Worried

[chef willie]

 
I think that sausage looks great as well.  I dont know about the 4 hour cure time either.  I've always let my sausage with cure overnight and then stuff and smoke the next day.  I think that is the best route but that is my method. Reinhard

I agree and that's the method I use. I got the 4 hour 'minimum' time from info somewhere and it just made sense, needing some time to work the magic. If on a roll or time constraint I'll stuff after maybe 2 hours curing/chilling the blob in the fridge but leave the links to dry overnight in the fridge and then smoke, poach, whatever method used to cook the next day. After reading many, many posts on sausage, bacon makin' etc before even attempting sausage making on my own my take was the cure needs some time to work....Willie

 

[boykjo]

Answering the op's original question of did it set  for enough time, I would say yes. It s safe to eat. Like said the smaller the meat the better the coverage and the op probably didnt take into consideration "all" of the time the cure was in the meat. from the start. mix, cure , stuff, and  smoke. its was more like 4 hrs with cure which would be a minimum. I too mostly cure overnight unless strapped for time. But 4 hrs to me is a good starting point. I would like to see a better range of cure times in the meat balls. I'm not really seeing that much of a difference between them all. The 24 hr looks redder but they all look cured even at 1 hr

 

[sam3]

 
Answering the op's original question of did it set  for enough time, I would say yes. It s safe to eat. Like said the smaller the meat the better the coverage and the op probably didnt take into consideration "all" of the time the cure was in the meat. from the start. mix, cure , stuff, and  smoke. its was more like 4 hrs with cure which would be a minimum. I too mostly cure overnight unless strapped for time. But 4 hrs to me is a good starting point. I would like to see a better range of cure times in the meat balls. I'm not really seeing that much of a difference between them all. The 24 hr looks redder but they all look cured even at 1 hr

My thoughts exactly Joe. I usually let mine sit overnight as well, just to break up the process a little bit. But I can't tell you how many times I've just mixed, stuffed and then smoked when pressed for time.

Good thread.

 

[johnp]

Thanks fellas,You all have been a tremendous help with everything.