Summer sausage color
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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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Unless you are using a cure accelerator you need to let the sausage sit in the refrigerator over night at least so that cure has time to work. If you smoke it and cook it to soon with out an accelerator you will stop the curing process to soon and it will not cure the meat. Smoking it will give a smoke ring and the center may be gray. Just a thought.
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From what I gathered in the video on here if you use ECA you are supposed to smoke it right away and not put it in the fridge overnight. Is that not right!
I do appreciate all the advice and help!!
Thanks
Walt
waltp that is correct
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So, how do you refrigerate it overnight and smoke it right away?? Lol!! I guess it comes down to maybe using a cure accelerator and smoke it and be done. I smoked it all and sealed it and it’s in the freezer, once thawed it doesn’t last long enough to spoil.
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