Hot Pickled Sausage and Eggs

One thing that my youngest son really enjoys are the Tijuana Mamá hot pickled sausages.  They are a little on the pricey side though, with each one costing about $1.60. 

I wanted to send in him back to college next month with a supply so he could have some when he felt like it.  We decided to try making our own version and see if we could get them close to the store bought and for a much cheaper price.  Although our version is not exactly the same as Tijuana Mamá's they are pretty close and whole lot cheaper. 

Here is how we made our version of Tijuana Mamá's hot pickled sausages~

Gather the following ingredients for the brine 4 cups distilled white vinegar

2 cups water

3 bay leaves

2 tablespoons Cayene pepper

10 whole black peppercorns

4-5 cloves of garlic, leave 2 whole and mince the rest

2 tablespoons of salt

1 teaspoon basil

1-2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes

For the sausages we used 3 packages of Bar-S chicken hot dogs which I cut in half.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a large saucepan add the vinegar and water.  Add the 2 whole garlic, minced garlic and the spices and bring to a boil and let boil for 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and cool. Fill prepared canning jars with cut hot dogs and cover with the brine till all hot dogs are covered. Tightly close each jar and set in the fridge for 2 days before enjoying your sausage. I was so tempted and after 2 hours I just had to try them. Oh yeah they where pretty bombing. After 2 days they will even better, trust me y'all. 

This recipe will make enough brine for 3, 1/2 quart jars and one 1/2 quart jar of pickled eggs.

Here is rundown on the cost:

We bought 3 packages of Bar-S chicken hot dogs for $3.00. We cut the franks in half for a total of 48 sausages. The vinegar and spices I already had on hand so I only averaged the cost of the hot dogs. In the end we had a total of 48 sausages about 3" long at a cost of .07 cents each. I think we did pretty good.  The eggs were about ,75 cents for the six eggs.