I did 21 sticks of summer sausage on Saturday and hope to get started with smoking today unless this snow materializes, then I’ll wait until tomorrow. I have meat portioned out for ring bologna later this week, then pork bratwurst, followed by venison polish sausage, pork breakfast sausage and finally sticks will get done using the last of the venison. The Walton’s jerky seasoning I use is so darned good I am going to order more and use it in the sticks instead of stick seasoning.
When I saw the title of the topic I thought you were going to roast a turkey. I recall from earlier posts that you work to keep salt loads low in your sausage. Please let us know how it works out after smoking.
Smoke is rolling today. The 33 degrees right now makes for great smoke. Apple, cherry, hickory bland of chunk woods. The first load will come out at 12:30 and the second load of summer sausage will go right in. Oven finishing should not take long either with the cabinet temp at 105 degrees not for the last three hours.
And Brad…..I use commercially packaged seasonings and cure anything that gets smoked so the salt/sodium levels are kind of hard to avoid. A couple years ago I tried a reduced salt seasoning blend for hot dogs and did not care for the finished product at all….just a real blah flavored finished product. I don’t use any product with MSG nor do I add any salt to any of the meats I work with. I don’t salt any meat of any kind when I cook in the house and prefer to salt at the table.
They’re ready to bag and vacuum seal tomorrow. I cut the end off one to sample and I think this is the best I’ve ever done. Tweaked the recipe just a hair, but texture and flavor-wise….this is better than last year’s and I thought that that was about regal. I have a stick of last year’s in the fridge and cut a slice to compare side by side with this and hands down its better this year. I upped the pork content by two pounds in this 25 pound batch and changed up the smoking woods….less hickory this year and added wild cherry. Even the smoke smelled better.
Now on to the ring bologna.
I just finished ring bologna last weekend and keilbasa. What company do you order your seasonings from? I buy quite a few from PS Seasonings and there are some that I get from southern Indiana butcher.
We have had some really good luck with some of the oddball flavored brats.
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They’re ready to bag and vacuum seal tomorrow. I cut the end off one to sample and I think this is the best I’ve ever done. Tweaked the recipe just a hair, but texture and flavor-wise….this is better than last year’s and I thought that that was about regal. I have a stick of last year’s in the fridge and cut a slice to compare side by side with this and hands down its better this year. I upped the pork content by two pounds in this 25 pound batch and changed up the smoking woods….less hickory this year and added wild cherry. Even the smoke smelled better.
Now on to the ring bologna.
man..i gotta go find me some union business in rochester…………. 
mighty fine looking stuff gentlemen!!!!! 
Tom – you’ve done yourself proud by the look of things. It’s fun to eat things you make yourself and the flavors typically are better than anything you can buy retail.
Tom that looks just dandy! I can almost smell it from here!
I know where you live you know!
We might have to trade. You like venny bacon?
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I just finished ring bologna last weekend and keilbasa. What company do you order your seasonings from? I buy quite a few from PS Seasonings and there are some that I get from southern Indiana butcher.
We have had some really good luck with some of the oddball flavored brats.
I get all my seasonings and casings from Waltons.com .
Your sausage looks great too. The rings are my next project…next week. I was going to do Keilbasa this year but decided to do Polish instead. I so want to make some pickled polish sausage. I used to chew on that in the bars with my beer.
I should have checked them out! We wanted to do a pineapple brat this year and every other seasoning we found didn’t sound good or was too expensive to risk. They look like the have some great flavors to choose from as well.
Over the years I have tried all kinds of sources but Walton’s has won out for me.
I’m still taking deer out of my freezer every other day, grinding it, sorting it, sorting out what will be used for jerky, meat sticks and summer sausage then putting in back in the freezer until i get ready to use them. I think this year the loins will go in to thickly sliced pieces with my meat slicer for jerky. Meat sticks will be out of trimmings and odd pieces. The rear legs will go into summer sausage along with the neck muscle and odd Pieces. I’m getting ready to order from Waltons for casings Cures etc. and I think I have enough for 200 1.lb sticks of summer sausage and decided to give it a try with like 3 or 4 seasonings for the batches i’m making right now, going to try different flavor types, maybe 4 to see what their like, why wait 4 years to find out how much you like each kinds.
Tom down here before the flood took them out of business there were two meat markets that made the best short Bolognas, they were a regular size of about 3′ long and as wide as a link bologna, you could take on piece cut it lengthwise and put on bread with butter oozing in the cut of the bologna or some cold Heinze catsup, they were the same as the bigger bologna links but just shorter, they used to sell them by the thousands in a months time they were so good, you could eat them raw, boiled, nuked or however. So im going to save about 25 pounds of choice meat and use that just for the short bolognas, I hope they turn out at least good. Beings I cant get around so good much now, but getting better by the day and I expect a 90% recovery ive done so well, at least that’s what the doc says, I have a friend that will bowkill a doe for me if i decide i need another one after sunday, after all the meats ground etc. that Ive still to do, to weight out to see exactly how much I’ve got to work with. Hes almost at his in town quota to be elidgable for an in town buck tag, hes got his eye on one that goes way over 200″ and is like a 14 to 16 pointer, we will wait at see. Dwights a damned good bow hunter and has several good trails that he hunts. He shoots as many deer in town as anyone and probably ranks in the top 2 or 3 in culling deer. We had 5 deer hanging in the garage to clean between the 4 of us, we got them all done in 5 days. A couple of the rear butt quarters were atleast 50LB. apiece, so alot of meat for summer sausage, short bolognas, and meat sticks.
So, to not hijack this thread Mossy, I’m sending you a pm.
Anybody ever done beer brats? Friend of mine wants to try some with venison/pork this year.
Yes we usually do a couple hundred pounds of brats each year. Make sure you have enough pork fat in them so they do not get dry.
I just finished my 28 lbs of Summer Sausage in 3 varieties as of tonight. Grinder, mixer and stuffer is clean and in its lower cabinets, the smoker is shut down and the temp prober put away.
Time to think about planting mader seeds!
Likwise Denny. Feels good to be done really.
We did 50 lbs of summer this season. 25lbs just plain and 25 lbs with high temp cheddar. We might do one more batch using cranberries yet.
So far this season it’s 50 lbs of summer in 2 flavors, 125 lbs of snack sticks in 5 flavors, 25lbs of polish sausage, 25 lbs of garlic brats and 25 lbs of bacon cheese burger brats and then the bacon project. Freezer is just a bit full.
Wholey carp! Many of you are producers for many families and friends!
I’m just the wifie and I and a few giveaways for family and friends.
We got tired of buying the stuff and just started buying equipment to make it instead. Normally there is 3-4 of us grinding, mixing and stuffing.
Last year we purchased an electric stuffer. This changed how we do snack sticks.
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