I made a batch of summer sausage using the encapsulated citric acid. The 1st issue is that after turning my heat up to 175 it took about 7.5 hrs to reach the 160 degrees internal temperature from 118 degrees. Is it supposed to take that long? My second issue is it tasted so tart that it was all non edible.

I was using deer meat and pork. Probably close to 60/40 since deer meat has no fat. Used about half pork and half deer then added a few pounds of extra pork fat. I used 1 bag of eca for the the 25lb batch of meat. I have a vertical smoke hollow smoker with an electric element installed. I pulled it out of the smoker at the end of the 155 and put it in my oven on 175 for the final cook. I did my 1st batch the same way but without the eca because I had time to let it cure overnight and it turned out great. Thanks for the input.

Followed the recipe and put 2 quarts for 25lbs of meat.

Yes the 4oz bag. Next time I will do it when I have time to let it cure overnight. Thanks for the help.