Sous Vide Summer Sausage

[travisty]

Alright,
So this week I decided to try my hand at summer sausage. I was so excited about the process that I jumped the gun without consideration for timing. I started the sausages yesterday in the early afternoon, and they were into the fridge curing by about 2. Anyway, I have too much stuff going on today, and all the way till midnight tonight to get them smoked and what not.

I'm using a "Backwoods" (LEM) packet for this, and other than adding some more seasoning for spice I followed the packet to the T. Anyway, I didn't want to leave them curing all the way till Saturday morning, so based on the fact that just baking without smoking them was an option on the packet I did a search and found that others have successfully done Sous Vide Summer Sausage, though all I could find also smoked them first. I don't have the time for that, so here we are at the Sous Vide experiment.

Based on one thread I found here, Dave O had linked a pager that estimated I would need 2.5 hours at 152, and since Dave hasn't let me down before that's what I'm going with! The sausages are literally under my desk at work cooking at this very moment.

Here is my process yesterday. Like I said, I used the packet from Backwoods, but to half of the sausages I added Oakridge BBQ "Habanero Dust" to get some spicy ones in there.

Ill keep you guys posted. Also if there is anything wrong with my calculations or the process, let me know.
Ill be pulling it out in just a bit, so for the most part what's done is done.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Alright,
So this week I decided to try my hand at summer sausage. I was so excited about the process that I jumped the gun without consideration for timing. I started the sausages yesterday in the early afternoon, and they were into the fridge curing by about 2. Anyway, I have too much stuff going on today, and all the way till midnight tonight to get them smoked and what not.

I'm using a "Backwoods" (LEM) packet for this, and other than adding some more seasoning for spice I followed the packet to the T. Anyway, I didn't want to leave them curing all the way till Saturday morning, so based on the fact that just baking without smoking them was an option on the packet I did a search and found that others have successfully done Sous Vide Summer Sausage, though all I could find also smoked them first. I don't have the time for that, so here we are at the Sous Vide experiment.

Based on one thread I found here, Dave O had linked a pager that estimated I would need 2.5 hours at 152, and since Dave hasn't let me down before that's what I'm going with! The sausages are literally under my desk at work cooking at this very moment.
View attachment 343809

Here is my process yesterday. Like I said, I used the packet from Backwoods, but to half of the sausages I added Oakridge BBQ "Habanero Dust" to get some spicy ones in there.
View attachment 343810

Ill keep you guys posted. Also if there is anything wrong with my calculations or the process, let me know.
Ill be pulling it out in just a bit, so for the most part what's done is done.

Doesn't the internal temp of the meat need to be held @ 152 when using the pasteurization process?

 

[travisty]

I'm not really sure. Here is the link that @daveomak had posted n the other forum. Its really hard to interpret, but I see where one is a pasteurization process, and another is just cooking, so I'm really not sure what the difference is. These will be refrigerated/frozen once I'm done. Seemed to me like 155 is already to the safe cooking temp for the beef so I'm not sure why id need to hold it there for any longer.

I'm at the 2 hour mark right now, at 152, I did just bump the temp to 155 based on another thread here, but if anyone can weigh in on this that would be great.


http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Maybe my wording is off. I meant don't you still need to probe the temp to make sure the meat is at 152°? I know that thickness plays a roll. I could see wanting to make sure that the center of the log was at the proper temp before stopping the process.

 

[travisty]

I don't know if I'm reading this wrong, but the pasteurization time for Beef at 152* is only 2 and a half minutes according to the link above. So unless I am interpreting that wrong, I think ill be safe on that aspect as well. Though I found another section where it says 2 and a half hours at the IT..

That being said, Every other recipe I have found for summer sausage only has you take the sausage to the specified IT with no holding, then pull it off and refrigerate. Why would the Sous Vide process make a difference in needing to hold it. Even the packet instructions for the Backwoods product I use just state to pull it once the IT is reached? what am I missing here?

 

[travisty]

Oh I see what you are saying. Yes, so with sous vide in general its sort of a thickness calculation game. Because the item is in a bag there really isn't a way to probe it without having to start over. So most apps and things, and the resource link above just have a guide to calculate how long you would need at which temp to ensure that the center does reach the desired temperature. I guess its sort of a faith game.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

If it were me I'd still check, what's another bag. This is a good case for not using vac pack bags during the SV process. From the research I have looked at the summer sausage should be heated through (assuming 60mm cylinder) in 2 1/2 hours. If you don't want to probe to test holding it another 30-45 minutes isn't going to hurt.

 

[travisty]

well, the main issue now is that I am at work, and don't have a probe here. I'm gonna go to the cafeteria and see if one of the cooks will let me borrow one. I have one of the sausages that is sealed alone, ill open that and probe it, if its good ill pull them all, if not, ill just put them back in without bags since others say that's fine with the fiberous casings.

 

[gnatboy911]

I wouldn’t worry about a temp probe. About an hour per inch at temperature should make sure its stable all the way through. 2.5-3 hrs for those and I’m sure they’ll be 152 all the way through. A little extra time, as Dirt mentioned, won’t hurt anything.

 

[travisty]

I pulled out the one as I mentioned ant it was right at 155 in the middle, so I pulled the rest and they are currently in an ice bath.
There is quite a bit of liquid under the skin, so I hope that's not an issue. ill probably have to poke and drain each one. I think its like a couple tablespoons per sausage. part of the issue may be that I don't have an actual sausage stuffer, so I couldn't really get all the air out stuffing them by hand.

 

[travisty]

Woohoo, it is both finished, and delicious! So I have only cracked open the hotter version (which actually didn't end up that hot) but I sliced up the whole log to take around to my team and other surrounding cubicles and it is a hit!

Someone on another thread I had asking some curing questions suggested that the LEM brand packets have the tendency to make the meat taste a bit like corned beef, and I do see what they mean about the corned beef flavor, I catch a hint of that, but no one else seemed to notice, and everyone that tried it said it was awesome, with a few saying it was the best summer sausage they'd ever had (but sometimes just knowing something is fresh/home made can cause that reaction). In the future, ill probably make it from scratch with my own cure and spices.

Anyway, here is what she ended up looking like:

 

[Bearcarver]

Looks Great Travisty!!:)

Nice Job!---I Like it!

Bear

 

[travisty]

Obviously I didn't really have the smoky aspect, but cooking them Sous Vide was very easy and took no attention. If you got a good quality natural smoke powder, I think you could easily make up for the smoking process. I'm not sure any of the liquid smoke products that I know of would be good, at least for me I can always tell, and I don't really like the flavor of those, but there is a few natural powders I've found that work great.

The texture is really good, and it certainly has a really nice bite, probably better than any store bought summer sausage as far as that aspect. In the future, I plan to smoke them for a couple/few hours, then sous vide to finish, but regardless, I will plan to keep Sous Vide in the Summer Sausage process.

 

[troutman]

Yea the 152* at 2.5 hours should kill any pathogens in the meat, I would not be concerned about that. One thing you could do travisty is flash bath them in ice water, put them in the frig until you have a chance to smoke them or whatever you plan on doing. I've been doing that with meat pretty successfully. But if you're satisfied with the SV result, so be it !! Looks great to me !!

 

[Bearcarver]

Travisty,
Yup---SV is another thing on the list I wish I learned 30 years ago----

Right after Chainsaw Carving!

Bear

 

[jleck8]

I use the smoke flavor casings from lem and when I smoke the logs I just smoke for an hour then let them stay in my electric smoker and cook till internal temperature is 165