Do you add water to help the sausage press?

[osage]

I mixed up a batch tonight for the smoker tomorrow. When making brats for the freezer I normally add some water with the spices so that it mixes easier and goes through the sausage press. Will this work for smoking summer sausage or will it cause the sausage to shrink later?

 

[walking dude]

when you pull it off the smoker..........rinse in cold running water........OR, if you have a convenient snow bank, that nots yellow.......throw it in that........this will prevent the shrinkage..........then you hang for it to bloom

 

[mulepackin]

I add about a quart of ice water to 25 lbs. of meat. I mix my salt, cure and spice with the water well first, until the salt dissolves. Then pour this evenly over the ground meat in the mixing tub (I use the Rubbermaid gray busing tubs from Sam's Club). Then start mixing. I do this by hand, just turning and folding the meat in the tub for about 10-15 minutes, until all the water and seasoning seems well incorporated, or my hands are about frozen. I do this for all my stuffed sausages. Just did 25 lbs each of salami and summer sausage from my last elk.

 

[walking dude]

mule.........sounds like you need a meat mixer............

 

[mulepackin]

Yeah, among other things. I need a stuffer first, but I have a hard time convincing myself (and especially the wife) that I need this stuff when "it works just fine the way your doing it now".

 

[walking dude]

if you are as old as robert....your avatar........tell her arthritis has set in.......the cold is KILLING you....