Summer Sausage Kits/Recipes

I have used a couple of the kits from Lem, bought at Gander Moutain, and some of the kits from Cabela's. If you have a buthcer supply place close to you they will usually have some good kits, mail order, look at www.AlliedKenco.com

Go with the fiborous casing, I haven't used my smokette for bologna for a while, as it is just to small for what I do. I had to cut the casings in half and they would still hang to close the fire box.

I have just laid them on the racks with decent success, but hanging didn't work.

good luck and keep us posted.

I've made summer sausage with the Hi Mountain kit and it was excellent. Their Italian, bratwurst, and Polish kits are good as well. They include a cure if you want to make them into smoked sausage. -RP

Here are some really good and easy summer sausage recipes from Luhr-Jensen..
Smokey Hamburger Salami (three versions)
With your smoker and inexpensive hamburger (25% fat) you can make delicious salami for picnics, snacks or sandwiches. Quickly and easily prepared. With experimentation you can vary or change spices to your own taste. You can use beef, venison, elk, bear or other hamburger meats to make this delicious salami - you will enjoy the results. Try these recipes to start:
Version 1
5 lbs. hamburger
5 tsp. Curing Salt*
1½ tsp. garlic powder
1½ tsp. onion powder
2½ Tbsp. whole black pepper
2 Tbsp. whole mustard seed
2 Tbsp. brown sugar (optional)
3 Tbsp. dry red wine
Version 2
or
5 lbs. hamburger
5 tsp. Curing Salt*
4 Tbsp. dry white wine
1½ tsp. garlic powder
2½ Tbsp. chili powder
2¼ tsp. crushed red pepper
1¼ tsp. ground cumin
2 Tbsp. brown sugar (optional)
Version 3
or
5 lbs. hamburger
5 tsp. Curing Salt*
3 Tbsp. dry red wine
1¼ tsp. garlic powder
2¼ Tbsp. whole mustard seed
1½ Tbsp. sweet basil
1½ Tbsp. oregano
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. brown sugar (optional)
Mix all ingredients thoroughly then cover and chill 24 hours or more.
Divide into 4 portions.
Roll portions into 21/3" diameter rolls and wrap with inexpensive large hole nylon net. Tie ends securely with string (net may be omitted - but, rolls flatten out while smoking).
Place in smoker 8-12 hours and smoke with 6-8 panfuls of Chips n' Chunks
.(I SMOKE AT 180 TO 160* INTERNAL WITH 3-4 OZ OF APPLE WOOD)
Remove from smoker. Remove netting and dry thoroughly with paper towel.
Wrap in foil and refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 6 months.
It is so easy to make you don't have to make large quantities and store.
*Curing Salt - Use only tender quick or prepared curing salt. Regular salt does not have the flavors, taste or nitrates added for the quick cure and binding of meat required to make these recipes successful. You may purchase prepared curing salts sold by Morton's, Lowery's and other companies. Check your local supermarkets, butcher shops, wine stores or feed stores. You may order from: Morton Salt Company, Dept. SM, Box 355, Argo, IL 60511).
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I got a Hi-Mountain Summer Sausage Kit and a Hi-Mountain Bologna Kit for Christmas (how did Santa know?). Made 15 lbs of the Summer Sausage the other day, and smoked using 2 oz. hickory and 2 oz. cherry. Turned out very tasty. The 20" casings were a tad long for my sm55, but they didn't quite touch the shield.
I would highly recommend the Hi-Mountain Summer Sausage Kit to anybody interested in making Summer Sausage. It's another good way to use your deer burger (I used 12 lbs deer burger and 3 lbs of ground boston butt for my batch).

BamaBrewer
How did you end up hanging them? Were they the pound sausages? Do you have any pictures? I've got a ton of deer in the freezer that I need to do something with.

I smoked 15 lbs at one time (5 chubs of 3lbs each). Sorry, I didn't make any pics, I'll have to do that sometime. I enjoy looking at the pics others post, so I really need to post some pics.

I put a grill in the top rack, and used cotton twine to tie each sausage to the grill (I ran a short piece of twine through the loop in the factory pretied string at one end of the casing). My wife acted as an extra pair of hands, which helped since we tied them to the grill prior to placing the grill in the top rack.

The Hi-Mountain Summer Sausage kit really turned out well, it's a good way to use up deer burger. People who normally don't care for deer very much (like my wife) even like it.

I just bought one of the Hi Mountain kits. Did you follow their recommendation on how to smoke them or did you use your own method? I'm pretty excited about this.

I pretty much used their recommendations on everything. I used ground up boston butt (really cheap and fatty) for the ground pork in the recipe.

I used a remote reading digital thermometer to tell when I had reached the internal meat temperature recommended in the Hi-Mountain instructions. I used 2 oz hickory chunk and 2 oz cherry chunk, the smoke was just about perfect for me.

Let me know how it turns out for you, I think you'll be pleased.

I have my second batch of summer sausage in the cooker as we speak. I ground, stuffed and hung the sausages in the fridge last night. I will post some pictures when everything is completed. With some of the leftover meat, I made some patties which really came out great.

I wrote my own recipe (round two). When I am satisfied, I will post if anyone is interested. My sausages are 80% venison 20% pork butt.

I left the door open about an inch during the 120 degree first step in the cooking, since the purpose for the step was to dry the casings (didn't add wood chunks until after the 120 degree period was up).

I make tons of summer sausage and all the seasoning comes from Hi Mountain, in fact, I found out that they sell in bulk and is a little bit cheaper, especialy when you make tons at a time. I also add extra ingredients like pepper flakes to make a spicy sausage and LEM has high temp cheese that I add, it all depends on what the people want, but with the Hi Mountain seasong and my 08 and soon a 50, I cant go wrong and neither will you.

Bud