Venison Summer Sausage

[cal516]

Hello....I am new to the forum...

I am giving venison summer sausage my first attempt and have a couple of questions. Where I am so far:

Mixture: 60/40 venison to pork with seasoning and cure

I ground the venison and pork and then mixed together with seasoning and cure. I refrigerated that for about 7 hours and then stuffed into 1 pound fibrous casings (I forgot to soak in water for the recommended 30 minutes - will this be an issue?)

Then I stored them in the fridge overnight....

I have read so many blogs/websites about what to do next (curing time, cooking etc....) which leads me to the next questions:

How long do I let them cure?

What's the recommended cook procedure in a conventional oven?

Thanks in advance.....

 

[tx0303]

24 hours is enough cure time I think. Your oven needs to go down to at least 170 deg on the temperature. If you can start lower that would be good but you don't want to go above 170 or your fat will render out.

Line oven bottom with foil and place chubs on rack. May take 12 ~ 14 hours or more to hit 152 IT.

 

[sopchoppy]

After mixing, I let "rest" in fridge overnight. Then I mix again by hand and return to fridge for another night. Next day, stuff and return to fridge for one more night. Let get close to room temp. before cooking. More work, but worth it to let all the seasonings get happy. 

 

[JckDanls 07]

Actually... Some of the sausage kings say that ground meat is ready to go right after mixing seasoning and cure in it... Myself.. I do let it rest over night... Mix again before stuffing checking to see if more water is needed...

As for cooking... as stated above... you don't wanna cook at temps over 170`... 180` max... The ideal way is to start out low (120`) and then raise temps 10` every hour until you reach a max cooking temp of 170`... they will take around 12 hours with this procedure... you'll be looking for an internal temp (IT) of 152`-155`