I have had trouble making a summer sausage that I like since I started smoking. Don't get me wrong, all the spice mixes and recipes I tried made good summer sausage but it isn't what I remembered from when I was a kid. So, I have been experimenting for a couple of years to get what I remember getting from home made summer sausage when I was a kid. I quickly learned that people didn't add ascorbic acid, buttermilk powder, jalapenos, high temperature cheese, etc. They used what they had, meat and seasonings. That led me to my summer sausage recipe which I call OFG Summer Sausage as I am the Old Fat Guy.
I apologize in advance that it is only meat and seasonings and not fancy schmancy.
The first thing I do is mix beef or lean game with pork shoulder. I cube 500 grams (1 pound) of each. In this batch I used beef. I don't use hamburger as I just find it doesn't taste right. I went to the supermarket and bought the cheapest cut of lean beef I can find.
I put them in the fridge for 2 hours to get cold. It is critical to keep the meat cold. I ran them through the medium plate on my KitchenAid grinder.
I put the meat in the fridge for 1/2 hour to chill again. While it was chilling, I mixed together:
I put this in the fridge to keep cool until the meat had finished its 1/2 hour in the fridge. Then I mixed the seasoning slurry into the meat with my hand by folding it over 20 times.
I put the meat in the fridge for 1/2 hour to chill.
I put the paddle on the KitchenAid and beat the meat on medium low for 4 minutes.
I put the meat in the fridge for 1/2 hour to cool. Then I used my LEM vertical stuffer to put it into 2 inch fibrous casings I had soaked for a couple of hours.
Note I make quite short chubs. There is just She Who Must Be Obeyed and me. I tied the chubs off and put them in the fridge for 2 days.
I don't use my pellet smoker to smoke sausage. It just won't smoke at a low enough temperature to do sausage and keep it from defatting. You need to start at 140 F and it won't go below 180 F. When I am using the WSM to do sausage I put a terra cotta planter base in the bottom that is about 1 inch
So I fired my home made WSM Mini up to 140 F, put the chubs in and smoked for 2 hours.
I opened the vents to increase the temperature to 150 F and smoked for another hour. I went up to 160 F for another hour and then 170 F until the internal temperature of the sausage was 155 F.
I plunged the chubs into ice water.
I let them hang at room temperature for 2 hours and then put them in the fridge overnight.
I sliced some up and had a great sandwich!
Once again, this is not some fancy scientific version of summer sausage or doctored up with lots of add ins. It is just a simple sausage. A tasty, tasty sausage.
Disco
I apologize in advance that it is only meat and seasonings and not fancy schmancy.
The first thing I do is mix beef or lean game with pork shoulder. I cube 500 grams (1 pound) of each. In this batch I used beef. I don't use hamburger as I just find it doesn't taste right. I went to the supermarket and bought the cheapest cut of lean beef I can find.
I put them in the fridge for 2 hours to get cold. It is critical to keep the meat cold. I ran them through the medium plate on my KitchenAid grinder.
I put the meat in the fridge for 1/2 hour to chill again. While it was chilling, I mixed together:
- 50 ml (1/4 cup) ice water
- 3 grams (0.09 ounces) pink salt #1 (2 ml or 2/5 teaspoon)
- 12 ml (2 ½ tsp) table salt
- 5 ml (1 tsp) coarse ground pepper
- 5 ml (1 tsp) sugar
- 5 ml (1 tsp) garlic powder
- 4 ml (3/4 tsp) whole mustard seed
- 3 ml (1/2 tsp) onion powder
- 3 ml (1/2 tsp) nutmeg
- 3 ml (1/2 tsp) dried basil
- 3 ml (1/2 tsp) whole coriander seed
- 1 ml (1/4 tsp) dried marjoram
I put this in the fridge to keep cool until the meat had finished its 1/2 hour in the fridge. Then I mixed the seasoning slurry into the meat with my hand by folding it over 20 times.
I put the meat in the fridge for 1/2 hour to chill.
I put the paddle on the KitchenAid and beat the meat on medium low for 4 minutes.
I put the meat in the fridge for 1/2 hour to cool. Then I used my LEM vertical stuffer to put it into 2 inch fibrous casings I had soaked for a couple of hours.
Note I make quite short chubs. There is just She Who Must Be Obeyed and me. I tied the chubs off and put them in the fridge for 2 days.
I don't use my pellet smoker to smoke sausage. It just won't smoke at a low enough temperature to do sausage and keep it from defatting. You need to start at 140 F and it won't go below 180 F. When I am using the WSM to do sausage I put a terra cotta planter base in the bottom that is about 1 inch
So I fired my home made WSM Mini up to 140 F, put the chubs in and smoked for 2 hours.
I opened the vents to increase the temperature to 150 F and smoked for another hour. I went up to 160 F for another hour and then 170 F until the internal temperature of the sausage was 155 F.
I plunged the chubs into ice water.
I let them hang at room temperature for 2 hours and then put them in the fridge overnight.
I sliced some up and had a great sandwich!
Once again, this is not some fancy scientific version of summer sausage or doctored up with lots of add ins. It is just a simple sausage. A tasty, tasty sausage.
Disco
