Summer sausage color
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I don’t think its a smoke ring cure (seems a little big for that). But Gosh it could be with being in smoker that long without a good mixing of the cure. Strange one!!!
I they were were my sausages I couldn’t handle it and would cut all them open to see if all did it. Then I would do another identical batch making sure all ingredients were in and measured correctly and mixed well. But that’s just me. -
20 hrs is a long time to smoke. It seems to me that the outer portion was probably done long before the inside got to temp. When you zoom in it doesn’t really look that grey to me. I think it’s the color contrast between the smoke ring/over cooked part with the normal not so bright red center messing with your/our eyes. But maybe it looks different in person. Or maybe I am way out to lunch and it’s just playing tricks on my eyes.
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Ive used quite a few different style smokers over the years, and i have two pellet smokers i use for personal and catering. Since you used a pellet smoker and cooked/smoked those for 20 hours, i can almost guarrantee that is a smoke ring on that sausage and nothing to worry about. But i would change your cook cycle when using that pellet smoker. Like someone mentioned skip the 175 and go to 200 with as much humidity as you can get. Once your internal temp gets to around 138F your risk of fatting out greatly decreases so turn your smoker up to 200 around that time.
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Thanks for all the feedback, great forum. After eating it without I’ll effects I shared with coworkers, they tore it up like a pack of wolves and want more. Doing another batch this weekend. Thinking about doing a water bath after initial 4 hrs of smoking. Also wondering if my stuffer is crushing the ECA prematurely , it’s a homemade water stuffer, 6” PVC shooting through 3/4” copper tube.
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Thanks for all the feedback, great forum. After eating it without I’ll effects I shared with coworkers, they tore it up like a pack of wolves and want more. Doing another batch this weekend. Thinking about doing a water bath after initial 4 hrs of smoking. Also wondering if my stuffer is crushing the ECA prematurely , it’s a homemade water stuffer, 6” PVC shooting through 3/4” copper tube.
skmeyer Thats Great! I would definitely do the water bath!
I dont think that your water stuffer would be breaking the ECA. In Fact we have ran Encapsulated Salt through our patty machine with no issues and we run ECA through a vacuum Stuffer on a weekly basis with no issues. Its Pretty tough stuff really! Looking at your Picture i dont feel like there is any chance that early ECA breakage is an issue the inside of you sausage would be mushy / crumbly. -
skmeyer You can’t tease the animals like that, pics of your setup?
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Jonathon I assume you’re referring to my water stuffer.
It’s 6” PVC well casing, holds 30lbs, the piston is the critical piece.My second batch of summer sausage turned out well, color is right.
Used pepper cheese and partially dehydrated jalapeños. The pepper cheese is very mild in flavor and heat. I think I need to quadruple the jalapeños. Did 25lbs (17.5 venison, 7.5 brisket fat). Added 20.3oz fresh jalapeños dehydrated to 2.3oz.
Still puzzled about the color on the first batch. Maybe I’m getting old and forgot the cure but I’m having trouble believing that. -
Jonathon I assume you’re referring to my water stuffer.
It’s 6” PVC well casing, holds 30lbs, the piston is the critical piece.My second batch of summer sausage turned out well, color is right.
Used pepper cheese and partially dehydrated jalapeños. The pepper cheese is very mild in flavor and heat. I think I need to quadruple the jalapeños. Did 25lbs (17.5 venison, 7.5 brisket fat). Added 20.3oz fresh jalapeños dehydrated to 2.3oz.
Still puzzled about the color on the first batch. Maybe I’m getting old and forgot the cure but I’m having trouble believing that. -
skmeyer That is awesome man! I think someone downvoted your post by mistake because there is nothing there not to love!
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skmeyer Forgetting the cure is the only thing that really makes sense to me there, maybe it’s something else but in my mind, that is the Occam’s razor solution
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Was your cook cycle the same as your first batch?
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Was your cook cycle the same as your first batch?
lamurscrappy The second batch smoked for 5hrs starting low and increased every hour up to 200. Vacuum sealed them and finish in a water bath at 165 for about 2 hrs. They went a little over 160 internal temp but turned out great.
My water stuffer isn’t pretty but it can shoot meat faster than I can handle. I attach a flexible hose on it when I make my Venison Red Neck Candy Canes. Just shoot it onto the dehydrator trays.
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Thats a much better system for your summer sausages! I think you got it dialed in good now!
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skmeyer lol that’s awesome, we’ll be saving this for around Christmas and sharing it, nicely done!
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The cheese can cause discoloration of your protein, to help combat that i always use erthorbate in all my summer sausages/ snack sticks. It helps to redden up your meat and keep it that way.
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Had a similar issue with my batch, not the whole center but spotty around the cheese. Looking for answers. Mine was hand mixed and used ECA. My mixer had not come in yet.
Walt
waltp It’s hard to tell from only that photo, but I’m concerned that your cure wasn’t distributed throughout the sausage.
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waltp Can’t be sure on this, we did talk about this a little on the 13 days of Christmas live stream this Monday but I’m going to guess it is a combination of things. It is possible that pH of the cheese was off and shorted your cure out around the cheese but when I look at the cross-section I see some cheese with no issues around it at all. Instead I am thinking it was what TexLaw was saying and cure wasn’t evenly distributed. Did you add the cure directly to the meat or in water? Was the water very cold (want it to be cold) how long did you mix after you added the cure?
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