After All These Years My First Fail...

[JckDanls 07]

I've never made any sausage and have to ask, what's "fat out'

It's a term used in the sausage field when the fat in the sausage renders down and melts and turns into a liquid form.... Usually happens when your cooking temps are to high...

I'm going to calibrate (boiling water) my PID controller and probe, But i'm pretty confident that's in order as it was reading correct ambeint temp... I even backed my max temp down to 170 from 175 for the second batch...

 

[Fueling Around]

One time I had a butt in the freezer for over a year, my SS did the same thing. Maybe too long in the freezer does something to the pork?

...
My thoughts are either the pork itself ,
or the one difference from past batches , is the new stuffer .
Just something to consider I think .

I think both of you are on the same page.
I try not to leave meat in the freezer too long.

 

[indaswamp]

I have not read all the comments yet, but if it has not been mentioned, there is such a thing as having the meat too cold and it will cause fat out. Meat freezes at around 27*F, so the closer you get to that temp., the more of a chance you have of shaving the fat and meat. and if you shave the fat, it will fat out on you. 30-32*F is optimal IMO...

Also with larger batches, it is best to mix the meat every 20 minutes or so when you are chilling it in the freezer. The meat neat the edge of the container will get colder than the meat in the center. Mixing will equalize and chill the block faster as warm chunks come into contact with almost frozen chunks.....

hope this helps...

 

[indaswamp]

I even backed my max temp down to 170 from 175 for the second batch...

Yes. 175*F for longer than about 20-25 minutes is risking fat out IMO. I personally never go over 165*F, and target 136*F INT then start a timer for 1.5 hours to pasteurize. Final temp. might be 140-148*F depending on batch size, but either way, the smoke sausage is done having achieved a LOG9 reduction in pathogens. (That's a 1 with 9 zeros behind it....reduction of bacteria).