Please Help Experts

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frassettor

Fire Starter
Original poster
Nov 17, 2007
30
10
I dont understand this.

I got my hot sticks things from the sausage maker and on the back it says to cook then to 152 internally.

The first batch I made was beef. I used 3 lbs beef to 2 lbs pork, cooked them till they reached 151 internally ( this took 6 hrs)and they turned out great! There was NO fat on the bottom of the smoker. The smoker reached 165 degrees and never higher.

I made another batch this time out of venison scrap. I did the same exact things (3 lbs venison to 2 lbs pork)as described on the beef, but the only thing different is I cooked them internally to 148 degrees ( this took 8 hrs). The smoker never went higher the 165! They turned out TERRIBLE!!
There was alot of fat on the bottom. They had a funny taste and were dry!! I'm not sure if I should cook them and lower internally because I want them to be safe to eat. I will be doing mostly venison for my family....Please help me get this right.
 
Quite possibly you went a bit too high in temp. Safety can be assured by using venison that has been frozen for a month, and then using a cure on the ground mixture. Remember the 4 hour danger zone... this is why I cure ALL my sausage that gets smoked. AND jerky.

Also, if you bring the temps up in the smoker, in effect getting it to temp faster, the fat will have less time to break down. This is an advantage, especially in the physically smaller sausage type...EG snack stix.
 
What kinda scrap did you use? also I just made a batch and I added more pork because venison is leaner than beef.

I goofed on a batch a while back I "thought" I had it all mixed up really good ....and I didn't lol..live and learn
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so for now on when I think I am done mixing I keep mixing for a another 10 mins or so
 
meat-man has a good point. The beef you used for the previous batch probably had good fat content where the venison does not because it's so lean. I have never made venison sausage though so i can't comment further. Well, except to say maybe you need a finer grind and longer mix time for a venison/pork mixture.

Your temp was probably also fine it's just the pork fat wasn't bound good enough to keep from rendering out. Your also safe only going to 152 or so as long as you're using a cure too.
 
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I used to live in South Dakota and had great tasting deer. We mixed about 15 % by weight of beef tallow to vension to make deer burger. We used 50-50 mix of deer burger to boneless Picnic Shoulder grinding it coarse and then medium to make the sausage sticks. I know we added a lot of water besides the seasonings. I believe about 1 cup per lb of vension ( 10 # deer burger, 10 # picnic shoulder, 10 cups of water and seasoning for 20 lb of mix.) Ask some of the local lockers or butchering shops about it. I went to a friend in the Slaughtering and smoking business and asked.
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