For those who have made Hi Mountain Summer Sausage...

[okie sawbones]

I was gifted a kit. What, if any, additions would you add to the spice packet? More garlic? Mustard seeds? Salt? Course ground black pepper? .......

 

[Straw_Sticks_Bricks]

I was gifted a kit. What, if any, additions would you add to the spice packet? More garlic? Mustard seeds? Salt? Course ground black pepper? .......

I made one over the summer. The base kit tasted good smoked but was pretty bland baked. Were I to do it over again I'd add mustard seed, a bit more salt, pepper, garlic, mustard powder, and probably some fermento or encapsulated citric acid.

 

[DieselTech]

Black pepper, smoked paprika, & celery seed.

 

[okie sawbones]

Thanks.

 

[kelbro]

I did. Needed more seasoning. Pretty bland. Not bad at all, just bland.

 

[tallbm]

I was gifted a kit. What, if any, additions would you add to the spice packet? More garlic? Mustard seeds? Salt? Course ground black pepper? .......

Hi there and welcome!

I have not used it BUT I have an answer on how to get the flavor you want.

Do you have a scale that can measure down to 1 gram? If so great if not you'll be ok.

It's almost always true that all store bought seasonings and basically all online recipes are going to be off with their measurements and instructions. Though a number of folks here are usually dead on with their recipes, that is rarely the case with the internet lol.


The solution is to measure out 1 pound of sausage meat unseasoned.
Follow the instructions on how much seasoning they say to add to 1 pound of meat. If you have the scale weight it out and write down the number.

Take about a good bite's worth of meat mixed with that seasoning and go fry it up in a skillet and taste it.

If it's too bland add more seasoning. If it's too salty add more meat.
If at any point you are like "it could use just a little bit more" STOP. That is the stopping point always because if you grill it, cook with it, smoke it, etc. water may be lost and the flavor will concentrate so best to just leave it right there where you know it is good and not going to change for the worse in any cooking application.

Now every time you add more seasoning, weight it if you have a scale, and write down how much you added.
Once you have the base seasoning sorted out with salt and taste level, you can feel free to add more non-salt seasonings like garlic, onion, etc.
Repeat the measuring, writing down, and tasting processes until you are happy.

IMPORTANT!!!!: When you have it all figured out for 1 pound. Measure out 1 pound worth of seasoning, 1 pound worth of meat and mix it up. Then do one last little fry test to confirm you wrote everything down properly! Measure twice cut once. Hell measure 5 times, cut once because you cant uncut :D


WARNING: Do this for new seasonings and new recipes and ignore all of this at your own peril hahhahahaha.
It only takes 1 time of making 10-20 pounds of a bland or bad sausage to feel the pain of "why the hell didn't I just measure and taste and confirm". I still do a taste test on sausages with recipes I have written down and know are good BECAUSE sometimes things get mismeasured or steps skipped, etc. and something is left out. The taste test catches it before I move on to stuffing, vac sealing, etc.


Please learn from our mistakes, but feel free to make and learn from any mistakes you make. I just ask that you share what you learn :D
I hope this info helps :D