Meat mixing time

[fitch32]

Hello everyone. Just wanted to say quickly that I have learned alot from this forum already and have gained enough knowledge and courage try some sausage and snack stick making for myself. So thanks for that!

With that said I do need to understand some things still. I have some questions about venison summer sausage.

Mixing the meat: do I mix the venison and fatty meat first? Then add the seasoning and cure?

Mix time: I heard it said that mixing time for your summer sausage was important. I was told if you don't mix enough you will get a sausage that crumbles and if you mix too much you can get fat smearing and poor texture. Then on the seasoning and cure mix bag, it says to mix very well. So which is it, mix very well or mix cautiously? What would an average mix time be and what am I looking for to know that the mixing is complete. (when I make ground jerky I mix until the meat is tacky, am I looking for something like that?)

As I figure things out I will start to post my game plan on here for the pro's to give a once over. Thanks for the help!!!

 

[bmudd14474]

I mix it all together until the spices are mixed good. I stuff them and let them sit over night before smoking. 

 

[smokeamotive]

I have made venison summer sausage a number of times and will be making more in the very near future. I mix the venison and fatty meat (Beef) together right after grinding. I have found that the texture depends more on the amount of fat that is put in the mix. I mix 10lbs of clean venison with 10 lbs of 80/10 burger. This will give you a mixture that comes out to 10 percent fat. I add the spice mixture in several doses while mixing the meat by hand (fisting). Some add the recomended water to the spices, stir to disolve, then add to the meat. I wait untill after the spices are mixed then add the water. As far as how long to mix......I mix it until the spices are evenly distributed through the meat. It will all be the same color, about the same color as hamburger that has sat out too long and turned brown. Then I add the water and mix till it all is the same consisency, no mushy spots. Then you can stuff into casings or put in the fridge overnight and stuff rhe next day. The meat will have to go back in the fridge to cure overnight anyway, so i doesn't matter if you stuff before or after the cure time. Then take out of the fridge and let dry. some do this in their smoker at a low temp with no smoke for @ an hour then smoke. BTW My friends all rave about my summer sausage and how good a texture it has. I've had venison Summer sausge made by commercial processors and they don't compare to mine. Theirs is grainy and has less flavor than mine. Not blowing my own horn, I've had my fair share of failures I just finally got my recipe worked out.

 

[mballi3011]

 First off welcome Fitch to SMF. Now good luck on your new venture into the sausage world. It's really fun and the sausage in great to. You'll like it here cause there are alot of really good folks that would just love to help you with anything to do with smoking. Now we like having new folks here to give a new prospective on some of the ways we do things around here. Now if you are really new then I would suggest that you sign up fir the 5-day E-course it free and it will give you the basics on smoking and a few recipes too. Here's a link to it:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/list/127

then you will have a method to your newly found madness and believe me it will be a madness. Then when you start smoking things you will have to learn how to post the pictures / Qview 

here. So here's a link to a tutorial on how to post your Qview so we can see what your doing.

 http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/82034/how-to-post-qview-to-smf

Now the next thing you have to do is run out and get something to smoke. Then just smoke it and if you have any questions just post  them here and we will answer all your questions that you might have. Oh yea there's no stupid questions we were all there in the beginning and we just really like to help others enjoy the fabulous smoked foods that we do. So again

Welcome to Your New Addiction    

 

[fpnmf]

I have made sausage a few times now.

Not knowing a whole lot about it yet I follow the instructions on the recipe.

Works for me.

As far as mixing the meat and spices, I work it with my hands until it is obviously well mixed.

Meaning..it looks the same, no areas that look like it doesn't have the spice on it.

 Good luck and have fun!!

   Craig!

 

[fitch32]

Thanks all for the responses! It sounds to me that you mix it long enough to get the spices and cure evenly distributed and call it good.

With that said, that leads me to another question, do you recommend using purchased ground meat or can I buy fatty trimmings and grind it myself. My concern is how do I know what the fat concentration is in fatty trimmings? I ask this because I would think grinding trimmings myself would save some money.

 

[smokeamotive]

I gennerally use ground meat in mine because its hard to get triimings these days thanks to the mega processors. If you can get them though, go for it!

 

[DanMcG]

Thanks all for the responses! It sounds to me that you mix it long enough to get the spices and cure evenly distributed and call it good.

You need to mix until it becomes a sticky mass, Then you know that you've developed the proteins necessary to bind it. Not enough mixing will make it crumbly 

With that said, that leads me to another question, do you recommend using purchased ground meat or can I buy fatty trimmings and grind it myself. My concern is how do I know what the fat concentration is in fatty trimmings? I ask this because I would think grinding trimmings myself would save some money. I often  use ground meat  from the store when its on sale. I like 80 20 when I make SS with pork, If you're using venison (I've never done it) I 'd think you'd want to add some pork fat as venison is very lean, Half venison and half 80/20 will only give you 10% fat. I'd shoot for 20% anyways and would prefer 30%

 

[the dude abides]

I've never made sausage so take this for what you will.  But a friend of mine gets his venison summer sausage produced at a local meat locker and they add pork to it.  I don't know what cuts or how much, but it's the best SS I've ever tasted.

 

[fitch32]

DanMcG, could you expain further how half 80/20 half vension would get you to 10% fat content?

 

[smokeamotive]

DanMcG, could you expain further how half 80/20 half vension would get you to 10% fat content?

As Dan has signed off, If you take 5 lbs of venison, cleaned, that has no fat and mix it with 5lbs of 80/20 burger you come out with a total fat content of 10 percent.

 

 

[shoneyboy]

Fitcher32,  I think what DanMcG is saying, if you have 5lbs of 80/20 meat weather it is beef or pork. it is going to be 80% meat and 20% fat. If you have 5lbs of 80/20 ground meat you would have 4lbs of meat and 1lb of fat. So, using that 5lbs as an example, if you were to have  5lbs of ground meat 80/20 and 5lbs of ground deer (which has very little if any fat) once mixed will give you 10lbs of 90/10. Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds right to me. Maybe someone else has some thoughts ????  Most of what I have read, states that you want at least 15-20% fat for sausage and some people want even more that that. It's all about your taste, I like mine at 15%,  but that's just me.  You have to keep in mind when dealing with meat, that fat = flavor. Hope this helps SB....

 

[coffee_junkie]

I mix until I can't feel my fingers anymore, then I mix for about 10 more minutes.