Venison summer sausage -starts in the smoker and ends in sous vide

[jfsjazz]

Doing my annual VSS and started doing it a bit different last year with good results. Start with 7 pounds of venison and 3 pounds of pork butt
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Used the following items for my VSS.
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Made a slurry with the mix and cure.
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Added all the goodies together and here is mixture before stuffing.
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I stuffed into 2.5 inch fibrous casings and into the smoker for 3 plus hours with hickory chips. One hour of drying at 110 with no smoke and then a bump up to 130ish with smoke.
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I then vac sealed the sticks and put them in a sous vide bath for 4.5 hours at 140 degrees. No more wondering and waiting for the sticks to finish in the smoker . I used a meat lug for my SV container.
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Out of their wrappers and into the fridge for the night.
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Sliced and vac sealed again this am and back to the fridge.
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Taste and texture were spot on. Thanks for looking ! CM
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Will you freeze them now or simply keep them vac sealed and in the frig?

 

[crazymoon]

YOU ARE MY ABOSLUTE HERO!

I'm getting ready to cut up a deer I shot last weekend and will be making some summer sausage! I may have to look into one of these SV.

Has that ratio worked out well for you? 7 lbs Venison & 3 pork butt?

IH, Very good ratio, sometimes I have gone 5.5 venison/4.5 pork butt and had a good product also. Never done less than 3 pounds pork butt.

 

[crazymoon]

Will you freeze them now or simply keep them vac sealed and in the frig?

JFS, I leave them in the fridge and have consumed them 6 months later with no problem with taste.texture.

 

[isuhunter]

Crazy Moon - before you used the SV how did you process your logs?

 

[73saint]

Those look great! Ready to make a batch of VSS!

 

[crazymoon]

Crazy Moon - before you used the SV how did you process your logs?

IH, ,The venison and pork butt are ground TWICE through a 1/4 plate(3/16 works too) and my casing were 61mm by 24 inch fibrous.The casings are soaked in lukewarm water for about an hour. The meat is mixed well with the seasoning and then I added 10 oz of diced jalapenos and 1 pound of pepper jack cheese(totally optional). Stuffed and sealed with 1/2 inch hog rings and then placed in the smoker for a hour or more with vents wide open at 110* with no smoke. Smoked with hickory chips at around 130*for 2 and half hours. Had my SV bath ready and brought the sticks in and vac sealed and dropped in the SV bath. I hope this answers your question? I reread your post and believe maybe you were after my process in the era of no SV. In the smoker for one hour + with vents wide open and no smoke . I then would bump the temp up 10 degrees every hour all the way to 165* with smoke flowing for 3-4 hours . The sticks stayed in the smoker until reaching an IT of 153-155,sometimes in would be 10 hours + to reach that IT. Outside weather conditions ,temp of the sticks when entering the smoker etc. add to the variable time. Never exceed 170* MAX or your sticks will start to render the fat out of the product. The slow increase in temp helps to prevent the outside of the stick from cooking too quick and making a case hardening skin on the product.

 

[boykjo]

Very nice SS CM.... I see you used the mount olive diced jalapeno's. I've been using them for years and they give the sausage a great flavor. I often suggest them but rarely do I see anyone using them.

The Summer sausage looks great...........

Boykjo

 

[Sowsage]

Man those sure look good! Its been too long since ive made any venison SS! Ive been using my SV for smoked ring sausage and its awesome. I can do so much more in the same amount of time. When a batch comes out of the smoker and into the SV another batch goes into the smoker!

 

[jkc64]

Sounds like a good way to finish them. How do you know when the IT of the sticks reaches the correct temp?

 

[crazymoon]

Sounds like a good way to finish them. How do you know when the IT of the sticks reaches the correct temp?

JKC, There is a chart by Baldwin which lists meats, diameters and times to thoroughly pasteurize your product to kill all botulism spores. With SV you achieve the safe results at lower temps and internal temps then are needed with your smoker. If you follow Baldwins chart then you will be good to go.

 

[uncle eddie]

Wow great looking venison sausage! Nice idea with the Sous Vide. Like!

 

[hangmanli]

Will you freeze them now or simply keep them vac sealed and in the frig?

What type/brand of meat lug did you use? I just got a Sous Vide for Christmas and now I’m trying to learn a bit here. I live in an area where we have a chronic dear problem and I take at least 10 deer during a four month long bow hunting season. So I’m looking for different recipes to sous vide venison.

I have some LEM meat lugs and I’m not sure if they can handle the hot water for extended lengths

 

[ghostguy6]

JKC, There is a chart by Baldwin which lists meats, diameters and times to thoroughly pasteurize your product to kill all botulism spores. With SV you achieve the safe results at lower temps and internal temps then are needed with your smoker. If you follow Baldwins chart then you will be good to go.

Do you have a link to that chart?
The search function says there is no member by the name Baldwin

 

[crazymoon]

What type/brand of meat lug did you use? I just got a Sous Vide for Christmas and now I’m trying to learn a bit here. I live in an area where we have a chronic dear problem and I take at least 10 deer during a four month long bow hunting season. So I’m looking for different recipes to sous vide venison.

I have some LEM meat lugs and I’m not sure if they can handle the hot water for extended lengths

HML, I bought mine from The Sausage Maker, they are heavy duty!I have two with covers for my double grinds when making venison burger. A lot of folks use a hole saw and make a circle cut in shallow coolers for SV containers also.

 

[crazymoon]

Do you have a link to that chart?
The search function says there is no member by the name Baldwin

GG6,Sorry for the confusion, Douglas Baldwin is the man who researched times and temps for sous vide.

A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking

 

[rippper]

Question about the bags. Do you use the vac sealer "rolls"? also can you put 2 chubs in each bag or just one. For snack sticks, bag them then sv? Thx, great thread.

 

[tropics]

CM Sorry I'm late because I didn't hit enter the other day. Looks great I have never made summer sausage, may have to change that.
Richie

 

[crazymoon]

Question about the bags. Do you use the vac sealer "rolls"? also can you put 2 chubs in each bag or just one. For snack sticks, bag them then sv? Thx, great thread.

R, I use the rolls and only put one chub per bag so the warm water is touching all sides of the sausage. I have never SV with snack sticks as they are skinny enough and only take 7-8 hours in my smoker unlike the VSS. I would think that after you gave the snack sticks the smoke you could cut to length and SV. I would remove them from the vac seal bag after SV and air dry in a paper bag for at least a day to dry a bit . Then reseal for storage.

 

[rippper]

R, I use the rolls and only put one chub per bag so the warm water is touching all sides of the sausage. I have never SV with snack sticks as they are skinny enough and only take 7-8 hours in my smoker unlike the VSS. I would think that after you gave the snack sticks the smoke you could cut to length and SV. I would remove them from the vac seal bag after SV and air dry in a paper bag for at least a day to dry a bit . Then reseal for storage.

Thx, just ordered some 6 in wide bags......

 

[Bearcarver]

That Looks Fantastic, CM !!!
Nice Job!!
Like.

Bear