Diving into Sausages

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
My summer sausage has started.
4 lb lean sirloin, cheaper than chuck, with 1 lb of my belly trims. All ice cold, Ground the beef course at 10mm, lightly mixed the Chunks of fat and seasonings. Back to the freezer for 30 minutes, then ground through 4.5 mm plate.
View attachment 662887
Into the stand mixer and mixed until sticky. Incorporated the 22.7 gm. ECA. Into the stuffer. Stuffed into 5 soaked fibrous casings.
View attachment 662888
Into the smoker at 110F no smoke. Will open the door several times to remove moisture.
View attachment 662889
Plan to leave here for 90 minutes then to 125F smoke. Then 10 degrees every hour until 170F and smoke until IT of 152F.

Let me know if I should change anything.

Paul
Looking good.

You can get a away with 15 degree increases to save yourself a little time.

It should be fine.

Keep us posted!
 
After about 13 hours with a few timer issues on the smoker and getting it to smoke at all they hit 150F and I cannot go anymore. The smoker was at 175 to even get there. Hope I did not ruin them.

Chilled them down and now blooming. Will probably leave out until I wake up.
639084FD-E811-470A-B246-3EC9C56EDE1D.jpeg

CM, thanks for the reminder to chill and bloom. Might have just tossed in the fridge otherwise.

Thanks for the other comments and encouragement as well. Much appreciated. Will see if I can muster the energy to do the brats tomorrow. Taxes and all.

I think I will have to do invest in one of those trays with pellets or dust for smoke. Or else figure out a way to keep the chunks of wood smoking. This added much time and caused the temperature to swing much more than I was happy with.

Thanks everyone,
Paul
 
  • Like
Reactions: tallbm
CS, you were thinking what I was. Been in the fridge for 4 hours. The sausage pulled away from the casing some more. Taste is a little dry. Flavor is good. Has a little bit of a grainy texture, mouth feel. Overall good for the first time.
E7A0CB57-C681-462D-9AAF-224D0B68747A.jpeg


What can I improve on? Did I mix it too long? Need the next size larger hole size for the grinder. I suppose a little more fat will improve the dryness. Fat did not leave, two drops in the pan under them in the smoker.

Thanks,
Paul
 
Paul , it looks pretty good . Leave it sit in the fridge in a plastic bag for a day and see how it is .
Did you use beef fat or pork fat ?
Did you add a binder like non fat dry milk ?

Personal opinion , I use NFDM in all my SS and bologna type sausage . Improves the texture for what I like .
I also don't like beef fat alone . I mix the beef grind into pork butt .

Like I said , looks good and I bet it improves as it sits in the fridge .
 
Last edited:
I put a lb of pork belly trimmings in it. Probably 85-90% fat.

I just used the Lem seasoning and only added ECA. Will try from scratch later. Probably should have poked the casings before smoking. Next time.
 
CS, you were thinking what I was. Been in the fridge for 4 hours. The sausage pulled away from the casing some more. Taste is a little dry. Flavor is good. Has a little bit of a grainy texture, mouth feel. Overall good for the first time.
View attachment 662975

What can I improve on? Did I mix it too long? Need the next size larger hole size for the grinder. I suppose a little more fat will improve the dryness. Fat did not leave, two drops in the pan under them in the smoker.

Thanks,
Paul

The texture you described is typical to fat related issues.

Potential Issue #1: If you notice fat around the outside between the meat and the casings then the sausage got to hot and the fat melted out from within the meat and traveled to the outside of the meat and is now trapped between the meat and the casing. This happens when the temps in the smoker are too high or raise too fast and is known as "fat out".

Your last picture does not allow me to look close enough but it seems there may be a layer of fat between the casting and the meat. Can't confirm though with those small pics.

IMPORTANT: I'm not sure what type of your smoker you are using, just know that if your temperature control is not VERY tightly controlled or is not VERY accurate then your sausages will be hard to do properly.

Smoker temp gauges are often very wrong or they are measuring the temperature in the wrong spot. If it is located higher in the smoker and is measuring 170F then it is almost surely the case that the temperature lower in the smoker is higher, especially the closer to the heat source.

Also with electric smokers (not sure about pellet smokers) the set temp is managed as an AVERAGE.
If you set to 170F then the smoker will heat up to like 185F and then drop to 155F and bounce back and forth giving you an average temp of 170F. When it spikes to 185F you can get fat out because it is simply too hot.

Tight temp control and accurate temp reporting where the meat is located is mandatory for consistently and properly nailing your sausage making!


Potential Issue #2: not enough fat to begin with.
Minimum recommended fat is often 20% as a rule.
It sounds like you may not have had enough fat to begin with.


Potential Issue #3: a combo of issue 1 and 2 above.

There are a lot of things to manage in various areas of sausage making.

I think you can fix your current issues if you go with a tried and true fat percentage (20% minimum) AND you ensure you are getting accurate temp measurements at meat level AND you keep the temp control tight.

Finally, if you are unhappy with that meat and not sure what you can do to salvage it, I have a couple of solutions.

1. Make a pot of beans and crumble it in as part of your cured meat component

2. Crumble it up when you make eggs and/or hashbrowns to make hash type breakfest dishes

3. (my favorite) Crumble it into a bowl and get a can of Manwich or just some bbq sauce and mix it with the meat. Then toast some buns and pile it onto the bun WITH a slice of extra sharp cheddar! Such good sandwiches.

I hope this info helps! :)
 
I’m back! After letting the summer sausage sit for a few days I have some observations.
I had some issues keeping the smoke going and it very much affect the temperature control as noted earlier. Here is the charting of the temperatures of the smoker and the sausage.
490BAB32-B263-4F9C-A48A-0BECB2925150.png

All the fluctuations in the early smoke was due to opening to restart the wood smoking. The lull right in the middle was the auto warm function on the smoker which sets a 140F after the timer expires. The paid of the heater is too reactive. Leading to the oscillating temperature. You can see the overshoot in the latter smoke when the set point is changes. The proportional of the loop is too high and could also use some derivative to predict to the set point. Anyway this is the first smoke seeing these effects.

Thanks Tallbm for the additional analysis.

The temps in the end went too high.
Yes, fatout. In the fridge for a few days the casing is shriveled and completely pulled away from the sausage.

I also thought that is was a bit too acidic. Good flavor but a bit too acidic. Next time probably 75% of the ECA or skip it entirely and use NFDM.

Will need to improve the low temp smoke and try again.

Now on to the brats.

Used a 10lb butt. Cut the bone out but could not find the gland in whole. I think I got most of it but had some gray specs in the grind. I pulled them out but this must have been the rest of it.

Here it is ground:
229A5FDA-FBA6-4701-A35E-558F7EC84A58.jpeg

Divided it into 2 equal portions. One for the Lem’s and one for diggindogfarm’s.

Mixed and did a test fry. Both seemed equally salty to me. Great flavor on both.

Modifications:
Used 26.3 gm/ lb Lem’s.
Used Red Boat fish sauce 1 tap. and celery salt ( no seed at this time). Used mace not nutmeg. Reduced the salt to 1 tbsp.

The edible collagen casing worked great in the beginning but near the end became soft and somewhat more delicate. Many blowouts. Had to make the fill quite loose compared to the start. Still worked.

Here they are:
D3A2C5E8-3368-45B7-9512-341FD6D07031.jpeg


Now that they are linked and in the fridge, I have a question.

What now? When do I separate them? Tomorrow I assume.

I will probably make something with that bowl of extra from the stuffer tonight.

Thanks for reading and providing encouragement.

Paul
 
I’m back! After letting the summer sausage sit for a few days I have some observations.
I had some issues keeping the smoke going and it very much affect the temperature control as noted earlier. Here is the charting of the temperatures of the smoker and the sausage.
View attachment 663573
All the fluctuations in the early smoke was due to opening to restart the wood smoking. The lull right in the middle was the auto warm function on the smoker which sets a 140F after the timer expires. The paid of the heater is too reactive. Leading to the oscillating temperature. You can see the overshoot in the latter smoke when the set point is changes. The proportional of the loop is too high and could also use some derivative to predict to the set point. Anyway this is the first smoke seeing these effects.

Thanks Tallbm for the additional analysis.

The temps in the end went too high.
Yes, fatout. In the fridge for a few days the casing is shriveled and completely pulled away from the sausage.

I also thought that is was a bit too acidic. Good flavor but a bit too acidic. Next time probably 75% of the ECA or skip it entirely and use NFDM.

Will need to improve the low temp smoke and try again.

Now on to the brats.

Used a 10lb butt. Cut the bone out but could not find the gland in whole. I think I got most of it but had some gray specs in the grind. I pulled them out but this must have been the rest of it.

Here it is ground:
View attachment 663574
Divided it into 2 equal portions. One for the Lem’s and one for diggindogfarm’s.

Mixed and did a test fry. Both seemed equally salty to me. Great flavor on both.

Modifications:
Used 26.3 gm/ lb Lem’s.
Used Red Boat fish sauce 1 tap. and celery salt ( no seed at this time). Used mace not nutmeg. Reduced the salt to 1 tbsp.

The edible collagen casing worked great in the beginning but near the end became soft and somewhat more delicate. Many blowouts. Had to make the fill quite loose compared to the start. Still worked.

Here they are:
View attachment 663575

Now that they are linked and in the fridge, I have a question.

What now? When do I separate them? Tomorrow I assume.

I will probably make something with that bowl of extra from the stuffer tonight.

Thanks for reading and providing encouragement.

Paul
Good investigation and info on your smoke and why the summer sausage had some issues.
Dialing those things in will definitely help and then continue to troubleshoot anything from that point. It's all a process of improvement until you start to consistently nail it :D

I've never fooled with collagen casings but I do know that slightly understuffing natural casings is not a bad thing at all and has some positive benefits. 1. casings don't bust as easily when working them, 2. when you grill fresh sausages and the grow and plump they will not bust out of the casing because they have room to expand. No split grilled sausages!

If it were natural casings you could have simply separated/cut each link and then vac sealed and froze them. Not sure how collagen casings will behave but to me that is the next step with fresh brats you don't plan to immediately grill. Hell it's the next step with any sausage cured or not that you don't plan to immediately grill or smoke :)

I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out and a report on the winner between the 2 brat flavors! :D
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky