lunch and shared stories with the other hunters in camp.  It was fun to compare experiences and joke around as we built relationships.  We were even able to raz one hunter about how I missed at 15 yards and can’t see, but he missed at 12 yards and he can see.  This is what hunting is all about.  

My favorite story to hear Dick tell is how I could hear the elk walking.   After bedding down a bull one morning, we decided to go back that evening and bugle him in.  That evening was cold and raining hard.  It is hard to believe miserable can be so fun.  Dick worked his magic and set us up perfectly just beyond a small rise and began calling.  The bull bugles and heads our way like he is on a rope. Joe and Dick see the bull coming and I am set up on the shooting sticks patiently waiting.  The bugling gets louder and the hair on my wet neck tingles.  Soon I hear hooves on loose rock and sliding in mud; as though the bull slid on the hill in front of us and stopped.  Minutes later he bugled again.   It was obvious he turned and walked away from us.  My brother Joe sees him at 80 yards and not interested in Dick’s attempts to call him back.  Dick is ready to move to another spot when I let him know I hear something walking.  He assured me they saw our bull going away.  Just then I hear another step and tell Dick there is an elk just to our right.  Sure enough, there is a bull standing there looking at us no more than 30 yards away.  As I try to adjust my angle, he took off.  Wow, what a hunt!  All week long we are making memories and becoming closer friends.  One of my favorite stories is of crossing a creek and crawling on our bellies uphill.  All the time I am grabbing Dick’s ankle as we inch our way to the crest and set up for a shot only to find a dozen cows and one small spike.  The week has ended, but not our adventure. 

The following month, my family and I were back at Elkhorn Outfitters for Thanksgiving.  My wife, two girls and son all made the trip.  The memories we made at hunting camp will last a lifetime.  Dick and I took my son Jacob out for a mule deer hunt.  What a day!  Within a short period of time, Jacob spotted three bucks and a doe.  I stayed put while they worked their way up to within 20 yards.  Jacob shoulders his 270 and offhand took his shot.  One shot one kill.  I heard them jumping and hollering.  Within a few minutes they drug a nice 5x4 muley down the hill.  I am almost knocked over by a boy who cannot stop grinning ear to ear.  On Thanksgiving day Dick and I are out early.  Joining us this morning are Jen, with the t.v. show Wildlife Pursuit, Billy, a guide for Elkhorn Outfitters, and Brad, another hunter in for the week.  Dick spots a large herd and we make our way toward them.  As we get closer, Dick instructs everyone on the game plan.  We are going to split the herd.  It all happened so fast.  We set up with half the herd on our left and the other half on our right.  The shooting sticks are up and I’m shouldering the gun.  Dick and I have a difficult time getting the red dot on target.  Billy calls the cows in an attempt to stop the herd from running.  Finally, a beautiful spike bull stands broadside at 150 yards.  Dick tells me to shoot and I squeeze the trigger.  Instantly I heard Dick scream “Hammer down, he’s down!”  Then we are all screaming, hugging and even crying.  I remember calling my wife to tell her.  She asked what I got.  I had no idea other than what I shot at was down.  When I finally laid my hands on this bull, it was amazing.  This isn’t just a spike, this is a trophy bull.  I never forgot the words of Dick the first time we met nearly a year earlier “We can do this.”  Well, we did it!  I’ve never been the one to say, “I can’t.”  Thanks to Dick Dodds and Elkhorn Outfitters I can say “I have” and “I will”!