Author Topic: Looking for summer sausage recipe  (Read 17079 times)

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Offline lebhuntfish

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Looking for summer sausage recipe
« on: November 26, 2017, 04:51:21 pm »
Just like the title says,  I am looking for some different summer sausage recipies. I would like to try a homemade one this time around.  Planning on doing about 50lbs of venison. Thanks

Patrick
Once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout!

Missouri, where all the best wood is! Well maybe not the straightest!

Building a bow has been the most rewarding, peaceful, and frustrating things I have ever made with my own two hands!

Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2017, 12:06:02 pm »
The only recipe that ever made a good version for me has been lost.  I have tried a dozen recipes since then and none to my taste.  I have had several versions from pre-made spice packets, but you end up paying waaaay to much for what is really only a dollars worth of salt and spices.  Some so expensive that it adds up to more than a dollar a pound to make sausage!  Ridiculous! 

Good luck, brother.  I will be following this thread closely.
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline lebhuntfish

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2017, 03:53:15 pm »
Thanks JW, I know what you mean about the premixed stuff.  Ive bought it a few times when it was on clearance.  It wasn't to bad. But it wasn't really what I wanted either.  Hopefully someone will have a good recipe.

Patrick
Once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout!

Missouri, where all the best wood is! Well maybe not the straightest!

Building a bow has been the most rewarding, peaceful, and frustrating things I have ever made with my own two hands!

Offline Pat B

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2017, 07:53:53 pm »
I've never made summer sausage, Patrick but if you come to the Classic and bring some with you I'd be happy to do a taste test for you.  ;D
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2017, 08:46:49 pm »
Patrick,
Found these in a cookbook out of Wiscinsin:
1. 8 lbs elk or deer
    2 lbs flat porktrimmings
    1 tbs cracked. Black pepper
    10 tsp table salt
    3 tbs sugar
    1/2 tsp saltpeter (ammonium nitrate)
    1 tbs + 1 tsp coriander
    1 tsp ground ginger
    1 tbs ground mustard
    1 tsp mustard seed
    1 tbs garlic powder
    2 cups rose wine
Chill meat to 38 F. Grind through 3/16" grinder plate. Place in large crock, pan, etc.
Mix in all ingredients by hand and chill 2-3 days in cooler or fridge.  Stuff tightly into casings about 1 ft long.  Hang so thet do not touch at room temperature for 5 hours.  Move to smoker, smokehouse and smoke at 120F 618 hours or until internal temperature is 120 F.  Hand at room temperature in draft free area.   ( Seems like a lot of salt to me, and I don't like pork in my venison sausage -C- >:D
I would use mead instead of rose wine, since I make mead). From Brenda & Paul Ross, Fremont WI

2.  2 lbs venison
     1 1/2 teaspoons liquid smoke
     1 cup water
     1 tbs mustard seed
     1/2 tsp onion powder
     1/8 tsp garlic powder
     3 tbs Morton's Tender Quick Meat Cure
Mix all ingredients together and add to meat, make rolls or links as you want.  Roll in foil with meat to shiny side.  Refrigerate 24 hours, place on rack over pan, stick fork through foil to allow drippings  to drain.  Bake at 325 F for 1 hour &15 minutes   ( I think this would work by leaving out the liquid smoke and following the soking directions above). From Marilyn Benish, Yuba, WI?

Neither of these have sage, I think I would cut mustard in half and add sage to replace.  Have fun, I have not tried either of these, but I got elk in the freezer to try them out.
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2017, 09:19:54 pm »
Got a couple typos and left out one line!  Smoke 6 - 8 hours at 120 F or until they reach internal temp of 145 F., longer if desired.  After smoking rinse with tap water until internal temp is 120 F.  Recipe Doesn't say why.  Cooling, I guess.  I will try to find a recipe for bratwurst, surprised there wasn't one in the cookbook.
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry

Offline Morgan

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2017, 12:57:10 am »
Got a couple typos and left out one line!  Smoke 6 - 8 hours at 120 F or until they reach internal temp of 145 F., longer if desired.  After smoking rinse with tap water until internal temp is 120 F.  Recipe Doesn't say why.  Cooling, I guess.  I will try to find a recipe for bratwurst, surprised there wasn't one in the cookbook.
Hawkdancer
Should it be smoke at 220°? If not, how would the internal temp reach 145 if you are essentially cold smoking @ 120°?

Offline Stoker

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2017, 08:24:35 am »
The water is for shocking it.. Bringing the temperature down to stop it cooking and to bring it down below 120 so bacteria doesn't grow..
Thanks Leroy 
Bacon is food DUCT tape - Cipriano

Offline lebhuntfish

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2017, 08:48:39 am »
Thanks guys! Pat if I get to the classic I'll for sure bring you some!
You are right stoker,  I have made a few batches and I always use my smoker.  One thing I do know is that if you don't put a small hole in the casings for the fat to drip out its pretty nasty to cut up and eat. 

Hawk,  that second recipe sounds good to me,  looks like its a little cheaper as well. 
Keep posting recipies fellas maybe I can make a couple flavors.  I would like to try one maybe with some cheese and mild jalapenos as well. 

Patrick
Once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout!

Missouri, where all the best wood is! Well maybe not the straightest!

Building a bow has been the most rewarding, peaceful, and frustrating things I have ever made with my own two hands!

Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #9 on: November 28, 2017, 11:05:44 am »
First, smoking for 618 hours did seem just a little long. I know some guys like a LOT of smoke, but dang!   (=)

Secondly, 120 degrees will NOT deal with the bacteria such as salmonella or e. coli.  In fact, holding at 120 degrees creates an environment where it will flourish and multiply.  The minimum temp is 140, and you should hold it at that temp for at least an hour in order to get a good kill on those heartless little s.o.b.s.  You do not want to get much above 140 or you run the risk of rendering all your fat and having it all drain down to one end of the sausage (don't ask me how I know that your salami will be dried out and wrinkly on one end with the other end being fat and greasy on the other.)  And I cannot strongly recommend enough that you use beef fat (and the kidney fat if at all possible) rather than pork fat. Beef fat has a higher melting point and is more flavorless.  It also doesn't give you as greasy a mouth-feel as the pork.  The kidney fat is the whitest in color and the firmest fats because it has the highest temp melting point of all.  It is the superior grade and you will be a lucky so-and-so if you can find a source.  For that matter, rendered out it makes the BEST fat for deep frying EVER!  Best french fries in the world, hands down.

And definitely do the cold water rinse, or even plunge them into a tub of icewater!  You want that cooking to stop instead of letting it "rest" like you would a turkey or a roast. The resting period often sees the temps creep up a few degrees internally and that can further render out the fat in the sausage. You want to be able to see the little bits of fat in between the bits of meat, rather than having it melt and turn the whole stick to a sodden greasy mess.  And like Stoker says, you do not want it sitting at the warm temp for long.  Warm means happy, happy bacteria breeding like crazy and planning on turning your guts into a raging firehose.

Oh, and the recipe says to have the meat at 38 degrees before grinding?  A trick I picked up in the last few years is to get those temps even lower and if the meat is cubed and partially frozen, so much the better!  It actually grinds easier and produces a better texture than if it is too warm.  Nowdays I even put the grinder components in the freezer the night before in order to keep everything at a lower temp.  As meat goes through the grinder, the friction of the works warms it up, so colder start-up prevents warming the meat too much, too. 

Another tip!  Do not wait until the meat is ground to add and mix spices.  I have been adding the salts and spices (and even wine) as soon as it is cubed and going into the fridge to rest and cure.  In the wee morning hours, I transfer it to baking sheets in the freezer to get it partially frozen just prior to grinding.  If it is well distributed through the meat, the grinding mixes it in further saving you from using your bare hands turning it over and over (my hands cannot take the cold anymore and even with a 5 minute hot water and antibacterial soap surgical suite scrub like they do in a hospital, your hands still carry a heck of a lot of bacteria. Heck, surgeons still put on gloves AFTER the requisite 5 minute scalding hot scrub!)  One mix for when it grinds, and it mixes again when you run it through the stuffer. Mixed is mixed, let the machine do the work!

MAN, I LOVE MAKING SAUSAGE!  I have been waiting for pork to go on sale so I can make breakfast sausage for Black Hills Turkey Camp this spring.  I imagine whoever is coming is bringing an appetite, right? 

Good luck stuffing!
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #10 on: November 28, 2017, 12:12:17 pm »
Doubled checked the recipe, it does say smoke at 120 F, but I agree, the temp can't go above the source very easily, so there may be a typo in the original.  I think my smoker registers smoking range at about 150 up.  Like I mentioned, I don't use pork fat or meat, if I am doing it from scratch, but the ground up stuff I have already has fat in it.  It will get special treatment as I thaw, mix, and smoke.  I do remember my former Hunter Ed teaching partner saying the meat should be partially frozen before grinding and mixing.  I will be wearing "surgical" gloves during the handling and stuffing.  The ice water Bath sounds smart, too.  618 hours is only about 25 days, maybe a wee bit much for sausage, but about right for a green ham!   Good points on the temp ranges JW and spot on.  Morgan, Stoker, Thanks for the input!  Real easy to fat finger the keys, and/or not question a recipe!
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry

Offline Stoker

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #11 on: November 28, 2017, 01:31:48 pm »
JW - That was a great explanation of the process.. Sometimes we take what we think as common knowledge others don't know through inexperience.. Thank you Sir
  One more point on that recipe.. Never use table salt has a metallic taste.. Sea salt or course salt is best.. But you have to weigh it rather using a volumetric measurement.. Most recipes call for an amount AKA '' 1cup salt '' That means 1 cup course salt.. Sea salt is much finer and a cup will weight much more..
  So you don't have a smokehouse that will be able to cook your summer sausage.. As told to me by a production butcher A.K.A as known now as the Heretic.....
Turkey fryer Boil water place sausage in boil it till it gets to temp.. Take out and shock till 80F.. Place in smokehouse and finish smoke...
Don't shoot the messenger   :-M 
Thanks Leroy 
Bacon is food DUCT tape - Cipriano

Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #12 on: November 29, 2017, 02:27:22 pm »
My vote will always be Kent Butcher Supply. They sell it all premixed and the flavor is fantastic. Its all dad has used for 40 years.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline Danzn Bar

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #13 on: November 29, 2017, 05:04:41 pm »
Pearl,
If that was the stuff you brought to 2016 KY deer camp, It was great!!!
DBar
Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking

Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Looking for summer sausage recipe
« Reply #14 on: November 30, 2017, 09:33:36 am »
Yes sir. You can add high temp cheese or jalapenos to it, but the flavor is dang hard to beat. And the price is cheaper than a guy can buy all the spices in bulk and mix it.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.