- Mar 14, 2015
- 19
- 23
I have been a reader of the website for a long time, and have gotten a lot of great information, how to’s, and tips, so I thought I would make my own “How to” for my first post. I was intimidated when I first read all the instructions and information on Summer Sausage making, but it really wasn’t that hard thanks to the information on this site. I ended up with 13 sausages (6 regular smoked summer sausage and 7 Jalapeno Cheese summer sausage. It turned out really well, so I thought I would share.
Equipment:
Masterbuilt 2 door propane smoker
Mods: Needle Valve to control temperature, Cast Iron Skillet for wood chip pan.
Maverick 732 Thermometer
Hickory/Apple Wood Chips
Jerky Shooter stuffing gun
LEM Summer Sausage Kit
LEM High Temp Cheese
Jalapeno Peppers
Here’s the recipe I used:
~10lbs of venison burger that was done by my deer processor.
LEM Summer Sausage Kit. (Enough spices to do 10lbs)
1 pack of LEM High Temp Cheese.
4 Jalapeno Peppers.
Here’s the steps:
(The ice had already melted in the pic)
After the bloom period, I put them in the refrigerator overnight and vacuum sealed them the next day.
Before I vacuum sealed and froze them, I had to sample my work.
Now for the money shots.
Thanks to everyone who has posted How To threads before me. You made it possible for me to post this one! Let me know if anyone has any questions about how I did it!
Equipment:
Masterbuilt 2 door propane smoker
Mods: Needle Valve to control temperature, Cast Iron Skillet for wood chip pan.
Maverick 732 Thermometer
Hickory/Apple Wood Chips
Jerky Shooter stuffing gun
LEM Summer Sausage Kit
LEM High Temp Cheese
Jalapeno Peppers
Here’s the recipe I used:
~10lbs of venison burger that was done by my deer processor.
LEM Summer Sausage Kit. (Enough spices to do 10lbs)
1 pack of LEM High Temp Cheese.
4 Jalapeno Peppers.
Here’s the steps:
The kit came with 2 packs of seasoning mix/cure. Each pack was enough to do 5lbs of meat. I mixed each pack with 5 pounds of meat according to the instructions on the package. One 5 pound batch, I left regular summer sausage. The other batch, I took 4 jalapeno peppers (seeds and ribs removed from two of the peppers) and ground them up pretty fine. I mixed the jalapenos, seasoning/cure pack, and half of the LEM high temp cheese with the other 5 pound batch. All in, I had ~5 pounds of regular summer sausage and ~6 pounds of jalapeno cheese summer sausage. Just FYI, I did this on a Tuesday night.
I put each batch in ziplock bags and let them cure in the refrigerator for ~3 days. After 3 days, I made a small patty of each batch and fried it up to taste it and make sure it tasted like I wanted it to.
Soak the casings in water according to the directions on the package. I used half clear casings and half mahogany casings (just because I wanted to see which I liked better). I used a regular Jerky Shooter gun that I got at Bass Pro to stuff the sausages.
Stuff the meat in the sausages making sure there are no air bubbles inside the casings. Twist them tight and tie them off with butcher string and leave some room to tie a loop to hang the sausages in the smoker if your casings don’t have a loop on them already. Just FYI, I stuffed the casings on Friday night.
Once the casings were all stuffed, I put them back in the fridge overnight.
I started smoking the sausages early on Saturday morning. I took stainless S hooks and hung the sausages on the top grate on the smoker. These S hooks made it really easy to hang the sausages in the smoker. Start the smoker at about 100-120 degrees with no smoke. In order to keep the temp this low, I had to open the vents all the way and crack the door about ½ inch. I kept the temp at this temperature for about an hour and a half to dry the casings.
After about an hour and a half at 100-120 degrees, I closed the door and the vents and added Hickory and Apple Wood Chips. I bumped the temperature of the smoker up to the ~170-180 degree range and let the Internal Temperature of the sausages come up to 152 Degrees. This took about 6 hours total.
When the internal temperature of the sausages came up to 152 degrees, I pulled them out and soaked them in an ice bath in the sink. Leave the temperature probe in the sausages while they are in the ice bath, let them soak in ice until the Internal Temperature comes down to 80 degrees. While the sausages were cooling, I turned the smoker off, opened the doors, and let the smoker completely cool off. After the internal temperature of the sausages cooled down to 80 degrees, I hung the sausages back in the cooled smoker to bloom for 3-4 hours. It was a cool day outside, so I just let them hang outside in the smoker, because my wife would have killed me for letting sausages hang in the house. You can let them hang wherever you want though.
(The ice had already melted in the pic)
After the bloom period, I put them in the refrigerator overnight and vacuum sealed them the next day.
Before I vacuum sealed and froze them, I had to sample my work.
Now for the money shots.
Thanks to everyone who has posted How To threads before me. You made it possible for me to post this one! Let me know if anyone has any questions about how I did it!
