Haven’t done a batch in a few years and looking for any tips you would like to share.
Has anyone ever used cheese curds or extra sharp cheddar in place of high temp cheese? (I can’t find any high temp locally)
I’ve tried some regular cheese in the past. It’s a pain to cut up to the correct size and although the flavor/moisture was there it kind of melts and disappears in the meat leaving voids. If I find myself out of HT cheese from where I usually order it where I get my spices I’ve run to Von Hanson’s and they’ve always sold me a few pounds at a fair price.
i could be the odd man out……..but i prefer no cheese inside those kind of things!!!!!!
i prefer no cheese inside those kind of things!!!!!!
X2
I’ve had jalapeño and cheese sticks made with waterfowl. Hold the cheese!!
Smoke your cheese and serve as slices with the summer sausage and crackers. Summer sausage is all about the seasonings and the right fat content. Not enough fat and it crumbles. 30% is a good place to start.
I would check out Sausage Heaven Outdoors.
Reinhart has some great info for smoked sausages including tips and recipes.
Look back through tom sawvels old posts if they are still available , he was the resident sausage making expert , helped me alot.
Personally, I like adding extra mustard seed.
For moisture, I like to add 1 cup of powdered milk per 5 lbs meat mixture. Add water until the right stuffing consistency is achieved. The powdered milk adds no flavor, but holds moisture and prevents drying out.
Our local supermarket has HT cheese at the meat dept – available by request, not on display.
I like mustard seed added to any sausage. I buy the summer sausage seasoning from butcher same as he uses. 60/40 with 40 being pork butt. Smoke it for two hrs and finish it off in the oven. Mines almost as good as his. But mine is $100 cheaper than his.
Well guys I mixed up the venny and pork last night and stuffed them.
One recipe totally from scratch, the other was a Backwoods kit. Did 25 pounds of each.
I researched using cheese curds and found a lot of people had great results. I also mixed in some jalapenos and ground them through the fine plate.
I hung them this morning for a couple hours with a fan on them and put them in the smoker.
Going to give them 2-3 hours in the smokers and finish them sous vide in a water bath in my giant stock pot.
I’ve never finished sausage that way before, but it sounds like it’s the cat’s meow.
The last time I made summer sausage in my insulated MES smoker they stalled and took FOREVER to get to temp. From my research, it sounds like the sous vide method will take a ton of time off and produce a more consistent product/finish temp.
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50 pounds in sous vide will take a long time by shear volume. Even with a large pot I have to imagine multiple batches.
I like the looks of your “sausage”!
and your hanging it by a “rod” rack.
not sure how many more I can fit in here.
I’m curious how the water cook will come out, I assume your going to vac seal them first.
50 pounds in sous vide will take a long time by shear volume. Even with a large pot I have to imagine multiple batches.
Going to do two batches. I could fit all off them in at once, but they would be a bugger to rotate or be on end and probably cook unevenly.
It’s a HUGE stock pot, I think 15-20 gallons if I remember right.
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I like the looks of your “sausage”!
and your hanging it by a “rod” rack.
not sure how many more I can fit in here.
I’m curious how the water cook will come out, I assume your going to vac seal them first.
Yep I’m curious too. Most of the comments I researched said to do it without vacuum packing, so that’s what I’m trying.
Guys that tried both head-to-head said there was no difference. The smoke flavor stays (they say)
We’ll see….
I might try finishing a few logs in the oven to compare.
My only fear is the sausage will be too juicy, but if it is I’ll toss them in my big dehydrator or in the oven for a bit.
So far the sous vide is going great, a very fast but steady internal temp rise. I’m already up to 144° in just under an hour! Holding the water at 150-153°
Well I’m sold on the sous vide method. It took a ton of time off, I did two 25 pound batches. They each took about 2.5 hours to hit 152°. Towards the end they would stall out with the water at the 153-ish mark, so I kicked it up to 156° or so.
The cheese curds held up great. Better than I was expecting.
Most of the casings held some water after heating and the ice (snow) bath. I poked a small hole and hung them to drain, then put them in the dehydrator for a couple hours just to get rid of some moisture (the second batch is still in the dehydrator). Putting them in the fridge for a couple days would probably to the same thing.
As for the taste, the store bought mix is great. Can’t wait to try it again after it sits a few days. The homemade stuff turned out kinda bland, wish I would have added some more salt and seasonings than the recipe called for.
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Looks great love the mustard seeds.
Im certainly drooling.
Looks fantastic B-Man.
B- in the stock pot image are the thermometers in the sausage?
I converted a cheap cooler for a sous vide just for large batches of summer sausage and snack sticks. Big 2.5 gallon ziplocs work great to keep the product dry, yet still let them cook in the sous vide. Once done and cooled, I vacuum seal for better freezer protection.
Scott
Thanks for the report B-man! I am going to be doing a batch of jalapeno venison summer sausage for the first time in the next week or two and I plan to copy some of your ideas. I think since it will be my first batch I am going to do about #20 and pack them in 2lb size casings. So I will have 10 logs to hang in the smoker and then I will finish them in a cooler with the sous vide. If all works good I will probably do about 40lbs more after that. I butchered all the deer for me Dad and my brother so I have some extra to work with this year.
Does it make a big difference if I season and cure and mix it all and stuff right away and wait 24 hours versus keeping the ground mixture in the fridge and stuffing before smoking?
B- in the stock pot image are the thermometers in the sausage?
The two that are easy to see were for monitoring the water temp. The braided stainless cable on the right was a probe stuck into a casing.
Does it make a big difference if I season and cure and mix it all and stuff right away and wait 24 hours versus keeping the ground mixture in the fridge and stuffing before smoking?
I could be wrong, but I don’t see it making a difference at all other than costing you some time on smoke day.
If using the sous vide method you will have time to spare though 
All of the summer sausage that I’ve done over the past 10 or more years, I season mix and stuff right away the put in the fridge for 12 to 36 hours at most then smoke at as low of a temp to start and increase every hour to at most 180 cabinet temp till the internal temp hits (this year) 152 +/-. Previous years have been closer to 163 IT.
String cheese will work in-place of hi-temp. Just have to cut it up.
This has probably been done elsewhere but was a new thought to me. I cut off the bottom of a plastic cup and put it in the opening of the casing and secured with rubber bands. Made stuffing the casings pretty easy by hand. We’ll see how consistent the pack is when it’s finished.
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I like it EW!
Should work fine for larger sausages like Summer Sausage. Those cases are tough enough where you should be able to squeeze it all tight, you might just have to give it an extra inch of casing at the end so you have something to hold on to.
Got one more thing to report. I used the Hi Mountain Hunters Blend flavoring, added some mustard seeds and cracked pepper. Used 40% fatty pork shoulder and the results are amazing. Great taste and consistency. Would highly recommend.
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