And thanks Jonathon and twilliams for your replies!

Jonathon I’d like to try finishing in water, but I haven’t done it and am wondering about what I would need (equipment) to make it work for big batches like this. Could a sous vide heater in a medium-sized cooler work for something like that? Or would I need to go back to smaller batches?

twilliams I didn’t boil it but I put it in hot out of the kitchen tap and that’s pretty darn hot. But even with that it only got me part way. There was still water in both pans when I finally pulled the plug on the deal.

Hi all, I just finished a 20 lb batch of snack sticks made with bear meat and beef fat that had a wicked stall that just wouldn’t break through. I used a roughly 80:20 lean:fat ratio, sure gel binder, and Willie’s snack stick seasoning. I followed the smoke schedule for venison snack sticks that has worked well for me before: 125 for 1 hr drying, 140 for 1 hr, 155 for 2 hrs, and 175 until internal temp of 160. Smoker is a PK 100.

First stalled at 139 deg. internal temp after 1 hour with the smoker set at 175. Stayed there for next four hours. I added more water and used car wash sponges to increase humidity. Creeped up to 149 in a couple hours and stalled again. Bumped the smoker setting to 180 and it creeped up to 156 and stopped there. I finally pulled the plug at midnight after they’d been in the smoker for a total of 12 hours.

They’re dry of course and there seems to be a little bit of case hardening. Flavor is fine but like I said dry. I don’t think case hardening happened early since they didn’t look hard when I added water after first stall.

This is my second time having a nasty stall with bear meat. Anyone else have this problem? More important, anyone have any suggestions for how to deal with this?

Thank you all for your responses! This is an amazing resource for learning. Can’t thank the folks at Walton’s enough for everything they’ve put together here, and thanks to everyone in this community for sharing their experience and knowledge. Makes climbing the learning curve a lot easier!

blackbetty61 Thanks for the response! Interesting that you have seen a difference in protein extraction. That’s actually one thing I was worried about, so I watched that carefully and didn’t notice a big difference. I’m sure it could be a combination of factors too. Didn’t mean to change up more than one variable, as a scientists I should know better haha. Stuff just happens sometimes.

It’s worth noting that I’m really happy with the taste of both these batches though, and I’ll be proud to share them with friends.

craigrice Thanks! Good to know you’ve had good results with soy protein too.

RJ Adventures Thanks for the response! I like to keep things nice and cold so the meat and fat were either frozen or almost frozen when I ground them. The 3-grind batch went into the fridge when I got interrupted so that stayed good and cold between grinds.

I’ve been going back through my notes and I’ve never noticed any similar results using soy protein concentrate, so I’m thinking you and others are right it’s gotta be the grind.

Are you using pork fat or beef fat in your SS? This was my first go with beef fat as pork fat is getting really hard to find. I’m really happy with the result overall. The flavor is excellent and I don’t think anyone else would notice the difference in texture unless you ate them side by side.

Hi all, I’m looking for a little insight into some differences I found between summer sausage batches this weekend. Specifically, one has a more classic texture with a bit more firmness and the other has less particle definition and less resistance to the chew; more like a hot dog than a summer sausage.

I made two batches of summer sausage from 20 lbs of 80/20 venison and beef fat mix using the jalapeño unit seasoning and high temp cheddar cheese. I ground all the meat and fat through a 10mm plate, mixed them together by hand, and then ground them through a 4 mm plate. Then I split them into two 10 lb batches to finish processing.

Here’s the difference between the two batches:

• For one batch I stopped grinding there and added seasoning, cure dissolved in 2 cups of water, and Sure Gel binder, mixed in a meat mixer and stuffed into fibrous casings.
• I was a little worried that the beef fat hadn’t mixed in well with the venison, so I put the second batch back through the 4.5 mm plate one more time. I thought it looked a lot better after that. I then mixed it with seasoning, cure in 2 cups water, and soy protein concentrate because I didn’t have enough Sure Gel (poor planning). Stuffed into fibrous casings. I got interrupted between the two batches, so I finished the second one about 7 hours later.

Protein extraction seemed to be about the same for both. Both batches were handled identically after that: overnight in fridge, smoked on Waltons suggested schedule, ice bath, hang to bloom, done and into fridge. They look just about identical. The one made with Sure Gel and one grind through 4.5 mm plate has the better (more classic) texture. The soy protein and 2x grind through the 4.5 mm plate is a little softer and has a slightly mushy texture. They look the same but the mushier one just doesn’t have the feel of ground sausage (particle definition?) it has more of an emulsified texture.

So, do you all think the difference between these is mainly attributable to the additional grind or the difference in binder?

Sorry for the long description and thanks in advance for any insight!

DB1938 Hope you find a good supplier and can revisit those old recipes. I hear more people are raising rabbits for personal consumption these days, maybe it’ll show up in the local farmers market.

a2zwildlife here they are. I use wild rabbits, my buddy has some good dogs.

Maple breakfast sausage recipe from the “Chunky Chef” website, here for 2 pounds but I scale up as needed:
For 2 pounds sausage, 60/40 mix rabbit meat and fatty pork.
o 1/4 cup maple syrup (use the darkest REAL maple syrup you can find)
o 3 cloves garlic, minced
o 1 Tbsp fresh sage chopped
o 3/4 tsp dried thyme (or 1 Tbsp fresh thyme - chopped)
o 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
o 3/4 tsp black pepper
o 1/4 tsp paprika

Mix and stuff into 24-26 mm sheep casings.

And here’s the country sausage recipe, made up by a dude who taught a class on sausage making and inspired by Rytek Kutas’ recipe. According to my notes I actually used an 80/20 mix of rabbit/pork for this one, so its good even when pretty lean. This is the recipe for 5 pounds:

• 2 Tbs kosher salt
• 2 1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
• 2 Tbs sage (I used rubbed sage)
• 2 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbs crushed red pepper

You probably already know to do this but I mix the seasonings up with 1 cup of water for every 5 pounds of meat.

I cook these up in a little butter in a skillet. Everyone so far has really enjoyed them, and though my kids were raised on game meat my family has been a little standoffish about rabbit. But these tend to disappear when I cook them. Highly recommend both recipes.

I mix mine 60-40 rabbit/pork and it comes out really nice with a basic maple breakfast sausage recipe I found someplace online. I also make a simple country sausage recipe that a friend of mine passed along. I can post them up if you want. I haven’t used a binder.