Summer sausage hold and smoke

[bubba]

I’ve made venison summer sausage before and stuffed and smoked right away and then finished in sous vide. I do use sodium erythorbate. Because of lack of time, I’m wondering if I can stuff in casings and let sit 1- 2 nights in frig uncovered before smoking. The ones I smoked right away and sous vide turned out good, but I’d prefer them to be a little dryer. Thinking maybe sitting in frig before smoking would help? Anyone ever done this?

[mrobisr]

bubba I would suggest the drying step after the smoking/cooking. Me personally I would not keep them that long precooked with the addition of SE because the SE utilizes the nitrites very quickly. Without SE a 24 hold is optimal for curing.

[bubba]

Thanks for your reply and the explanation on SE. Appreciate it.
I won’t use the SE this time around. I know you said 24 hour hold is optimal, but without the SE can I possibly hold for 48?

[peterb]

When I want my summer sausage a little dryer (always do a few), I dry after processing. Works fairly well in the fridge.

[Dave in AZ]

bubba said in Summer sausage hold and smoke:

Thanks for your reply and the explanation on SE. Appreciate it.
I won’t use the SE this time around. I know you said 24 hour hold is optimal, but without the SE can I possibly hold for 48?

You should be able to, since they are already stuffed so you won’t have to worry about meat setting up then forcing thru stuffer.

The main concern I would have is degradation of the meat binding by citric acid. If you added any smoked meat stabilizer, that is straight citric acid in there with vitamin c. Even if you use ECA to protect the meat from citric acid until 130 f or so, you will still get some citric acid in the meat from encapsulation degradation in mixing and just sitting there. They couldn’t be calling ECA a cure accelerator like they do, if SOME citric acid wasn’t expised and working! So, I’d worry about texture degradation if you let it sit too long with citric acid.

If you’re doing an actual lactic acid bacteria ferment, you also have stricter timing that has to be met for success.

Marianski says:
What Will Happen if Curing Time is Shorter or Longer? If the curing time is too short, some areas of meat (inside or under heavy layers of fat) will exhibit an uneven color which might be noticeable when slicing a large piece of meat. It will not show in sausages which are filled with ground meat, although the color may be weaker. If curing time is longer by a few days, nothing will happen providing the cured meat is held under refrigeration.

[DJS303]

peterb said in Summer sausage hold and smoke:

When I want my summer sausage a little dryer (always do a few), I dry after processing. Works fairly well in the fridge.

I do the same thing peterb does as I like mine a little dryer as well.

[mrobisr]

bubba said in Summer sausage hold and smoke:

can I possibly hold for 48

Absolutely, I have had to do it a few times and it worked very well. The nitrites are still at work without any accelerants at 48 hours.

[bubba]

Thanks for all of your guys input. I appreciate it. As you can probably tell I’m a newbie. I was able to stuff them last night. I’ll be smoking them early tomorrow morning and then doing the sous vide. I’ll try using the frig to make them a little dryer after processing. Outside temp is supposed to be in the single digits tomorrow morning. Where the heck is Spring when we need it. Ha Thanks again!