Tried My Summer Sausage Tonite And.....

[jerseyhunter]

I let it sit in the fridge over night. Like others have said ,"don't rush it" usually takes another 6 plus hours in the smoker.

 

[osage]

My eyes nearly bulged out turning that old daisy press. Got the job done in the end though.

 

[fireguy]

Can any of you who have used the Sausagemakers summer Sausage mix recomend any additives to give it a bit of zing, or does it even need it.
I am going to make a trial batch this week and was hoping to avoid a less than desirable flavor.Also would letting the sausage set for a couple days be any benifit to over night? Thanks for any help.

 

[walking dude]

buttermilk for the liquid used

the lactic acid in it, gives the zing.........

 

[mulepackin]

Fermento. Available from them also.

 

[nogoer]

Seems like us sausage makers all get an idea around the same time!

I had purchased encapsulated citric acid for my summer sausage but read about buttermilk to get the lactic tang. While shopping i found buttermilk powder and figured this would work great. So i substituted the half cup of fermento for a half cup of buttermilk powder. Since the recipe didnt call for liquid i didnt want to substitute normal buttermilk. I'm trying to make a semi-dry sausage so the less liquid the better drying. I made a paste like the recipe called for using minimal water.

When everything was done last night i gave the sausage a try. I couldn't taste any tang at all and the texture was almost identical to the cold smoked kielbasa i make. The final sausage came out nothing like what i would conisder a typical summer sausage.

Now im no stranger to cold smoked sausage so i wasn't flying blind, but it was my first attempt at a fermented style sausage. About the only thing that did come out right was the beautiful mahagony color. 3 hours of sub 50 degree cold smoking and 2 hours of post cooking bloom left me with natural casings as rich as any dyed ones you'll ever find.

Can anyone else chime in on the texture of thier summer sausage? Mine was 3lbs beef to 1.5lbs pork with some extra fat in it. I know part of it was from regrinding it through the small die after curing but i didnt expect a kielbasa-esq texture.

 

[fireguy]

Well, I smoked a small load of sausage on friday, with my trial recipe for summer sausage, and It turned out great.

Using the info you all shared on the lactic acid along with the info on another thread I posted on Jalapenoes and Cheese.

Unlike most guys I used 50 % Deer, and 50 % Ground beef 80 % lean.
It had a good texture and just enough fat to stick well.

For a 5 lb batch I used the appropriate amount of venison summer sausage seasoning from sausage maker along with cure.

I added a Tblsp of musterd seed, a tblsp of red pepper, 1 cup of buttermilk, and 1/2 lb of high temp pep jack cheese, and 1/2 lb of chopped jalapenoes.

I let the sausage sit in the fridge for 2 days and then smoked.

It is great, I am really pleased. It was a bit hot after smoking, but seemed to mellow out after cooling overnight .

thanks for the great input, and sorry I was so excited I didnt get any pics, another Newbi mistake.

 

[nogoer]

Well the texture issue didn't appear to be as big as i had thought. A day or so in the refridgerator and things firmed up and were ok on the first batch. I wound up making a 2nd batch last week which turned out great. I let it cure for the recipes 2 days which i am positive helped and i also used both buttermilk solids and the encapsulated citric acid. I still couldn't taste the buttermilk giving any kind of lactic tang but i know it's doing something!

After 24 hours of cold resting once it had bloomed the taste and texture were spot on. I think i was mentally comparing true fermented SS to the semi-dry cooked versions. I am quite happy with my recipe now and because i use hog casings i can get smoke flavor permeating the whole sausage. Although i want to try the firbous casings to get the traditional size, but the idea of no smoke in the meat is a bit of a turn off.