First effort at summer sausage

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

thepok17

Newbie
Original poster
Aug 20, 2014
5
10
After reading a bunch of posts on here, decided to try summer sausage.  Before investing any equipment, I wanted to start simple and see what I could learn about the process and if I wanted to keep going.

Interested to get reactions to see if I am on the right track.

I started with 1.5 lbs of pretty lean ground beef (added some fat trimmings)  and 1 lb of lean pork tenderloin.  (pic of mix below)

then:

1/4 c water

1 1/4 tsp whole mustard seed

1 1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1/3 tsp red pepper flakes

1.5 TBS Tenderquick (homemade with 1pt cure#1, 4pts sugar, 8pts salt)

1/4 tsp liquid smoke

1/4 c powdered milk

I mixed 2X per day for three days


Stuffed into 1 1/2 inch casings:


Because I don't (yet) have a proper smoker, I baked in over at 170 for appx 3 hours.  Then I moved to the grill with indirect heat (my version of smoking in lieu of a smoker) and tried to maintain reasonable heat with hickory smoke.  The sausage was about 140 when I moved it to the grill / smoke.  The temp in the grill got above 250 at times ...

It smoked about another 1.25 hours before hitting 155 degrees.  I put them in a water bath at that point.

The result was good color and taste.  Texture was not what I wanted and there was notable fat-out.


For a first effort, I feel it was good and I think I learned what to do from here.  Mostly, I learned I need a good smoker to keep the temp in line and do it right.

Thoughts?

Am I on the right track?
 
Good shot at SS.... Kudos for that.... You are on the right track.... Lower oven temps for longer period of time would help with the fat out... That's probably not doable with a regular oven..

I would suggest using cure #1 in the proper amount for the weight of the mix... then adding sugar and salt separate so they are adjustable... Skip the home made TQ... Cure #1, 1 tsp. per 5#'s of mix... Doing that, makes it easier to adjust the salt and sugar for finished taste....

Dave
 
I've done SS in the oven and you must keep the temp down around 165-170 and bake for 10-12 hours. A lot of stoves don't go that low but the finished product comes out well w/ no fat loss.Make sure to immediately shower w/cold water bath to stop the cooking process on removal.
 
Hey Great job on the trying effort, you will learn, we all have done mistakes and are still doing them, Oven cooking them you may want to keep it cracked open also while cooking. 

Again great effort and keep trying, nothing better than learning from your mistakes then eating them LOL 

A full smoker is a happy smoker 

DS 
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky