Summer Sausage Turned Out Rancid

[Jarod1214]

Hi Folks,

New here and have a question about some summer sausage I made.

I've made wild game jerky, sausage, and beer sticks lots in the past. We got a side of beef last year and I found that it was taking us a while to get through the ground beef. So yesterday I decided to make summer sausage. It's been a long time since I made wild game summer sausage but I figured the beef wouldn't be much different. I bought a spice kit from a local place that I've gone to before and had good results. I smoked the sausage about an hour and kept the smoker at about 180 until internal temp was 160, sprayed with hot water and let it cool.

I was pumped to try it today but it turned out pretty rank. Rancid tasting. Pretty disappointed as I made 25 pounds and it's all terrible.

Any ideas? Issue with the mix? Beef too fatty? I also added mustard seeds that were at least 3 years old, could they have gone rancid?

I'm leaning towards it was a bad spice/cure mix but have no idea.

Any feedback would be awesome. Sorry for the long post.

 

[daveomak]

Spices can go bad because of the oil in them... They smell rancid... Improper stored meat, in the freezer, can get an "off" flavor... Beef heating up from the grinding process then stuffed warm, then smoked in a warm smoker, "can" cause an off odor or flavor... if the "time" period is long enough...
Do you have a dedicated grinder and dedicated stuffer ?? Kitchen aid mixer/grinder stuffer can take forever to get a load of sausage done....

 

[hoity toit]

Probably seasoning gone bad. Did the raw meat look ok? I recently experimented with a new brat recipe and it \was horrible. I threw it out too. Sooner or later happens to us all.

 

[Jarod1214]

I have a dedicated grinder and stuffer and I used some of the pork and beef for other cooking over the last couple of weeks so "think" that's not it.

I didn't realize that seasoning could go bad. It was all a premixed bag of seasoning and another bag for the cure. I was thinking it was probably the seasoning but I've never ran into this before. I've made stuff before that I wasn't a huge fan of but tasted fine. This was a whole other story. Not even close to edible.

 

[hoity toit]

I have a dedicated grinder and stuffer and I used some of the pork and beef for other cooking over the last couple of weeks so "think" that's not it.

I didn't realize that seasoning could go bad. It was all a premixed bag of seasoning and another bag for the cure. I was thinking it was probably the seasoning but I've never ran into this before. I've made stuff before that I wasn't a huge fan of but tasted fine. This was a whole other story. Not even close to edible.

Yep, I let others taste my bad batch and they Agreed it was awful. In the trash after 1 bite.

 

[motocrash]

I have nothing to add but THAT SUCKS as I am not a sausage maker.
25# in the trash :(

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Dry ingredients can get nasty after time. As for the cure (pink tinted) it can go bad also. I would say the mustard seeds were ok.
You said you kept your smoker at 180* and sprayed with hot water? Fat can turn rancid when it starts to melt and cooled off fast. The added heat from the hot water could have been part of the problem.

Some of the big sausage makers use steam while smoking.

 

[angry santa]

My guess is that it could have been the spice pack, but that is the reason I mix my own. I am a firm believer in knowing what is being consumed by myself and my family, so I don't mind a little extra work.I smoke around 350-400 lbs. of summer sausage every year for my family and my friends who hunt.This is the recipe I use for 25 lbs. .....


15 lbs ground meat
10 lbs ground pork
2 cups water
5 tsp. cure #1
2/3 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup whole mustard seed
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup sugar
3 Tblsp garlic powder
1 Tablsp marjoram
1 Tblsp Accent

mix daily for 48 hours

120* - 1 hr to dry casings
add smoke - 150* for 4 hrs
170* until I.T. is 160*

ice down to get I.T. to 100*
bloom 1 day before cutting

If you want to try something a little out of the ordinary, mix sharp cheddar cheese in with it and stuff into 32mm casings.....

hope this was helpful.....

 

[Jarod1214]

Thanks guys really appreciate the help!

The recipe I looked at stated to spraybwith hot water once finished. It sounds like it was most likely the spice but I'll probably leave thatbstrpnout to be safe next time.