I just finished making the second batch of venison summer sausage today. Man, is this stuff primo. Between summer sausage batches I did one large batch of ring bolonga and that stuff is just flat out of sight. Doing things a little different this year is making all the difference.
I’ve been having a local meat market batch out seasonings with the cure and binder flour in ten pound batches for both types of sausages. I do the first gring, add the seasoning/cure packet and required water, then put the finish gring on the meat and cover to let things work until the next morning. On day two I get the smoker going while I stuff and tie the sausage and they go right into the smoker where they get apple and hickory smoke at 115 degrees, four hours on the rings and 7 hours on the chubs. During the last 1/2 hour of smoke time I heat 7 gallons of water in a ten gallon pot to a temp of about 170 degrees. The sausage will come right out of the smoker and go into the water bath for about 35 to 40 muniutes on the chubs and about 30 minutes on the rings. When they come out of the hot water they go right into ice water until they are cold, then they are hung to dry overnight.
The hot water evenly gets the sausage to a temp of about 160 degrees all the way thru in the time each version is dunked. With cure in the meat, the sausage only has to reach 152 degrees to kill all of the ugly bacteria that the cure doesn’t get. This is the first year I have done my sausages this way but it will not be the last. The bologna is just plain outstanding, not dry, not too smokey and not too grainy. Ma chows this down right now so I know it has to be done just about perfect. That summer sausage is something else too. It cooked thru consistantly and has no un-done spots. The texture is very nice and the meat has enough moisture to make it easy eating without being wet.
Long story short….if you are a sausgae maker and stuff your own, try finishing a batch in this way, you won’t be sorry you did.