Maybe I found IT ?

First of all this is not directed at anyone in general, it answered my question for the finish temp ?

I was and have been focused on the “Finished Temp” of Summer Sausages for years now, I have been making my own for 20 ish years, I’m not a newbie.

I have never received any factual answers from any one that had any factual data backup. I hope that this info will help. This was to inform anyone, that may want to do just a little bit of reading to find what seems to be a truth and, that has creatable facts.

The internet has become more worthy to do research in the last 1 to 3 years now. My search has been relentless at different years without any answers that points away from the 160F final temp, till tonight.

I have finally been able to put my finger on some material that will give me definitive credible answers that resolve my questions.

——————————–

Sausage Making and Safety by the University of Georgia and the USDA FDA

https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_rev.html#preface
———————————————–

6.7. Sausage
https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_pres.html
—————————————————–

U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. 1995b. Focus On: Sausages. Washington DC: United States Department of Agriculture. Available from: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/pubs/sausages.htm. Accessed 2001 Sep 30.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_ref.html#usfda9—————————————————

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/meat-preparation/sausages-and-food-safety/CT_Index
————————————–

The final was:
Most people think that the “Cure#1” or any other cures are a kill all to the evils of pathogens that lies in uncooked meats. I have always believed that it has only to do with the “IT” meat temperatures that will lay in the 40F to 140F within 4 hours. This concept is not new to me and now I believe that my research has proved it. My links may not be enough to convince you all but, I have read more than enough material finally concluding today that, I did put that to bed for myself!

I have also put to bed what the “Safe Final Internal Temp” is, as a minimum internal temperature that is held over a time particular amount of time period.

My search closes my issues with a semi-dry sausage that has been cured the way I do it. I have also found more info that has substantiated my background knowledge on other foods including poultry, that I have made for a safe final temp, the way I do them.

I hope a little reading that I have provided gives you a peace of mind in your food hobbie.

The “Eyes” have it! Hook”in Walleyes and Watch’in Hawkeyes. Den

154 Degrees for this guy. Never had an issue or problem in 30 years of making summer sausage.

Not saying my temp that I bring it too is right, but that has always worked for doing ours and it turns out great.

Government guidelines are set higher and these guidelines have to be followed by commercial processers and are well above the minimum temperature required to kill the last of the bad bacteria that cure cannot kill without at least 140 degrees of heat exposure. Anything I smoke is oven finished as described in previous postings: summer sausage, jerky and sticks. My pepperoni is not smoked but it is oven finished. My hot dogs [regardless of variety] and ring bologna may or may not get smoked but these get finished in boiling water/cold water bath prior to packaging. When oven finishing I check each item and when the internal temp is at 152 degrees, I remove it and hang it. When I have 152 degrees of internal temp on a 2 1/2″ chub with the probe roughly 4″ into the center, the outside temp of the sausage is significantly higher and will allow the meat to further cook to a higher temp for some time….not unlike what occurs with microwaved food. I do not use a surface temp to determine when the sausage is at a temp suitable for killing all of the bacteria, always without fail I use a probe thermometer and use the 152 degrees as a benchmark from deep inside the sausage. For jerky and the much thinner sticks I read from the center of a thick slice of meat or the center of one of the sticks. I’ve been making sausage since the mid 70’s and have never had any issue using the 152 degree threshold and have never had any spoilage other than from forgetting part of a chub that had gotten pushed to the back of the fridge after it was opened and cut. That was not the fault of improper cooking.

Many people here use old dehydrators to make jerky….the kind that simply blow some warmer air up thru the tray stacks and these people are using NO CURE, simply relying on salt in the brining ingredients as well as table salt. There is no way with this older equipment [usually associated with garden product dehydrating] can achieve the temperatures that todays insulated-cabinet, temperature-controlled, heated dehydrators are able to provide, and certainly not able to kill the stubborn bacteria that requires a boost from cure to kill. And in spite of today’s higher performance smokers, I would never, ever rely on the temp reading on anything other than an internal reading probe type thermometer, most certainly not off a cabinet thermometer.

Everybody does things their own way and I’m not one to obsess over government guidelines that were set in place for commercial meat handling businesses which have to abide by those guidelines. Government guidelines are intentionally over the top. We don’t get sick after enjoying what we make here at home. Everyone needs to follow whatever recipes they create or use, from start to finish on all of this smoked meat stuff.

Good Read, I am tackling summer sausage in Jan.

watisituya wrote:

Good Read, I am tackling summer sausage in Jan.

Good for you! Working your venison, I assume you’re doing venison?, is a fabulous hobby and gets the creative side of the mind working. Read as much as you can, adhere to the “no such thing as too clean” philosophy, and take your time and you’ll do fine. There are plenty here to answer questions you may have.

First of all I’m only speaking of a “CURED SUMMER SAUSAGE” and the like.

To all of my friends, including those that did and did not post to any of my beliefs, I think that you have missed my last point!! No one has read a short fact sheet???

I have also learned from this USDA fact sheet.
It has allowed me to lower my standards for the final temp.

This old dog has learned a new trick.

To think I scoffed at the only one person, under my breath on another thread that I had posted this question on, that had the factual approved “Minimal Finial Temp“!