Ok, Im not a rookie at making sausage in general, just this is my first time making summer sausage.
Ive got plenty of ground venison put up, got to do something with it right?
I search the web came across many different recipes, used a lil bit of each to tune to how i would like.
After finished stuffing, took the last bits left in the stuffer and put on the george foreman grill and it tasted fine.
But my questions are a part of the stuffing and smoking...
I used the same technique that ive done for regular sausage in hog casing by taking the dry ingredients and putting in a blender, add 2 cups water and blend well.
I started with 10 lbs of coarse ground venison from the freezer. My blended seasoning mix included 2 spoons of cure #1 as per instructions of 1 spoon per 5lbs of meat from sausagemaker.com.
Then i mixed these together with the wet mixture until fingers were frost bit and arms sore. haha
Then i put it all back thru the grinder with the fine plate. The mixture did not seem watery.
After grinding i added the cheese and stuffed with my dakota water stuffer.
Doing this by myself and i thought i was stuffing them full and tight, but i think i might have been getting air in them.
Then as i was trying to reload my stuffer i knocked it off the counter and broke it.
Had to finish stuffing with the grinder and stuffing plate. The auger doesnt like cheese. hahaha
Anyway, everything seemed fine while stuffing, then i placed in the fridge overnight.
Started smoking on my masterbuilt electric this morning. Started at 120 for 2 hrs, then step up to 160 for 2 hrs, then step up to 225 until internal temp reached 160-ish (162 on the ones i checked.
After a few hours i started checking temps with meat probe by piercing the casing up near the tied knot. While continuing to cook liquid was dripping from the hole in the casing, not surprising. But after done and placing in the water bath to stop cooking i noticed that just about all of the casings had fluid in them as i could grab both end, squeeze and "pump" the liquid back and forth, also the casings were not tight like when i stuffed them. The large log in the pic with the clear casing definnitely had air in it, that one was stuffed with the grinder.
But the 2 that i had pierced with the probe had leaked into the water bath and also taken on some of the bath water.
I squeezed the water out of these 2 and placed all in the fridge after the bath of 20 min or so, drying all with a paper towel as i did so.
After and hour or so in the fridge i checked and some had apparently reabsorbed the liquid into the meat, some not so much. The ones that did the casing is now loose, I expect some of this is expected.
They are still in the fridge as i type this, my plan is later tonight to pierce the casing on any that have liquid still present and drain before vacuum sealing and freezing.
This just seemed odd to me. All other sausages i make with similar manner and it dries during the smoking process, but that is with hog casing and not fibrous casings.
Is there anything i did wrong or could have done different? Or is this just part of the process? Any pointers are appreciated.
Ive got plenty of ground venison put up, got to do something with it right?
I search the web came across many different recipes, used a lil bit of each to tune to how i would like.
After finished stuffing, took the last bits left in the stuffer and put on the george foreman grill and it tasted fine.
But my questions are a part of the stuffing and smoking...
I used the same technique that ive done for regular sausage in hog casing by taking the dry ingredients and putting in a blender, add 2 cups water and blend well.
I started with 10 lbs of coarse ground venison from the freezer. My blended seasoning mix included 2 spoons of cure #1 as per instructions of 1 spoon per 5lbs of meat from sausagemaker.com.
Then i mixed these together with the wet mixture until fingers were frost bit and arms sore. haha
Then i put it all back thru the grinder with the fine plate. The mixture did not seem watery.
After grinding i added the cheese and stuffed with my dakota water stuffer.
Doing this by myself and i thought i was stuffing them full and tight, but i think i might have been getting air in them.
Then as i was trying to reload my stuffer i knocked it off the counter and broke it.
Had to finish stuffing with the grinder and stuffing plate. The auger doesnt like cheese. hahaha
Anyway, everything seemed fine while stuffing, then i placed in the fridge overnight.
Started smoking on my masterbuilt electric this morning. Started at 120 for 2 hrs, then step up to 160 for 2 hrs, then step up to 225 until internal temp reached 160-ish (162 on the ones i checked.
After a few hours i started checking temps with meat probe by piercing the casing up near the tied knot. While continuing to cook liquid was dripping from the hole in the casing, not surprising. But after done and placing in the water bath to stop cooking i noticed that just about all of the casings had fluid in them as i could grab both end, squeeze and "pump" the liquid back and forth, also the casings were not tight like when i stuffed them. The large log in the pic with the clear casing definnitely had air in it, that one was stuffed with the grinder.
But the 2 that i had pierced with the probe had leaked into the water bath and also taken on some of the bath water.
I squeezed the water out of these 2 and placed all in the fridge after the bath of 20 min or so, drying all with a paper towel as i did so.
After and hour or so in the fridge i checked and some had apparently reabsorbed the liquid into the meat, some not so much. The ones that did the casing is now loose, I expect some of this is expected.
They are still in the fridge as i type this, my plan is later tonight to pierce the casing on any that have liquid still present and drain before vacuum sealing and freezing.
This just seemed odd to me. All other sausages i make with similar manner and it dries during the smoking process, but that is with hog casing and not fibrous casings.
Is there anything i did wrong or could have done different? Or is this just part of the process? Any pointers are appreciated.
