PROCESSING MEAT INTO SAUSAGE QUESTIONS

[reinhard1]

there have been some posters that are just starting out in processing their own meat. for those that have questions regarding processing their wild game or domestic meats into burger or sausage, please ask on this thread. we have venison sausage recepies threads already and i will refer some to those. and there is a great thread put on by Shack on the first page of the cooking and recepie forum right on top with a library of smoking and reciepie ideas.

this thread is dedicated to those who may have questions on grinding, stuffing, casing use, what type of casings to use, how to prepare and store casings, how to store sausage and meat and so on. also for possible trouble shooting so to speak. for example you may wonder why your casings dont have a good flow from the stuffing tube or why they break on you, or why your meat comes out mushy or related questions.

so i will answer as best as i know, and i'm sure there will be other's out there to answer questions as well. especialy for smoking your sausage from beginning to end product. this is not a recepie thread but an information on equipment use and tecnique thread as well as handling the meat properly to give you the best results possible. so go ahead and ask and let's have some fun and maby we can all learn something. good luck.

[bak2MN]

I have a question I bought a Bradley elec smoker that uses the bisquettes. How long do you run smoke when you smoke meats all the tim or just 3-4 hours?

[KEN W]

Depends on what you are smoking.For 2 1/2 to 3 inch Summer sausage I smoke for 3 hours.For polish,brats,etc I smoke a short time.....1/2 to 3/4 of an hour.Leave in the smoker until internal temp is 150 deg.DO NOT SET THE TEMP OF THE SMOKER HIGHER THAN 175 DEG.Any higher and your sausage will render out the fat and the result will be dry and crumbly.

[bloc004]

To me it is personal preference and will take a couple smokes for you to find out what you like. The first pork butt i did, I put smoke to it the entire time and it was just too much. I now only put smoke to it for about 3 hours. If I am doing sticks or jerky, i like a real smoky flavor, so I will put smoke to that longer. Experiment and take notes!

[OnAFly]

It depends on what I'm doing, and is very subjective.

Pork butts take me ~12 hours and I'll run smoke for ~6/7.

Turkeys take me ~3 and I'll run smoke for ~2 hours.

Pastrami is variable, but I'll run smoke for most of the time.

Basically, you have to just start using your smoker and figure out what works for you. One thing I've leaned is that you should let your meat rest at room temp for a while before smoking. It reduces time and condensation. I leave my damper open for the first few hours of every smoke to let some of the steam out. Then, I close it up for the rest of the time to keep some moisture in.

[reinhard1]

i realy appreciate the input from you guy's that have a lot of experience in the smoking of meats. your posts are exactly what we need here on this thread. hopefully you keep an eye on this thread once in awhile for i'm sure there will be more questions. good luck.

[Jigging Joe]

How do you store left over hog casings?

Thanks!!

[KEN W]

Put them in a plastic container and cover with salt.I have casings in the fridge that I bought 2-3 years ago.I buy them by the hank from butcher supply houses.Just flush them out when ready to use.

[buddha]

Our group personally does not keep left over casings. Our past experience is fresh casings are the best and if we buy too much for our batch of sausage it's just the cost of doing business. We have kept in the past and had some good results and some bad. Not saying you shouldn't freeze them cause many guys have great luck. If you are buying from a reliable source they should help you buy enough casing that you should only have a little left over. I've been involved with this for 30 years(personal enjoyment only) and this is just my two cents.

[reinhard1]

i usualy buy the casings by the hank but use them up within a few months and have kept them up to a year packed pretty much like Ken in salt. one thing that Ken mentioned is important with casings regarding the flushing of casings.

first rinse the salt off of the casings you are going to use. then put them in cold water for awhile until they "soften" up so to speak. then make sure you flush them internaly one time before stuffing. make sure your stuffing tube is wet before putting your casing on the tube. i spray the tube with Pam. good luck.

[bak2MN]

Great info Thanks Again!

[Jigging Joe]

Thanks for the Info!!

[reinhard1]

there was a question about the use of cheese in fresh sausage in another thread. here is my take on this.

as i stated in the thread i use 1 cup of shredded cheese [your favorite kind] per 3 pounds of meat. this can be used for breakfast, italian, fresh polish, and brats for example. for smoked sausages [summer sausage, kielbasa, or smoked brats for example] a "high temp" cheese is often recommended. this is because this cheese will stay in it's cubed form for up to 400 deg. personaly i have never bought any or used it in any "cooked" sausage.

one thing because its spendy at up to $9 bucks a pound on line and second is i like my cheese melted and dont care if a little comes out at the ends of the casings while grilling fresh brats. to me there is something just not right about a cheese that doesn't melt until it reaches 400 deg. . but to each their own, and i wonder what others may think about this as well [those of you that have smoked for some time and used cheese]. good luck.

[thirdeye]

i usualy buy the casings by the hank but use them up within a few months and have kept them up to a year packed pretty much like Ken in salt. one thing that Ken mentioned is important with casings regarding the flushing of casings.

first rinse the salt off of the casings you are going to use. then put them in cold water for awhile until they "soften" up so to speak. then make sure you flush them internaly one time before stuffing. make sure your stuffing tube is wet before putting your casing on the tube. i spray the tube with Pam. good luck.

Good idea for a thread, it's the little things that can make a big difference in time and the end result. Here are a couple of the little things I do:

Rinsing is really important and not that hard if you have any experience with making water balloons. A plate keeps you from losing the casing down the drain. 20 to 30 seconds of internal rinsing works just fine.

When I put the casings into my water bowl, I droop each end over the edge of the bowl, then follow the first-in, last-out method which really reduces tangle. the ends will dry and need to be snipped off before threading onto the stuffing tube, but you don't loose much.

A lot of folks fight the casings getting them on the tube. If you crank out just enough sausage to make a little nub, the casing slides on real fast.... and won't take a lot of air with it either.

[reinhard1]

you sure do great stuff with your information and i got to get into the picture posting mode. pictures realy are a very important aid. for those of you thinking about getting a stuffer, the one Third Eye has in the picture is called a "vertical" stuffer. i have one like that as well. in my opinion this type of stuffer does the best job and speeds up things with quality results. thanks. good luck

[thirdeye]

I've been playing with the hi-temp cheese and really like the outcome. It's flavorful and even though they mention a 400° melting point, when you cook your sausage to 175° or so internal temp, it softens up like a chocolate chip does in a cookie.

PS, the green stuff in there are roated chili's.

[reinhard1]

that looks so good i my have to break my stubborn German spirit and give it a try. that is what i want for this thread. different opinions and ideas. thanks again Third Eye. do you use this in fresh sausage as well? the sausage in the picture looks to be smoked [and awesome]good luck.

[thirdeye]

that looks so good i my have to break my stubborn German spirit and give it a try. that is what i want for this thread. different opinions and ideas. thanks again Third Eye. do you use this in fresh sausage as well? the sausage in the picture looks to be smoked [and awesome]good luck.

Actually, this sausage is a German variety from my buddies family recipe. Your basic pork butt, beef (chuck), salt, garlic, white pepper, black pepper, Tenderquick and some ice water. They make 500 pounds during the holidays, and they should be doing it again in the next few weeks. I don't smoke it, rather grill it with some flavor wood in the coals. Or just fry it on the stovetop. It normally looks like this, nice and pink from the TQ, and really juicy.

However last year they ordered some of the hi temp cheese and made 100 pounds with the same recipe, only with cheese and chili's added. It got me hooked on using it.

[reinhard1]

ok, great. i think i have a recipie with the ingrediants you describe and a Hungarian style with the pepper and garlic ect or close to it. i'll see if i can dig it up in my stack of old sausage recipies. some of these recipies are from the 40's. guess they never get old. the regular shredded cheese works good in the fresh sausage and totaly melts through the link as you may know. since i have never used the "high temp" cheese, i looked it up and it says that they recommend one pound of this cheese to every 10 pounds of meat mixture. i'm sure as everyones taste differs that can vary up or down a little. i'll post the Hungarian sausage reciepe in the venison sausage thread when i find it. thanks again. good luck.

[thirdeye]

Here is the 10# recipe, I broke this down from the 100# one.

Ken’s German Sausage

10 pound recipe

6 pounds of ground pork butt

4 pounds ground chuck roll

1.5 cups of iced water

5 teaspoons sea salt

5 teaspoons Tenderquick

2 teaspoons white pepper

4 Tablespoons black pepper

4 or 5 cloves of garlic chopped really fine or pureed in water

OPTIONS:

A couple of handfuls of high temperature cheese

A cup or two of roasted and peeled Anaheim chile peppers, cut into strips

Mix this well into the ground meat, and refrigerate overnight to let all the seasonings blend.

[reinhard1]

thanks, i think that's going to be a hit. anything with German in it has got to be good . peppery and garlic, awesome. i like the options as well. thanks for breaking it down also. ya, the old days, 100 pound batches and we had a 100 pound electric mixer as well with a hydrolic stuffer. no i'm down to 25 -30 pound batches hand mixing and that verticle stuffer i love. next year i'm getting a 25 pound mixer from LEM. these hands have seen a lot of cold meat and it's time to give them a rest and save them for fishin and hunting. good luck.

[Dark Cloud]

Heres a little tip for folks makeing thier own sausage links.

Just "spin" every other one...

I have seen plenty of folks struggle with spinning each one, problem with that is you unravel the previous one.

I find it much easier to stuff the caseing first, not too tight and not too loose. Now pinch the end with one hand and slide the other hand along the sausage to the desired lenght and spin the link. Now slide your hand along the caseing and pinch things together but dont spin till you slide along and make another pinch - then spin things.

Hope I described it good enough...

[reinhard1]

what i have found out over the years about linking the sausage after stuffing is like you said making sure the stuffed product is not to tight and not too loose so to speak during the stuffing process. it helps that after you stuff your sausage into the casings prior to linking that you pierce a few small holes the lenghth of the casing stuffed. this releases any air in the casing making the casing more managable.

we did this over the years when i was working as a butcher making fresh sausage and smoked. we had a tool much like the metal meat tenderizers on the market today. most that you see have up to 40 metal blades on them and in a circle atached to a handle. mine has a single row of 10 steel "needles". i run them over a stone now and then to sharpen the points.

now i dont go wild on the casings after stuffing, just a couple here and there measured so at least every link gets a couple of holes or so. makes a world of difference. like Dark Cloud said, it is important that the stuffing process leaves the sausage not packed in the casing tight. you can "work" each link with your fingers, squeezing gently until you get the "feel" that you can spin each link. using your fingers you can squeeze the link together making it full and then spinning it. good luck.

[frabillfisher]

Great info...I was wondering if anyone has any good experience with any of the pre made kits. I recently made a 25lb batch of goose sausage with the cabelas smokehouse seasoning kit in brat flavor...was not the flavor i expected. Im trying to find a good flavor to make some deer brats with, but scared to make a 25lb batch and it have a bad flavor. Any suggestions? Also trying to find a breakfast link kit if anyone has recommendations?

[reinhard1]

try the "venison sausage recipes for the adventerous soul" thred in the cooking and recipe forum. lot's of stuff there. i only use a few pre-mixed formulas, and to those i already have my own add-ons that enhance the pre-mix formula. the trick is to find a quality pre-mixed formula and in my opinion i would order them from places that only handle meat/smoking/ and sausage related products.

for pre-mixed seasonings try adding extra garlic to your batch [a 6 oz jar that is already minced in liquid], also a cup or more of dried jalapeno flakes [depending on the heat level [i use a cup and a half per 25 lbs at times], also a 12 oz package of wild rice--fully cooked and cooled per 25 lbs mix. try some of the recepies on the thread above in a small amount [say 5 or 10 pounds] and adjust the seasonings accordingly and then if you like it do a larger amount. also go a few posts back and look at Third Eye's recipe for a 10 pound batch of German sausage. i'm sure you could sub the ground chuck roll for goose or venison. good luck.