OK guys I had done some of the summer sausage sticks last year and they turned out great. I was in a hurry and didnt take the time to do my research on here. I didnt mix any beef or pork, straight venison. I used backwoods seasoning which has the pink salt cure packet. I really was in a rush, which didnt help matters. I started smoke right away and the smoker was at 180deg for the first 45min till I went on here looking for internal temp and saw it shouldnt go over 160. I had a heck of a time trying to get down to 160, stayed in the 165-178 range for 6hrs. I had it stall at 120 for the longest time, then went to 135 and wouldnt go any higher. It was 2:30 in the morning and I shut her down and put the sticks in the fridge. They have a nice pink color inside and smell great. Since there is a cure in the mix, do I really need to hit 152deg? Did I screw up and ruin this batch?
thanks,
Ken
thanks,
Ken