I finally broke down and purchased a LEM 5lb stuffer. I was craving some summer sausage and my kit came with the LEM sausage mix and casings. I also went to my local bass pro and picked up the Hi Mountain kit for comparison. I used my ground venison with beef fat only. Did the usual cure for 24hr after stuffing and dried for the first hour in the smoker at 120 with no smoke. I then used oak pellets in my AMAZEN smoker and bumped the temp to 150 for 3 hours. Bumped temp further to 180 and had a major stall for several hours at 142 IT. I literally had to bump the temp to 225 after hours of slowly increasing to get the stall to break. I've never had a piece of meat to be so stubborn. After 8 or 9 hours I finally reached 155 to 157 IT on all pieces and placed them in a ice bath. Sat them out on the counter to bloom for a while and sliced them up. I must say the LEM kit failed to impress me. It was very bland and the casings were difficult to remove from the meat. However the Hi Mountain kit was spot on with the taste I was looking for and the casing was easily removed. Now I know what kit to make a bigger batch with in the future. Pics were with a crappy camera phone and no sliced shots yet.
after smoking, the larger casing is the Hi Mountain
after smoking, the larger casing is the Hi Mountain
