Adventures in Summer Sausage

BigWader

Last year I got really interested in making my own Charcuterie.  Who hasn't.  So I got the book, I got the grinder, I got the stuffer,  I got the pink salt and started making some fresh sausage, bacon, and Canadian Bacon.  Not as much as I'd like, but my inner voices compete - one says eat healthier, the other says make BBQ, sausage and meat.  Right now the carnivore is winning so I'm trying to take sausage to the next level and make cured, fully cooked summer sausage.  Never done it before and it is a 3-4 day ongoing process so I thought I would share how it is going and how it turns out - good or bad.

I followed a recipe I found on smoking meat forums that sounded intriguing.  It didn't call for starter culture (good because I didn't have it) but called for buttermilk, dextrose, and milk powder followed by a 1-3 day wait while some lactic acid bacteria can hopefully get going and bring the pH down (acid up) for some tang to the sausage.  I used 60/40 lean beef to lean pork.

On Tuesday night, I decided to cheat and bought fresh ground (so no pictures of nice sized sub primals getting trimmed and chopped into grinder sized bits.  The ground meat was weighed and the spice mix was measured accordingly.  10 lbs to jump in with both feet.

 

With a gloved hand and determination I mixed that cold block of meat until it was nice and tacky and evenly mixed.  The debate was do I let it cure like this overnight and stuff tomorrow, or finish the mess in one night and stuff now.  I went ahead and stuffed it at the same time.

 

So into the fridge it went for 3 days.  I kept a small bag of mix and checked it after the first day to find it nice and firm, so the cure was working, and after 3 days the taste when fried up seemed nice and peppery with notes of garlic and marjoram.  I am hopeful that a good smoke will bring the flavours up to the next level.

Tonight after work I got the egg set with small pieces of lump and my Cyber Q to attempt my first sub 200 fire.  In fact I'm shooting for 150 degrees for a few hours.  I lit a tiny fire on top of the small lump and immediately put in my indirect piece and connected the cyber q.  I set the initial temp for 145 degrees and watched as I closed the lid to see the temp hold and then drop I presume when the igniter piece burned out.  After 45 minutes the temp was holding around 145-150 so I put the chubs on.

 

The temp dropped from the mass of cool meat that went in but after 30-45 minutes the temp was back up to 150 inside the egg.  It overshot a bit when I went out to add my pellet smoker.  This was the first fumble of the process.  The smoker was going good when I put it in, but without lots of air entering the system it snuffed out so after 2 hours the only smoke on the meat was from the burning lump.  I fixed that with a few good hunks of hickory right on the burning lump about 50 minutes ago when I mounted thermometers into chubbs on the top and bottom racks to monitor internals.  At 11:00 o'clock tonight they are at 120 internal and I've bumped up the cyber q to 155'F to slowly approach done.  I'll post updates as the cook goes on.

Keefer

Wow! Can't wait to see the finished product and hear how they taste. Great job BigWader!

BigWader

So here is an update.  The Cyber Q was doing a great job holding the temp at 160'F.  I feel asleep and woke up at 4:30 to see that the sticks had only gotten up to about 130'F which was great.  You can see the darker colour on the casings from the smoke.

 

I have read on many websites that the last 20 or so degrees can take forever when the smoker is at 170'F and the finished temp I want is in the 150's.  I also read that sausages can dry out if in that environment for too long.  So I started to get worried about time and commitments in the morning and dried out sausage.  You can see in the middle of the picture above a wrinkled one that was on the lower level in the airflow.  Decided to finish in a hot water bath inside.

 

With the water around 160'F I let them poach until their internals were in the 150's.  I would have liked to not poked them all but I was worried that differences from their position outside would affect internal temperature.  So everyone got the thermopen.  After I was sure the core temp was over 150'F they dove into the ice bath to stop cooking.

 

Once the temps drop to below 110'F I'll take them out and dry them on a stick for a couple hours to "bloom" which I guess means achieve final colour.

 

TexanOfTheNorth

Hope they turn out the way you like them. Looks like you put a lot of work into them.

I'm doing some andouille and hot links this weekend. I don't have the CyberQ so I'm hoping that I don't have too much trouble keeping my temps below 200*.

BigWader

Out of the ice bath and drying.  I can tell you my kitchen smells great and I'm getting hungry just looking.  Must resist temptation until the end.

 

GrannyX4

Love it. Great write up. ;;)

pwg56

Fantastic. Big fan of Usingers products. These look great.

Little Steven

TexanOfTheNorth said:

Hope they turn out the way you like them. Looks like you put a lot of work into them.

I'm doing some andouille and hot links this weekend. I don't have the CyberQ so I'm hoping that I don't have too much trouble keeping my temps below 200*.

I'll have three of the summer sausage and ten pounds of the Andouille please

TexanOfTheNorth

Little Steven said:

TexanOfTheNorth said:

Hope they turn out the way you like them. Looks like you put a lot of work into them.

I'm doing some andouille and hot links this weekend. I don't have the CyberQ so I'm hoping that I don't have too much trouble keeping my temps below 200*.

I'll have three of the summer sausage and ten pounds of the Andouille please

Sorry buddy... I'll be using all of the andouille myself; now that it's getting to be gumbo and jambalaya weather.

It will be my first time to make it so I'm only doing about 5lbs. to see how it turns out.

Little Steven

I've tried it a bunch of times but tried cold smoking on the Bradley. Always too much smoke. Gonna try again when butts go on sale next month.

BigWader

@Little_Steven how do you like the Bradley.  I can see the benefits of proper hanging and bigger pieces for making Kolbassa and snack sticks but I've heard they can be a little underpowered for cold weather work.

 

Griffin

Nice write up. The summer sausage looks amazing. I've been wanting to do some for awhile, but have been waiting for it to cool down first. Almost there. Mind sharing the recipe?

Little Steven

BigWader said:

@Little_Steven how do you like the Bradley.  I can see the benefits of proper hanging and bigger pieces for making Kolbassa and snack sticks but I've heard they can be a little underpowered for cold weather work.

 

I didn't like it one little bit. It was the one with the puck feed and everything was too smoky. I haven't done any cold smoking yet but I am going to do some sausages when the pork shoulders go on sale. I'm just going to use the small for the firebox and a dryer hose up to the large.

BigWader

So it has been about 7 hours since it went into the fridge.  I couldn't wait any longer and had to cut into it.

 

 @Griffin- the recipe I used is http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/133281/first-time-smoking-venison-summer-sausage-with-complete-recipe-and-how-to-guide.  Except as mentioned I substituted lean beef for venison. 

The taste for me is very good.  It has a nice note of smoke, but not too overpowering.  Given my hiccup with the Amazin Smoker I think it got just enough hickory.  The taste is good summer sausage in every bite and I know I won't get any complaints from my tasters.  To try and criticize I would say if a person really loved heat, or garlic, or mustard that you would need to boost those elements a bit to suit personal tastes.  For me I might boost the garlic a bit and divide the 10 lbs into two parts to really heavily smoke half of it for comparison.   

 

I will let this batch sit in the fridge today in bags and start to vacuum pack it tonight when I've got the time.

Little Steven

Looks really good!

SmokinDAWG82

Great write up and great execution. It looks so good! I am envious of your dedication.
GREAT JOB!

shtgunal3

Wow! I'd say you nailed it.