First Summer Sausage

unclejhim

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Original poster

Mar 14, 2013

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Folsom, La.

• Apr 28, 2016

• #1

I made my first summer sausage last week and have a question. The texture  and taste was fine but after refrigerating the casings wrinkled up and pulled away from the meat  or maybe the meat shrank inside the casing. I used Walton's Mahogany casings per instructions.Can anybody tell me how to prevent this?

 

crazymoon

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Great North Woods, NH

• Apr 28, 2016

• #2

UJ, What was your IT when you removed them. Did you immerse  in ice cold water to cool to to 110-120 and then allow to bloom at room temp for a few hours ?

 

unclejhim

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Mar 14, 2013

223

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Folsom, La.

• Apr 28, 2016

• #3

I.T was 160. Then I put in ice bath, then hung to bloom for several hours. The casing all looked fine at that point. It was when I took them out of the refrigerator the next day that I noticed the wrinkling.

I was following Len Poli's recipe for the most part.

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2016

boykjo

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• Apr 28, 2016

• #4

Shrinkage can also depend on how much water you added to the meat during mixing, The water will evaporate from the meat when cooking, the sausage in its hot state will stay plump. When the sausage is cooled the sausage will shrink and harden causing the casings to shrivel....... 

If you had any fat out with smoker temps too high will also cause wrinkles

IMO there's nothing wrong with a little wrinkle

My 2 cents

Joe

 

unclejhim

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Mar 14, 2013

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Folsom, La.

• Apr 28, 2016

• #5

Yeah it was only the casing wrinkled. May have been the water. The meat shrunk away from the casings but was fine. I'll try less water next time.

Thanks all.

 

crazymoon

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• Apr 28, 2016

• #6

UJ,Joe is spot on and sometimes casing separation  occurs if you immerse in cold water  too long.

 

joel11230

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Mar 21, 2016

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• May 1, 2016

• #7

I've been making snack sticks and summer sausages for a couple years now. Honestly at first I tried everything to get them to look just like store bought. Not anymore. I actually prefer them looking wrinkled. What matters is the taste. I make mine from venison and give to family and friends. IMHO the wrinkles makes it your own. But I have found low and slow, IT to at least 152, not too long of an ice bath, and I let them rest overnight. That's about all you can do to keep wrinkles to a minimum. Oh and don't under stuff.