Hi everyone, first time posting here and could use some expertise to help me with an issue I had with my latest batch of summer sausage.

I recently made 20 lbs of venison cheddar summer sausage. The sausage came out with a rubbery texture, kind of tougher too than what I’ve made in the past. I normally follow the recipe on this site pretty closely, but made a couple of changes from the traditional recipe I use:

1. I used pork butt and ground it myself instead of pre-ground pork from the store (50% pork, 50% venison).
2. I added sure gel binder and mixed a little longer than usual (didn’t feel as sticky as usual, so I mixed a little more just in case, maybe 15-20 minutes by hand).

After mixing, I noticed in little letters on the pork butt packaging that it contained “11% Slzn”? I think that means they were injected with a brine. Didn’t want to waste it, so I smoked them anyway (I’ll definitely read the packaging closer next time!).

Could using the brined pork have caused the rubbery texture in my sausage? It tastes ok, just has an odd mouth feel, if that makes sense. I read that overmixing could cause this as well. Just wanted to get an opinion from the experts here. Thanks!