First attempt at sausage Just some ?

Idaho Mike- just my 2 cents worth.

I'm starting to do a little sausage myself.
2nd grind I've read is with the fine plate. I just learned about mixing the meat in the mixer (Kitchen-Aid) yields a much nicer texture with a good mouth feel.

Haven't used package spice mixes- just find recipes on line and test.

I'm sure many that are more knowledgeable than me will chime in. Good luck- have fun with it.

Que'n RN: I am using the same Kitchen aid grinder stuffer attachment. I do around 50 pounds of smoked cheese for Christmas Presents, and want to be able to add some gift size sausage to the mix.

I did the summer sausage. I used the Hi-Mountain kit to season all of it. I divided this into 3rds. I did 1/3rd with just the Hi-Mountain. I then added black pepper, garlic, and sage to the rest. I divided this in half, and added jalapeno peppers to the rest. I think I might have messed up using the fine plate when I reground the meat. I think I need to find a larger stuffing tube for doing this. I don't know what happened, but the original was just all right. The medium was salty, and the spicy was great. I screwed up somewhere. I followed the directions exactly for smoking, and the sausage shrunk. I did use an ice bath after they came out. I am still looking for suggestions.

The Hi mtn kits work pretty good and you get a decent product. I did the brats once and I thought they were a little salty, and probally would have been better without adding then cure. I grind and grind again if needed, then mix the meat with ice and water ensuring it's very cold and add the seasoning and mix it good. I flush the casings and soak them for a little bit. I encase the sausage then leave it overnight in then fridge to set. I smoke the next day at the lowest temp I can get away with to an internal temp of 160. If you get above 170-180 in sausage, your fat will 'break' and you'll have shrinkage and sometimes graininess. I do Icebath immediately after pulling them off the smoker to bring the temp down and to help the casing not to dry out. Make sure you fry up a little bit of the raw sausage prior to smoking the entire batch and check for seasoning requirements.

I did learn to do smaller batches. I have not done any this year yet, but tis the season. The FEC ran all weekend between then 52 pounds of dry cured ham and the pork butt for tonight's dinner. A little time off for the smoker while I cure 80 pounds of pork belly this week and begin to smoke next week. Great luck with then sausage.

I have done several batches since the first. Ran out of the hi mountain seasoning with the last one. It got good reviews from friends. I doctored the Hi mountain kit, and then started thinking, I am adding most of the spices I see in scratch recipes. I am going to do the next batch from a scratch recipe. Either that or try the Cabela's kit. I did discover that part of the shrinking I was seeing was because I wasn't getting the casings filled tight. This is a lot of fun, and I have started accumulating things to make the process easier.

I have been fighting the Summer Sausage making, but not being one to give up I did a small batch with a different kit. Everything was going well. I got a good stuff on the casing, I put them in the smoker and followed the directions on time a temp. Pulled the sausage when they hit 154 degrees internal. They looked great in the smoker. By the time I got them to the kitchen, they were starting to shrink. I have used ice water baths, cold water shower, and just sticking them in the refrigerator. They all shrink. I stopped by a local meat market and showed the butcher the finished product. He gave me the name and phone number of a local business, and I took the sausage out to them. They took a good look, and said that the fat had rendered out, I went through the whole process I followed, and they said it all sounded good. They did suggest that I hang the sausage instead of laying on the racks, and put a pan of water in the smoker to help spread the heat out. They are not familiar with the cookshack smokers. They did a taste test on the sausage, and said it was salty, which I already knew. They gave me a stick of the summer sausage they make to try. This has got to be the best summer sausage I have tasted. I asked for the recipe, and they handed me a bag of seasoning and a bag of cure. I bought it, and a breakfast sausage kit they recommended along with some casings, and a bag of quick cure. I would like to recommend this family run business. They know their products because they use them. They do cater to Butcher shops, so their stuff is in large quantities. The Summer sausage seasoning and cure will do 100 pounds. I will be reporting back on the results.

Smokin Okie, is it acceptable to post the name of this business here?

Finally I have a good product that did not shrink in the casing. I used Witts Summer sausage seasoning and cure. Added a little more garlic, mustard seed and powdered milk for the binder. I split the batch in half and added High temp. Cheddar cheese to one batch, and High temp. Pepper Jack, and some diced Jalapeno to the second.

I haven't figured out how to add multiple images to my posts.

I've been following your posts closely for awhile. Your sausage looks fantastic! Would you share your final recipe with us?

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Mike:
I haven't figured out how to add multiple images to my posts.

You need to put the photos on a photo hosting site so it can be viewed here.

OR

You can use the photo album post method (but the pictures have to be much smaller).

Check out the post on posting photos:

How to post Photos

What about our Photobucket site?

Nice looking summer sausae Idaho Mike.

Iceblue: I used the Witts Summer Sausage seasoning and followed their directions "sort of". This seasoning is measured out to do 100 pounds of meat. This is all done by weight, so I divided it for 1 pound of meat, and then figured out what it was for 6 pounds. I used 1/2 cup of powdered milk, 1 teaspoon of mustard seed (needs a little more), 1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic, I weighed the cure (6.8 grams), and seasoning (150 grams). The water turned out to be 2 1/4 cups. This makes for a very wet mix, but it got thick with the mixing. I used 1/2 cup of cheese for each 3 pound batch, and diced 2 1/2 jalapenos for the one with pepper jack cheese. I stuffed this into casings, and let sit over night in the refrigerator. I didn't weigh the wood chips I used, but it was close to 2 oz. of Hickory. I let the sausage sit out for 30 minutes and then put them in the smoker without wood at 135 degrees with the door slightly cracked open for an hour. Put the wood box in, stuck a pan of water in on the bottom rack, and raised the temp. to 145 degrees for an hour, then 155 degrees for an hour and finished at 165 degrees. They hit 149 degrees (the recipe recommends 148 degrees and hold for 3 minutes). They were in the smoker for 5 1/2 hours. Put them into an ice water bath to cool.

Thanks! Yours looks great! Now I'll have to gather all the ingredients and give it a shot. I have an FEC100 so I'll have to figure out how to keep it cool enough but there are lots of posts here referring to that.

Iceblue: I am running a SM-045, so wish you good luck. I have no experience with the FEC100.