Summer Sausage Aesthetics
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Hi Guys,
Rookie processor here and finally joining the fold. I was lucky enough to tag a couple blackbears a few weeks ago and i turned a healthy portion into summer sausage and sticks. I have had success with venison in the past doing both these items but this batch has proven difficult.19lbs bear meat
6 lbs pork fat (too much fat the problem??)Mixed with 1oz sure cure and walton seasoning
Thermal processing has been done at 150- 2 hours - 160 until IT is at 160 in a Pellet grill
It just seems to fat out/be a greasy mess and visually the SS looks terrible. It tastes decent and is certainly not dry. peeling the case away typically leaves some meat left on it.
I used my oven on the last set of snack sticks and they visually look better. May try that on the SS for this last batch.
Anyway open to thoughts/ideas. 
Tsamp typically when you run a lean meat with fat you want to be around 25%-30% fat for snack sticks or summer sausage. So 30% would be 7.5 lbs pork fat and 17.5 lbs lean trim. Now bear is a fatty animal so with your ratio you should have been fine. However what I like to run is 15lbs lean trim, 7.5 lbs 80/20 pork trim and 2.5 lbs pork fat. My professional opinion is that your smoke/cook schedule is starting out too high and jumps too fast to finish. Now with your pellet smoker it probably don’t start low enough to be the proper schedule.
Typical schedule for me is 110* for 1 hour no smoke dampers wide open (drying stage)
125* for 1 hour with smoke dampers shut to 1/8” open top and 1/3rd open on bottom
140* for 2 hours with smoke removed after this first hour session
155* for 2 hours
Then 170* until IT is 156* if it’s for myself or 160* if it’s for someone else.I highly recommend an ice bath immediately after pulling from smoker when IT is reached. And I mean ice, I usually get at least a 10lb bag and put in my water at least an hour before pulling meat out so it’s as cold as possible. This helps the casing to be removed without pulling meat on summer sausage and helps the casing adhere to the meat on snack sticks, I know, that doesn’t sound like it makes much sense but believe me, that’s the way it works.
If you can somehow get this temp schedule I think you would be pleasantly satisfied. Another thing that helps with fat out is very good protein extraction.
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Hi Guys,
Rookie processor here and finally joining the fold. I was lucky enough to tag a couple blackbears a few weeks ago and i turned a healthy portion into summer sausage and sticks. I have had success with venison in the past doing both these items but this batch has proven difficult.19lbs bear meat
6 lbs pork fat (too much fat the problem??)Mixed with 1oz sure cure and walton seasoning
Thermal processing has been done at 150- 2 hours - 160 until IT is at 160 in a Pellet grill
It just seems to fat out/be a greasy mess and visually the SS looks terrible. It tastes decent and is certainly not dry. peeling the case away typically leaves some meat left on it.
I used my oven on the last set of snack sticks and they visually look better. May try that on the SS for this last batch.
Anyway open to thoughts/ideas. 
Tsamp also your picture did not come through as typically the file is too large. So normally you have to resize it somehow whether it be resizing or cropping
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I agree that a bear is a fatty meat more than other wild game and your cook schedule is off as@ twiiilams has stated
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Hey thanks for the feedback guys. The first bear was young, second old. Of course they are mixed now but overall i agree the bear meat does appear to be greasy. The summer sausage i cut up last night i could squeeze and see grease coming out of it. Cant seem to figure out how to add another picture.
My Pellet grills lowest setting is 150 so thats where i start at and just leave at that for 2 hours. It may be running hotter though based on what i am seeing in the thermal performance.
After reviewing pictures online i think i am getting a “fat out” pretty quickly. I did snack sticks in the oven last night at 170 degs for 3 hours and they look/feel greasy but taste good and didnt shrivel up like the ones i did in my grill. I am running a bowl of water in the pellet grill as well. I have 10 lbs left and im on the fence how i will proceed. I am thinking about starting in the grill and transferring to oven hopefully before it starts to wrinkle up. -
Well Gentlemen,
I cleaned my pellet grill out entirely prior to running this last batch of 2.5x12 walton summer sausages. I also put it in the shade for the full cook and noticed it was running significantly cooler than usual. I ran it at 150 (therm showed closer to 135-140) for 4 hours (was afraid to raise temp initially and cause shriveling) and then 16 for another 3, and then 170 for the last hour as i needed to leave and i was suprised how slow they were cooking to a IT of 160. They came out looking perfect. I think not starting out with a cleaned up and fresh grill is to blame for the fatout. I had no flare ups but i think the sizzling grease on the tray and elsewhere may have elevated my temp, Perhaps combined with the direct sunlight. -
Well Gentlemen,
I cleaned my pellet grill out entirely prior to running this last batch of 2.5x12 walton summer sausages. I also put it in the shade for the full cook and noticed it was running significantly cooler than usual. I ran it at 150 (therm showed closer to 135-140) for 4 hours (was afraid to raise temp initially and cause shriveling) and then 16 for another 3, and then 170 for the last hour as i needed to leave and i was suprised how slow they were cooking to a IT of 160. They came out looking perfect. I think not starting out with a cleaned up and fresh grill is to blame for the fatout. I had no flare ups but i think the sizzling grease on the tray and elsewhere may have elevated my temp, Perhaps combined with the direct sunlight.Tsamp awesome news, one thing that can help as well for keeping it cooler at startup is having a full smoker of sausage fresh out of fridge( don’t know if you hold overnight or use ECA) and not preheating the smoker. As well as having the door open slightly for the first hour of drying stage before starting the smoke.
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Hi Guys,
Rookie processor here and finally joining the fold. I was lucky enough to tag a couple blackbears a few weeks ago and i turned a healthy portion into summer sausage and sticks. I have had success with venison in the past doing both these items but this batch has proven difficult.19lbs bear meat
6 lbs pork fat (too much fat the problem??)Mixed with 1oz sure cure and walton seasoning
Thermal processing has been done at 150- 2 hours - 160 until IT is at 160 in a Pellet grill
It just seems to fat out/be a greasy mess and visually the SS looks terrible. It tastes decent and is certainly not dry. peeling the case away typically leaves some meat left on it.
I used my oven on the last set of snack sticks and they visually look better. May try that on the SS for this last batch.
Anyway open to thoughts/ideas. 
Tsamp Welcome to the group, the first thing every new member is suppose to do is join team orange.
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Tsamp Welcome to the group, the first thing every new member is suppose to do is join team orange.
bocephus I missed that rule or is that a demand…lol
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twilliams I am sure I read it in the meatgistics rule book that Austin sent me.
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Tsamp you can go to your profile and select a team color, all in fun. Austin is team orange and Jonathan is team blue, just some fun rivalry and competition. Then there are other selections so that you can choose, that will get you group notifications.
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Bear fat is pretty different stuff. It tends to render at very low temperatures. I would try mixing it with a decent percentage of lean pork. 50/50 maybe?
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