Every year for several now, I have been the go to guy in my family for making all of our families goodies with the trimmings from our yearly venison harvest. Well this year wasn’t too good for me personally, but as a group, we did come away with some meat. The first batch of sausage has been ground, seasoned and ready for stuffing.
We have a Cabela’s brand stuffer, 11# model, that has been a good machine. That is until this year. We used the largest tube first to stuff a 15# batch of summer sausage. No problems there. Then, the next morning, after the mixed meat sat in the fridge overnight, we started in on the snack sticks. Same procedure as normal for us, other than the meat having rested overnight. We have the small stainless steel casing tube, I believe they call it a 10 mm, and it usually works fantastic for making snackers.
Well, this year we get about one good six foot casing stuffed, and the plunger seal suddenly decides it’s not gonna hold. As we crank, as much meat starts slipping past the seal as is being pushed into the casing. Take it apart, clean it, make sure it is properly seated in the plunger groove, and retry. Same result... Now what?
Plan B. Get the jerky gun out and try laying a bead of meat out to make some casingless sticks. This is gonna work, but small diameter and time consuming.
Plan C. The stuffer had worked just fine with the larger tube. Let’s try the smallest tube that is listed as 20 mm. Works great, but slightly larger than I’d like. But!!! We have success. I had never made the sticks casingless before, but it was worth the try. Guess I need to find a new plunger seal for my stuffer.
Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be too worried about fighting with casings again for quite some time. Looking into a 16 mm. stuffer tube to decrease diameter size a little, but regardless, they turned out fantastic.
The ones we got made with casings.
The start of the casingless ones from the stuffer. Taking a little practice to get them to the right length, and a tad bigger in diameter than I was hoping.
Resting overnight in the fridge.
They spent a couple hours in the smoker, then to the oven to be finished while another batch of summer sausage was smoking.
Ones made with the jerky gun. Kinda ended up like a slim Jim. Haven’t ruled a batch of yhese out completely though. Sorry it’s blurry. Didn’t notice that till I couldn’t get a better one.
And lastly, a quick shot of the summer sausage. This stuff gets better every year. Practice, I guess.
Apparently I didn’t get a finished shot of the larger sticks, but they turned out fantastic.
We have a Cabela’s brand stuffer, 11# model, that has been a good machine. That is until this year. We used the largest tube first to stuff a 15# batch of summer sausage. No problems there. Then, the next morning, after the mixed meat sat in the fridge overnight, we started in on the snack sticks. Same procedure as normal for us, other than the meat having rested overnight. We have the small stainless steel casing tube, I believe they call it a 10 mm, and it usually works fantastic for making snackers.
Well, this year we get about one good six foot casing stuffed, and the plunger seal suddenly decides it’s not gonna hold. As we crank, as much meat starts slipping past the seal as is being pushed into the casing. Take it apart, clean it, make sure it is properly seated in the plunger groove, and retry. Same result... Now what?
Plan B. Get the jerky gun out and try laying a bead of meat out to make some casingless sticks. This is gonna work, but small diameter and time consuming.
Plan C. The stuffer had worked just fine with the larger tube. Let’s try the smallest tube that is listed as 20 mm. Works great, but slightly larger than I’d like. But!!! We have success. I had never made the sticks casingless before, but it was worth the try. Guess I need to find a new plunger seal for my stuffer.
Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be too worried about fighting with casings again for quite some time. Looking into a 16 mm. stuffer tube to decrease diameter size a little, but regardless, they turned out fantastic.
The ones we got made with casings.
The start of the casingless ones from the stuffer. Taking a little practice to get them to the right length, and a tad bigger in diameter than I was hoping.
Resting overnight in the fridge.
They spent a couple hours in the smoker, then to the oven to be finished while another batch of summer sausage was smoking.
Ones made with the jerky gun. Kinda ended up like a slim Jim. Haven’t ruled a batch of yhese out completely though. Sorry it’s blurry. Didn’t notice that till I couldn’t get a better one.
And lastly, a quick shot of the summer sausage. This stuff gets better every year. Practice, I guess.
Apparently I didn’t get a finished shot of the larger sticks, but they turned out fantastic.
