Summer sausage color
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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. -
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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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.
waltp ECA is a cure accelerator. What your seeing is uncured spots. Next time add just enough water to carry the cure and spread as evenly as you can. Mix until proper protein extraction with all your seasonings except ECA then mix in the ECA and Stuff.
With The ECA you want to cook soon but you have an hour or 2 to hold it and let the cure work no issues. -
waltp If you used eca you go right to smoking, no holding. I’d say if you are hand mixing go with adding it to the water, better insurance of coverage,
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