Summer Sausage - who makes them at home without kits?

[b0bbyg]

OK so I decided I have venison and pork in the freezer and it was time something gets done with it. Trying to use up the oldest stuff in there so I can start eating more elk which is newer!  Don't want to start a new thread when there are already good recipes to be found with the search function.
 
Hunt Wa I was disappointed. I found pepperoni, breakfast sausage and lots of talk of smoking. I found no recipes other than buy this mix and proceed from there.  So I resorted to looking at Google and mashing up my own recipe from things found there.

I'll get it started with what I did and how it turned out, then lets hear from the pro's about what they do and where I can improve for next time.

Started small with around 5-6 pounds of total meat as again this was a first time doing this for me.
I started out with roughly a 60/40 split of deer/pork shoulder. All the meat was thawed just enough to cut as I read keeping meat cold is important. Also put some grinder parts and trays that catch meat in freezer for 20 minutes before starting to help with this.  Cubed up all the meat and mixed into a bowl then into the grinder using the largest grinding plate. Once is was all through decided to hand mix quickly and then through the grinder same plate a 2nd time to make sure the mix was good.

Spread it all out fairly thin over a few sheets and layered on all the spices that I decided to use.

Posting up my ingredients.  They will likely change a little next time as I want a little more kick but it is a good tasting mix as is.
I started with close to 6 pounds of meat 60/40 deer/pork
1/2 cup of water
4 Tbsp of Morten Tender Quick
2 Tbsp Salt
3 tsp Whole Mustard Seed
3 tsp Black pepper
3 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp marjoram ( originally was going to use Thyme could not find any called and audible  )
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes 

[JJB11B]

Resounding TAG!!!

[b0bbyg]

Once all the meat was coated I hand mixed into a single glass container. This was the point I remembered I wanted to add 1/2 cup of water which was hand-mixed in then plastic wrap tight over the product and into the fridge.
Day 2 took out the mix, hand mixed again back into the fridge, well except for one small amount that I pan fried just to make sure it was edible    Seemed a bit salty but I did fry in salted butter which I likely did not need.

Day 3 ( 2 days total in the fridge )  started soaking the LEM fibrous casings I bought and decided the plunger from the Vitamix would work to try and pack the tubes. It worked reasonably well for a first time trying this.  Once casings were soft started packing as tight as I could and got 5 1pound chubs ready for the smoker.

Everything I read talked about starting slow on a lower heat so I set my Traeger as low as I could and smoked for about an hour with the lid propped open  This kept it below the temp gauge which started out around 140, as it got colder outside I closed up the smoker for another 60 - 90minutes and temp held around 150.  the internal temp of the sausage was at about 135 when I moved to the oven to finish.

Oven lowest temp is 170 so that is where it started indoors, was shocked how slow the temps increased in the oven, after quite a while and much impatience as it was getting late I started slowly bumping up the temp, I stopped at 185 and finally got the internal temp of the fattest chub to 153 for a minute or so.   
 

[b0bbyg]

After pulling from the Oven I had an ice bath waiting and kept them in the bath until the internal temps dropped to about 115
pulled them all out and dried off and put them in the garage overnight. temps in the garage were probably around 50.

When I say overnight it was not that long, they probably when out there at around 2am and put them into the fridge around 8am.
Once they were dried and going into the fridge I could see that the packing was not the best but I was happy enough with the result for the first time around. I can see how having a better method or tool would make them more professional looking to remove the airgaps and shrinkage.

[b0bbyg]

Finally today at lunch wandered downstairs to collect cheese, mustard, crackers and my first batch of summer sausage for a mid day snack.  This is how I like to eat it, simple and usually in mass quantity. Through the entire process there was no doubt there would be some garlic taste, you could smell it every step of the process.

I was happy with the finished taste, think next time I will increase the red pepper flakes or add some other item to provide a little kick.  so far had 4 tasters in the house and everyone likes it, I ate my fair share for lunch.

Tonight I took the little leftover that did not get smoked and mixed it with some ground Elk and made a giant burger patty. A little white rice and the last of the thanksgiving left over gravy and we had a weird spin on a Loco Moco

That's all I got, looking forward to other ideas and comments, I think making sausage will continue in the future but thinking I may want to purchase a lower temp smoker than the Traeger for this. Also something with a better control on the smoker temps as well.

And of course a thread like this would be useless without at least one picture of the final product.

[Stein]

Looks good.  I always use a kit because by the time I figure out a recipe and put together a list of all the stuff I need it's easier to just buy the kit.  I am trying to get rid of the last batch, it's really good, but I made way too much last time. 

[callturner]

Looks pretty good. Sent you a PM while you were typing. 

[b0bbyg]

I was close to getting a kit, but after looking online and digging though the pantry figured out I was really only missing Mustard seed and the curing salt (I used the Mortens quick tender)

[b0bbyg]

The other thing I noticed as all the stuff I read online talks about Freezing or refrigerating the finished product.  Yet the stuff you buy in stores when vacuum sealed is usually not kept cold?  Is this just sites protecting themselves because someone might get sick, or is the stuff you buy loaded with a lot more curing agents?

[cbond3318]

Looks good! It’s definitely rewarding making your own sausage. We did around 50lbs this year and although we used a kit the steps are the same. I think your smoker  is fine and not sure why you refrigerated for 2 days unless you were enjoying the process? I usually start in the morning with trimming and cubing the deer and pork shoulder, grind each once , mix and grind together then Hand mix the seasoning in a tub then start stuffing with the grinder stuffer tube. Soon as they’re stuffed out to the smoker and forget until I get my temps, drop in ice water for 15 mins to set the fat and let cool in the fridge. Usually cut in half and Saran Wrap with butcher paper for the freezer.

We usually do a batch with 3/8” cubed pepper jack and diced Jalepenos. This year we did some goulda cubes with jalepeno. So good!

Edit: your late night reminded me, the first time my wife and I decided to make summer sausage we did them in the oven and like idiots got them in the oven at 4pm. At about 2 am my wife was dozing off and she said “don’t worry, we’re in this together” as she fell into a hard snore on the couch. I think I pulled them at 4:30am 

 never start smoke after 10am 

[callturner]

By mixing and refrigerating with the 3 day method it gives your meat a chance to soak up the spices , so to speak and the meat breaks down and blends with the spices . I've been doing it that way for about 40 years. To each there own. 

[cbond3318]

By mixing and refrigerating with the 3 day method it gives your meat a chance to soak up the spices , so to speak and the meat breaks down and blends with the spices . I've been doing it that way for about 40 years. To each there own. 

Makes sense, guess I’ll give that a try and see if there is a noticeable difference.

[callturner]

If you leave it more than 3 days it will break down too much and not be as good.

[Scruffy]

Nice looking summer sausage!!
I started making summer sausage about 6-8 yrs ago.  Just got too expensive to get a deer processed by the butcher.  The first time I bought a kit from Cabelas, used venison and pork and came out perfect.  I have made it several times since using beef and seems it doesn't come out perfect like it did the first time (for me) everyone else likes it.  I made some this year before deer season and used this recipe from the Bearded Butchers on YouTube

RECIPE:

25lbs.

7 oz. Salt
1 oz. Pepper
4 oz. Minced Garlic (https://amzn.to/2GBUliP)
3 oz. Mustard Powder or Mustard Seed
3 oz. Hickory Smoke Powder
1 oz. #813 Pink Salt
1.5 oz. Encapsulated Citric Acid

w/ Jalapeños

3 oz dried jalapeños
2.5 lbs. High Temp Cheese

I used slide jalapenos from a jar, chopped them up but was unsure how many to use, I didn't want it too hot.  Well it didn't come out hot at all so I would recommend using the dried jalapenos like they call for.

I am not claiming to be an expert at this but looking at you sausages I would say you need to pack your casing tighter to get rid of the air pockets.

The sausage I made this year I think I used too small of a grind plate, I will recommend sticking with the course plate like you done.  What I got out of the video is to put your ingredients in the meat before you grind.  This way the grinder mixes it for you.  You need to wait to add the curing salt and the Encapsulated Citric Acid until just before you stuff the casings and mix by hand.

I also use a Green Mountain Grill and works perfectly from start to finish.  I used to use a Bradley smoker but the temps varied so much in the smoker so I had to rotate very often and took forever.

I got a whitetail this year so will be making more sausage soon.

[callturner]

I saw the air pockets too. Those are usually caused by bringing up the temp too fast and "greasing out". Cooking to long can do it also. Temp control is very important. I can't count how many times I've been up till wee hours in the night (or morning). trying to get the last few degrees in temp up.