A Guide to Texas Dried Sausage, the Perfect Portable Snack

[Draggingtree]

A Guide to Texas Dried Sausage, the Perfect Portable Snack

Meet the masters behind this meat art form. You’ll never overlook those links hanging in your favorite market again.

BY DANIEL VAUGHN DATE FEB 1, 2019

I  did a double take at the ropes of sausage hanging over the meat counter at Granzin’s Market in New Braunfels. The parched sausages dangled from a wooden dowel like stage props. They were neither packaged nor refrigerated, but they weren’t plastic. A young man behind the counter unhooked one and handed it to me, and for just $4.79, I took home a half-pound link of dried sausage made exactly like they did it 38 years ago, when Granzin’s first opened in town.

Owner Gary Granzin explained the process to me. “We smoke it for three hours before it’s put up to dry,” he said, but he cautioned: “The key is not to dry it too fast, cause then it gets a crusty edge around it.” While a few dozen links were hanging above the counter, several hundred sat on racks at the far end of the market awaiting their optimal dryness. “It takes about a week for it to be ready to eat,” Granzin said, noting that he tests the ripeness of each batch with an unscientific squeeze test. He’s got the touch by now considering they make three thousand pounds of the stuff on a normal week and up to five tons a week during the holidays. Texans love their dried sausage. Said Granzin: “Once you try it, we’ve got you hooked.”    https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/a-guide-to-texas-dried-sausage-the-perfect-portable-snack/