Summer Sausage in the dead of Winter

Hoosier

I had a bunch of people asking me for some summer sausage for holiday parties, etc. so I made up a big batch last weekend. I've been experimenting with various ratios of venison to pork trimming and different seasonings for years and have recently settled on 15lbs of venison to 5 pounds of pork. I've used High Mountain seasoning with good results but lately have been going with a company called LEM out of Ohio.

Normally I just ask the butcher for pork trimmings but they were blowing out boston butt roasts for $.69/lb so I just grabbed a 5lb but, cut that up and put it through my grinder.

Here is 20 lbs of meat seasoned and ready to stuff:




All stuffed and on the Egg. You'll notice 2 different sizes..small ones on the top for friends, big ones on the bottom for me! Indirect at 200 degrees. (yes, that is snow falling on the sausage as I was getting it all loaded)




Did I mention it is winter here in the Midwest? I moved it over by the window so I could check the temp without going outside. But because it is an Egg, I never had to touch it a single time once I got everything in and stable.



It took around 4 1/2 hours for the small ones to reach 160 degrees and about 7 hours for the larger ones.

I've been doing my own sausages for years and have typically done them in an oven or a propane smoker (I just bought the Egg last Spring.) This was without question the finest batch I've ever made. Smokey, super moist, absolutely fantastic. I used a very generous amount of hickory chunks as I wanted a heavy smoke flavor. It's hard to see from my crappy cell phone picture below, but there is actually a lovely pink smoke ring on these. Just fantastic.

JPF

Very nice thanks for sharing!

NoVA Bill

Hey Hossier,

I'm in the process of getting ready to make my first summer sausage but from a Southern Ill recipe ham and hanging the sausage to allow it to dry. I've eating this summer sausage for years thanks to the kindness of my inlaws.

I have the pink salt & seasoning now I'm looking for 50 lbs of fresh bone-in ham called for in the receipe but would like to smoke'em to 160 degrees like you inlieu of hanging it. Any thoughts or experience with hanging the SS?

Thanks and Happy New Year!

SSN686

Morning Hoosier:

Mighty fine looking sausage there...you do have my address, right friend?

cookn biker

Those, my friend, are very beautiful!!
I'm very jelous of your setup! Thanks for sharing!

Hoosier

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Kind of getting into the spirit of sharing cook pictures as I enjoy seeing everyone elses....

Bill, I used to season my meat, stuff, and then store in the fridge for about 3-4 days before smoking them. Any more, I just do overnight. I haven't noticed any huge difference in flavor or texture and to me it's just kind of a pain in the arse to give up that much room in the fridge for a week.

So for me, I just stuff them, leave in the fridge overnight, and go low and slow until I hit temp.

I've always used wild game for mine (deer, duck, goose, etc.) but I'd love to hear from you how it turns out with ham. I'm guessing the flavor, color, and texture would all be really unique.

Grandpas Grub

 
Wow, those sure do look good. Yes, we can see the smoke ring. The closest I have ever come to those is Hickory Farm...

I would have never thought summer sausage was made out of deer. Where do you buy venison, if I had to hunt it I would never be eating.

Is that a crank powered stuffer?

Also, would you elaborate (share) more on the recipe and what you do.

Thanks for the post.

GG

Hoosier

Hi GG.

Sure, happy to elaborate a bit. I do use wild game (venison in this case) that we've harvested. If you'd like to try summer sausage (or trail bologna, snack sticks...anything in that family) you can most definitely just grind up some beef on your own. Venison is naturally lean and when I process my deer I am careful to remove pretty much all fat/silverskin, etc. That's what makes deer taste "gamey" So, to make sausage with it you have to add back in some kind of fat. I prefer pork fat. In this case, I had 15lbs of venison that I ground up, mixed in 5 lbs of pork butt that I put through my grinder, and added in the summer sausage seasoning. The company I'm currently purchasing from is here: http://www.lemproducts.com/category/seasonings_cure_spices They have a ton of different stuff. I've also used seasoning from High Mountain and they have been good as well.

If you just want to try it out sometime, get a 5 lb kit that includes the seasoning and the casings. The seasoning kit includes the spices as well as the "cure" which is a small amount of sodium nitrate. Directions are right on the kits too. Get yourself 5lbs of ground sirloin, season it, and stuff it in the casing. I do so much that I do have a Cabela's hand crank stuffer you can see in the first pic, but with a little patience you could do it by hand with a spoon...just much slower work.

I let the stuffed sausages rest overnight in the freezer, and then smoke at 200Degrees until they're done.

Grandpas Grub

 
After your post, I grabbed my summer sausage (hickory farms) and looked at the ingredient list, it is beef summer sausage.

Thank you for the link, I will do some looking and pick up a kit. I want to give it a try, yours looks so good.

Clarification... you smoke the sausage direct from a hard frozen state?

Kent

EggerDan

Great post and thanks for sharing
Gets me excited to 'dust off' an old family recipe and make some summer sausage on my egg. When growing up, we always hung the sausage. Now I know that is not required.
Dan

Hoosier

Hey Kent

You don't need to freeze anything. After you have the ground meat and mix it with the seasonings and sodium nitrate (cure) that comes in the mix, you stuff it into the non-edible casings (the brown ones that come with the kits) Once they're stuffed you can just put them in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I got a full firebox full and carefully loaded so that I'll have a slow controlled fire. Put in a good amount of mesquite chunks and lit the lump. Set up for indirect. In this case, I went platesetter legs up, a drip pan with a little bit of apple juice in it, and then my grid and finally an extended grid to get everything loaded up. Easy as can be.

Grandpas Grub

 
Thanks for the tip. I am going to order one of the kits to give this a try. Pretty excited. I was also trying to find one of AZRP's old sausage posts, his might have been brat's though.

Thank you. GG

Hoosier

Awesome. Can't wait to see pics and hear how you enjoy it.