I finished smoking this yesterday evening. It is pretty close to the real thing to me. I will do it again. It took 9 hours to cook at 180 degrees. Try it, you might like it also. It is not hot spicy, just sausage like spicy.

Spicy Summer Sausage

3 lbs ground beef
1 cup cold water
2 tablespoons Morton Tender Quick salt
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 tablespoon garlic juice
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cajun-louisiana seasoning blend (your favorite)
1 teaspoon black pepper

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients & mix well. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 72 hours, mixing each day a time or two. Wrap in rolls similar to a sausage log on day 3. Return to refrigerator and allow to firm up.
Unwrap rolls, place on smoking rack. Smoker temperature at 180 degrees. Also go to internal temperature of 156 degrees. Cool & wrap in tin foil, refrigerate or freeze.

Note: Keep meat and water cold. You do not want fat to smear (it did but with no adverse effects, at least it seemed greasy to me). Can use garlic powder or minced garlic. I also used Tony C. for cajun seasoning. I also used mustard powder instead of seeds. I used ground chuck, 80/20 blend.

Damar -- Thanks for the post. Sounds great and making summer sausage without casings sounds even better. Any pics of the finished product? Any idea of the lean to fat ratio in the ground beef? Most of the stuff I get is fairly lean 85/15.

Thanks!

The summer sausage was very good. The meat ratio I used was 80/20. Sorry no pics. I am not a picture taking type person. Try it, ya might like it. It held together very well. Slices good too.

What was the approximate diameter of your sausage logs? Thanks!

Like a one pound sausage roll that you buy in the store. I made three out of three pounds of meat. I have a bro-in-law that eats store bought all the time. I gave him a roll and he said it is as good or better than the store bought summer sausage. I will definitely do it again.