First summer sausage and I've already screwed up

[502meat]

So my father and I made 40lbs of venison summer sausage for the first time last night.  We stuffed 3# casings.  The error of our ways was very apparent when we went to stick them in the smoker this morning and realized that they were too long to hang vertically in the smoker.  I had to insert the cook racks and lay them flat without being hung up.  Other than appearance is this going to hurt the product?  Lesson learned I guess.

 

[nybbq]

You will be fine. When I make them I always lay them down.

 

[mossymo]

You will be fine, in fact better off laying them on racks in a smaller vertical smoker as now the bottom of your casings are not hanging directly over the heat source.

Just make sure if you have a heat deflector in your smoker your summer sausage isn't too close to the edge of the racks where direct heat flow may flow up the interior sidewalls of your smoker.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

X3

Nothing wrong with some slight rack marks

 

[jrod62]

lay mine on the rack all the time.

 

[DanMcG]

Welcome to the world of sausage making. I bet we've all done that at least once, I think I done it twice.

 

[chix-boy]

My first one's were even to long to lay the racks.

 

[jarhead]

My first one's were even to long to lay the racks.

Yep, x2 on that one.

 

[502meat]

Just wanted to pop back in and say the sausage turned out pretty good.  Everyone seemed to like it.  My only problem was I had a few of the rolls shrink up and get wrinkled.

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• 502meat
• Feb 8, 2013

 

[roller]

They look real good...Nice job !!!

 

[kathrynn]

Looks amazing to me!  Hmmmm....sausage!

 

[teebob2000]

Hmmm...  Picture's not very clear to make a good judgement.  I'll PM you my home address so you can mail a couple of them sausages my way.  

Looking good, Meat!