How to Make Homemade Summer Sausage - Recipe
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So I am going to make a batch of snack sticks and summer sausage . I don’t have a regular smoker. I only have a wood pellet grill/smoker to smoke the product on. It only has a smoke setting usually runs around 160 and then the next setting is 225. I know both of your recipients state to start low and stage up. Do you think starting on smoke and then going up to 225 to finish would be ok? Or should I partially open the door to regulate the temp for the first few hours?
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So I am going to make a batch of snack sticks and summer sausage . I don’t have a regular smoker. I only have a wood pellet grill/smoker to smoke the product on. It only has a smoke setting usually runs around 160 and then the next setting is 225. I know both of your recipients state to start low and stage up. Do you think starting on smoke and then going up to 225 to finish would be ok? Or should I partially open the door to regulate the temp for the first few hours?
SierraPete If your smoker starts at 160° I would start at that temp for 2 hours and then bump it up to the 225°. You will want to monitor that closely though as it is going to be fast.
The one thing you need to make sure of is if you are using encapsulated citric acid you need to keep the internal temp of the snack sticks or summer sausage between 135 and 160° for at least 1 hour to allow the citric acid to work.
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SierraPete If your smoker starts at 160° I would start at that temp for 2 hours and then bump it up to the 225°. You will want to monitor that closely though as it is going to be fast.
The one thing you need to make sure of is if you are using encapsulated citric acid you need to keep the internal temp of the snack sticks or summer sausage between 135 and 160° for at least 1 hour to allow the citric acid to work.
Jonathon Good news. I fired up my T pellet grill and messed with it on the smoke setting. I can adjust the P-setting which controls the off time of the auger. I got it to run at 125 and should still have enough adjustment with the p setting to bump up the temp prior to hitting 225 setting (if needed). I am using encapsulated citric acid so thanks for the advice. I didn’t know that.
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Jonathon Good news. I fired up my T pellet grill and messed with it on the smoke setting. I can adjust the P-setting which controls the off time of the auger. I got it to run at 125 and should still have enough adjustment with the p setting to bump up the temp prior to hitting 225 setting (if needed). I am using encapsulated citric acid so thanks for the advice. I didn’t know that.
SierraPete Awesome, when they are done let us know how they are and post some pics!
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Can I use smoke meat stabilizer instead of eca and skip the 30hrs in the frig.
I’m going to use some smoke on them (venison) in my electric smoker.
Thanks
Tarp.tarp Yes, you can use the Smoked Meat Stabilizer instead of the Encapsulated Citric Acid as a cure accelerator. This will allow you to go directly from stuffing to the smoking process. One difference between Smoked Meat Stabilizer and Encapsulated Citric Acid is that Smoked Meat Stabilizer will not drop the pH and impart the tangy flavor that is associated with Encapsulated Citric Acid. Let me know if you have any other questions!
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tarp Yes, you can use the Smoked Meat Stabilizer instead of the Encapsulated Citric Acid as a cure accelerator. This will allow you to go directly from stuffing to the smoking process. One difference between Smoked Meat Stabilizer and Encapsulated Citric Acid is that Smoked Meat Stabilizer will not drop the pH and impart the tangy flavor that is associated with Encapsulated Citric Acid. Let me know if you have any other questions!
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Jonathon
HI: Thanks I’ve never used it but will give it a try as soon as my product arrives
I see its on the way
Thanks
Tarptarp Glad to help! If you take pictures make sure you post them.
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In2b8u That’s a tough one as a lot of factors come into play such as, what sized casing you are using, what type of smoker you are using, outside temp and humidity, but a good ballpark guess would be something around 7-9 hours. You can help yourself cut that down a little if you add moisture to your smoker somehow, a pan of water at the bottom of the smoker will add some humidity, not much but some is better than none, and that will speed the cooking process along!
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How many ounces of carrot fiber rather than sure gel is recommended for a summer sausage recipe?
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Sternh8gen If you are making 25 lb then I would recommend 4 oz of carrot fiber and for the Sure Gel use 6 oz per 25 lb batch. We have a Conversion Chart to show you how much by both weight and volume to use for 1 and 5 lb batches. We also have the same for seasoning and cures!
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Chance Sorry no. If you can’t get your hands on pork fat then instead of pork fat use 50% pork (butts are my favorite) and 50% of whatever lean wild game you are making as your entire meat block.
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So, I followed the directions to what I thought were a ‘T’, ingredients ( I did sub out for carrot fiber vs the Sure Gel), temperature schedule, the whole thing. Using 80% venison, 20% pork fat a couple of things happened. First, There was a lot of fat rendering, and that led to some loss of volume. I was kind of surprised, the sausage was not adhering to the casing. Second, was the water intrusion during the ice bath. I actually used bagged ice because I had an issue the last time when I made meat sticks, they were waterlogged. So, I put everything in an ice cube bath (no water), for 10 minutes or so, and when it was said and done, I had what I could only call a substantial amount of water inside the casing. The water would have come from the ice melting of course. I hung the sausages from a dowel in my refrigerator for a few days, hoping they would dry out some. I think they have that this point, and the casing seems to have shrunk now, but I am not sure if the sausage has adhered now. Overall the taste is good, consistency is about right, the ECA is a little over powering to me, I would skip that and just let them rest overnight.
Next ice bath gets some sort of a bag or something in between the product and the ice. Waterlogged twice now and mildly infuriated.
Is losing all that fat normal? My final casings looked nothing like the pictures in the recipe.
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ihang10 You are going to experience some product loss for sure when smoking summer sausage but what you are describing still sounds more than what it should be. Does it look like the bottom picture or was there a lot more loss than that?
You shouldn’t be having that much trouble with water getting in between the casing and the meat, it should be adhering better than that. Just to be clear you are actually using pork fat right? You said that and if you are then you are fine but if you are using pork butt than that is too low of an amount.
Also, protein extraction is playing a part in here I’d think. That will help with both the fat rendering out and help it adhere to the casing better. If you have a vac machine you might also want to consider pulling the sausage out of the smoker around 130-140°, vac packing it and then finishing it up in water that is just about 170°. For more information check out this post https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/683/summer-sausage-nightmare
Also, there is some more information that would be worth reading here https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1101/casing-question
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ihang10 You are going to experience some product loss for sure when smoking summer sausage but what you are describing still sounds more than what it should be. Does it look like the bottom picture or was there a lot more loss than that?
You shouldn’t be having that much trouble with water getting in between the casing and the meat, it should be adhering better than that. Just to be clear you are actually using pork fat right? You said that and if you are then you are fine but if you are using pork butt than that is too low of an amount.
Also, protein extraction is playing a part in here I’d think. That will help with both the fat rendering out and help it adhere to the casing better. If you have a vac machine you might also want to consider pulling the sausage out of the smoker around 130-140°, vac packing it and then finishing it up in water that is just about 170°. For more information check out this post https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/683/summer-sausage-nightmare
Also, there is some more information that would be worth reading here https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1101/casing-question
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The final was close to the picture you attached.
I don’t have a close up.
ihang10 said in How to Make Homemade Summer Sausage - Recipe:
The final was close to the picture you attached.
I don’t have a close up.
And yes, I was using pork fat as my 20%. Forgot to add that info earlier.
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ihang10 So then I would say that protein extraction is probably what is causing your issue. The fat renders out of the product and gets trapped between the outside of the sausage and the inside of the casing. Then when the product cools the fat congeals and you can’t get it to adhere. Mixing for a few more minutes will probably help resolve your issue. The other thing is when do you add your fat? Sometimes if you just mix in your fat with your lean the lean can coat the fat chunks but never really bind with it, so I would suggest you add it during the second grind.
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