DON’T GRIND THE MEAT BEFORE YOU FREEZE IT. CUT IN SMALL CHUNKS , BAG IT THEN FREEZE. THEN THAW, GRIND, SEASON,
MIX AND GRIND AGAIN THEN STUFF.

Mr jbkitzy To address some of your problems with your Summer Sausage, First I suggest you did not mix your sausage near long enough. You have to extract enough
protein (meat glue) to hold all this together. You need to add a little water to help make it easier to mix. It has to stick against a wall if you throw it. I definitely would
not use carrot fiber in summer sausage. Summer is a
semi-dry sausage, carrot fiber will bind all the moisture
together and not let it dehydrate of the sausage.
Second, I know you don’t have a smokehouse, but cooking
it in a oven is not good. It is too hot, too quik. YOu need to
take your sausage after it is stuffed to a commercial processor with a smokehouse, maybe he will cook it for you. Also, letting your sausage set overnite is okay, but
cook it as soon as you can after that.

Thomas Sweeney My point about overgrinding stems
from the fact you said you used GROUND PORK AND GROUND BEEF. for raw material. The pork has been ground
once and the beef probably ground twice even before you
start. Just use beef and pork, no added fat, probably why
stick was limp when you were finished. If you want a
darker meat color even though you are using 2/3 pork, add
some paprika for some color in your finished product.

SAME REPLY FOR MR. SWEENEY. ALSO, YOU DID NOT LIST ADDING PINK CURE (SODIUM NITRITE). LOOKS LIKE YOU GROUND THIS MEAT
ONE OR TWO TOO MANY TIMES. MADE MUSH OUT OF IT

YOU JUST AS WELL THROW OUT THE FIRST BATCH. YOU
CANNOT GRIND THE ENCAPSULATED CITRIC ACID. YOU HAVE RUPTURED THE CAPSULES AND RELEASED THE ACID INTO THE MEAT MIXTURE AND IT RUINED THE PROTEIN
COAGULATION. jUST MIX THE ACID IN AFTER YOUR FINAL GRIND.

It looks completley overcooked like an internal temp of 170 degrees

jmk51621 Couple of things you might have done wrong.

1. Your meat block was to fat
2. You under mixed the batter and did not extract enough
   protein. Your batch was not sticky enough.
3. Your meat temperature was too warm, got to keep
   below 40 degrees during entire mixing procedure.
4. Your smoker was too warm when you put meat in it,
   and got too hot too quick. It did not give the protein
   enough time to set up before you started cooking it.
5. Also, you need to let the sausage set at room temp
   for 15 to 20 minutes or longer before you drown it in ice water.
   The ice shocks the sausage when it is 150 to 160
   degrees. This will really make it wrinkle
6. Try a longer, cooler, cooking cycle. Low and slow.