SS fail

[jkc64]

Used 73/27 ground beef with a PS seasonings mix. Added some additional spices and cheese as I usually do. Put in the smoker at 120 for 1.5 hours added smoke and bumped 10 degrees every hour till smoker was at 140. Pulled and into SV at 137 and ran up to 152. Total fat out, meat has the texture of fried hamburger. I usually use 80/20 and follow the same procedure except the sausage usually steps up to 160 and stays for 8 to 16 hours. Sometime it gets to 150 It but usually doesn't. Then I SV to proper temp. I am using a MES30 with a PID and have not seen an overtemp issue. Need help with what I did wrong.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Did you use ECA?

 

[jkc64]

No ECA, I added mustard seed, red pepper flakes and cheese.

 

[chopsaw]

My opinion is it was to long in the SV . The fat looks like it was completely cooked out of it .
Not sure what this means .

Pulled and into SV at 137 and ran up to 152.

Was the IT 137 ? or was that the temp of the SV .

 

[jkc64]

I put the SS in the SV at 137 and have the temp set for 152. Pulled when it hit temp. IT 152

 

[DougE]

Puzzling. If the sausage temp never exceeded 152°F, you should not have had fat out unless maybe smeared fat during grinding.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Puzzling. If the sausage temp never exceeded 152°F, you should not have had fat out unless maybe smeared fat during grinding.

If no ECA was used, then fat smear would be my next guess. SV temps are fairly precise so I would try to rule out over cooking. Not keeping the meat cold while grinding and or a dull knife/plate but since the OP has had good success up til now I would go with meat to warm while grinding and fat smear. It happens, I’ve experienced it before.

 

[jkc64]

Sorry, should have been more detailed. Store bought 10# chub. Still could be a fat smear problem. Would not having a good protein extraction cause this? I went till my shoulders couldn't take any more not maybe not emough?

 

[DougE]

Sorry, should have been more detailed. Store bought 10# chub. Still could be a fat smear problem. Would not having a good protein extraction cause this? I went till my shoulders couldn't take any more not maybe not emough?

If there was fat smear in grinding in the store bought grind, I do not think any amount of mixing to get good protein extraction is going to fix a bad grind.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Sorry, should have been more detailed. Store bought 10# chub. Still could be a fat smear problem. Would not having a good protein extraction cause this? I went till my shoulders couldn't take any more not maybe not emough?

While you can successfully make sausage from store ground meat, it’s still a gamble. Grinding meat for general burger is a bit different than for quality sausage.

The heat most generally comes from inside the grinder head from friction. The meat itself may be cold, the room temperature may be cold, but if the knife and plate are warm then so is the grind.

Mixing is another concern. If the meat gets to warm then you have smearing from the mixing. Being below 40* is very important at all phases.

 

[DougE]

Best way to go is to do your own grind, keeping the meat cold, mix doing the same.

 

[indaswamp]

Sorry, should have been more detailed. Store bought 10# chub. Still could be a fat smear problem. Would not having a good protein extraction cause this? I went till my shoulders couldn't take any more not maybe not emough?

Sounds like you either over mixed the meat paste, the store bought grind had fat smear, or you used a water permeable casing...or a combo of the above. Was there liquid fat floating on the sous vide water when you pulled the chubs?

 

[jkc64]

Lots of fat in the water, I used LEM clear collagen middles 2X18. I have used these before and not had a problem.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Your store 73/27 was too much fat and IMHO it was prob more than 27% and I would say when they ground they smeared the fat. SV was too hot for the fat content, thus the end result.

 

[chopsaw]

Lots of fat in the water, I used LEM clear collagen middles 2X18. I have used these before and not had a problem.

I've had it happen to me . Once with cellulose and once with water proof casings . I'm thinking you over cooked it . At 137 IT you were almost done . In 152 degrees water ( to hot in my opinion ) I would think it would come up to temp in 30 minutes or less .

 

[indaswamp]

Also, beef fat will melt out at a lower temp than pork fat....

 

[chopsaw]

Mine was all pork bologna . I think people get caught up in SV being fail safe , me included . The pic above is exactly the same as what I had . Cooked all the fat and moisture out of it .

 

[indaswamp]

I went till my shoulders couldn't take any more not maybe not emough?

Probably over mixed. And if the meat was too warm, the chance of fat smear is great.

Best practice is to chill the meat to 30-32*F for mixing, then mix until it gets tacky enough so that a small amount of meat paste will stick to your hand when you turn your hand upside down.

 

[jkc64]

Hopefully I can get my TSM 30# (Snoopy) smoker set up soon and go it another try.

 

[jkc64]

I'm going to call them this week and see what they say about seasoning the smoker. No mention of it in the instructions.