Texture off on summer sausage again.

[boykjo]

I used a little less than 2/3 c TQ for the 20#. The bologna was made separate. Hand mixed to a sticky mix. Then in frig over night w/o eca. Like stated before treated the same as my deer bologna that never comes out crumbly. Same pork/ venison ratio just different seasonings & eca. Is it possible that I need more water so it flows better through stuffer? Will that affect end product? I’m thinking that the eca burst in stuffer because of the pressure needed to stuff 2.5” casings but want to hear what the experts thought. I’m ready to give up on the eca. Been making bologna for years without making an inferior product like this ss.

You can process your sausage in 2 day increments. Day 1 grind the meat, add season and cure and water to the mix. Add as little water as possible to get the seasonings blended, refrigerate covered overnight so you don't lose any moisture. Do not not add any binders or ECA. Day 2 The meat will have hardened up some. Mix in the recommended water and NFDM if you use it. Adjust the mix to the right consistency. Have your stuffer and casings ready to go. Add the ECA, mix, stuff and right into the smoker. When doing larger batches like 20 lbs its better to have larger equipment to cut your process times down. Adding more water will help the meat flow easier but be careful, too much water is no good and will affect your final product. The ECA didn't burst from stuffing.

Boykjo

 

[buzzy]

When I hang my sausage in my smoker, the smoker is turned on.... Smoke is smoking... Temperature is set to 120 ish to start... then turned up to 130 about10 hours in... then 140-145 ish to finish with no smoke and exhaust damper closed to make the smoker act like an oven and finish the cooking of the sausage....

That’s something I never would have a thought of doing when smoking cured sausage. Will make note of an try. I do shut vents around 145. Do you use any type of water pan?
Thanks

 

[buzzy]

You can process your sausage in 2 day increments. Day 1 grind the meat, add season and cure and water to the mix. Add as little water as possible to get the seasonings blended, refrigerate covered overnight so you don't lose any moisture. Do not not add any binders or ECA. Day 2 The meat will have hardened up some. Mix in the recommended water and NFDM if you use it. Adjust the mix to the right consistency. Have your stuffer and casings ready to go. Add the ECA, mix, stuff and right into the smoker. When doing larger batches like 20 lbs its better to have larger equipment to cut your process times down. Adding more water will help the meat flow easier but be careful, too much water is no good and will affect your final product. The ECA didn't burst from stuffing.

Boykjo

That is pretty much what I did exactly. The only thing that comes to mind is not a good consistency on 2nd mix. I don’t make 100 ‘s of lbs of smoked cured sausage in a year but they all turn out pretty good. Have bite through problems sometimes when using natural skin but that’s about it. Since I tried using eca to get that tangy taste in ss it is a fail. Hopefully I can retain this info from you & dave to get this done right.
Thanks

 

[daveomak]

You can use a water pan to keep the humidity up so the casings don't dry out and become leathery...
Personally, I don't worry about leathery casings.. that lets me know they are home made... I'm not trying for perfection... I'm trying to "copy" old school stuff from the early 1900's.... Same with my bacon...

 

[boykjo]

What ECA did you use..... . Next time I would make a small test batch and use another brand of ECA

My 2 cents

Boykjo

 

[buzzy]

What ECA did you use..... . Next time I would make a small test batch and use another brand of ECA

My 2 cents

Boykjo

Sorry for the late response but been working. It was lems eca. Thought couldn’t go wrong there.

 

[mickey jay]

Lots of great responses here already but I'll add that your fat content is pretty low. Estimating 25% on the pork shoulder, and maybe 5% on the venison (quite possibly even less if you butcher your deer like I do), that gives you like 3lbs of fat in a 20lb batch... that's <15% total fat content. You can see the difference when you compare these side by side, against a recent batch I made that ended up around 25% fat content. I'd say you could double your overall fat content and it'll help things. Also agree it looks like more mixing is needed.