You need to mix the meat until it becomes really sticky... Kind of breaks down and becomes a gloppy mess... To maintain some sort of "tooth" to the meat when biting into it, grind through a larger holed plate....
Yes I use Ames Phos and Soy Protein Concentrate (SPC) in all my sausage.. I also use cure #1... The cure #1 allows me to cook at a low temperature for a long time so the meat / sausage does not fat out and prevents botulism..... Smoker temp never goes over 150-160.... sausage may take 24 hours or longer... I also cook according to the chart below...
FSIS Guidance on Safe Cooking of Non-Intact Meat Chops, Roasts, and Steaks April 2009
Temp °F/ Temp °C /Time for 5.0 log Reduction
Unit Time
130.......... .86 min.
131 ...........69 min.
132.......... 55 min.
133.......... 44 min.
134.......... 35 min.
135.......... 28 min.
136 ..........22 min.
137 ..........18 min.
138 ..........14 min.
139.......... 11 min.
140 ...........9 min.
141............ 7 min.
142 ............6 min.
143 ............5 min.
144 ............4 min.
145 ............3 min.
146 ...........130 sec.
147........... 103 sec.
148 ............82 sec.
149 ............65 sec.
150............ 52 sec.
151............ 41 sec.
152............ 33 sec.
153 ............26 sec.
154 ............21 sec.
155 ............17 sec.
156 ............14 sec.
157 ............11 sec.
158 ..............0 sec.
159 ..............0 sec.
160 ..............0 sec.
The required lethalities are achieved instantly when the internal temperature of a cooked meat product reaches 158 °F or above.
Humidity must be considered when using this Time/Temperature table.
This Time/Temperature table is based on Thermal Death Curve for Salmonella in Beef Emulsions in tubes (Derived from Goodfellow & Brown1, 1978) Regulatory Curve obtained from Jerry Carosella, Deputy Director, Microbiology Division, Science and Technology. All times that were a fraction of a minute or second was rounded up to the next whole number (e.g., 16.2 seconds for 155 °F was round up to 17 seconds).
________________________ 1. Goodfellow, S. J. and W. L. Brown. 1978. Fate of Salmonella Inoculated into Beef for Cooking. Journal of Food Protection. 41:598-605.