Displaced Midwesterner

Thank you very much.

The sausages all came out very tasty, but a little crumbly. Not fall apart crumbly, but enough that it doesn't slice cleanly.

Also, as I said, it probably would have helped to use a slightly higher lean/fat ratio beef and then added some pork.

I did adapt my own progressive recipe, so if anyone has any recommendations here is what I did:

Bologna "Base" Recipe:

5# Ground Beef

7.5 tsp TQ

1 tsp Onion Pwdr

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 cup NFDM

1 tbsp Cultured Buttermilk

I used 2 lbs to stuff a couple LEM 1-1/2" fibrous casings and then added the below to make a Summer Sausage base:

Summer Sausage Recipe:

3# Bologna "Base"

1 tsp coarse ground Pepper

1 tsp Mustard Seed

1 tsp Fennel Seed

1/2 tsp Cayenne Pwdr

Again stuffed 2 lbs into a pair of 1-1/2" fibrous casings and then with the last pound, I added 1/2 cup chopped fresh jalapeno from the garden and about 3/4 cup of sharp white cheddar (shredded).

I put that all together on Sunday, let its sit in the refrigerator overnight, and smoked it last night (Monday) for about 4 hours until the largest of the 5 sausages hit 155 degrees internal temp. Tossed them all into an ice bath for 30 minutes and then my daughter and I "sampled" a few (a lot) of bites from them. If I can get my daughter to email the photos she took on her phone, I'll post them up here.

Jake