@Sydik-Farms Sorry, yes that’s what I meant about meat block, what meat and at what quantity. 2-1 ratio of deer to pork shoulder is going to give you a pretty lean Summer Sausage, I’d recommend either 25% (or so) straight pork fat or go with a 50/50 mix of venison to untrimmed pork butts/shoulder. It’s almost impossible to get too much protein extraction when mixing by hand. For summer sausage I would recommend grinding once through the larger plate (3/8" or so) and then through a 1/8" plate to finish. Not sure how cold the water was but Ice water is what you are wanting. I always use ice and water in about equal parts. But none of those really would have been the cause of a pale pink color. In all likelihood it is that it never got to “bloom” for about an hour. We touch on it in this Video/Article but for color setting you want to let it sit out for at least an hour to “bloom” https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1108/cured-sausage-206-advanced-cured-sausage-processing. So, I would say yes, they are safe to eat, but if it were me I would make sure to consume a small amount first and wait 24 hours to see if there are any ill effects before feeding others

The amount of pink cure you used it fine, I use 1 tsp of pink cure and 3 tbsps of kosher salt per 5# of meat. I normally mix at night and rest in the fridge to stuff and smoke the next morning. Did you mix it well? Cure should make it all darker red once cooked. If you have light spots I would wonder if you didn’t get the cure mixed in well. I am not familiar with the thermal process Waltons must have. I use a smokehouse and smoke low to dry casings and set in smoke flavor. Then later to hotter. If you got to 160 IT, you are fine with kill bacteria and can eat it. I still question the dark/light you speak of. Pictures would help.

@Sydik-Farms I rub and sous vide most mine now 24ish hrs. then a 2hr smoke at around 240 in a pan. Take the bear claws to it. Add some pan juice back to it. and then smoke for another hr at 160 and stir it every 15min. To add a little more flavor. Smoke done on tregger pellet grill.