Anyone make the venison summer sausage of Rytek Kutas?

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got14u

Master of the Pit
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Oct 12, 2008
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Well I was just curious if anyone has made that recipe here and if so how it came out. I am in the middle of doing a small batch to see if i like it or not.

Another question is I am smoking it with about 75% hickory and 25% mesquite. I have never used mesquite for sausage before. but that is all they had for big chunks at the store.
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Do you think this will be okay ?
thanks
 
I have not made Ryteks Summer sausage, but I have made a few batches of Kielbasy and used both Hickory and Mesquite. I prefer Hickory, but your ration of only 25% mesquite I would think would be fine. As you know, mesquite can be pretty strong, but that little amount, I would not worry about it.
 
I would go easy on the mesquite also. I use all hickory when I do my sticks, salami and summer sausage, ryteks recipe Is great, I I have used it before
 
Both of you thanks....I am thinking it should be ok. I definitly need to find hickory chunks. Good to hear that someone else has made the recipe and liked it. I fryed some up after stuffing the caseings and it seemed to taste pretty good. we shall see tomorrow.
 
I did one using Rytek's recipe and 50/50 venison and pork pieces for sausage. Turned out real good. Tried another with a little Jalapeno and could barley taste it, more next time.
 
Ok mine is done and I'm not real big on it...but I am wondering if a couple things are playing a roll in the out come. First is I used edible collagen casings (that's all I had. Second I wasn't able to let it dry at room temp for 3-4 hours before smoking. I put in smoker at 100 degrees or so for an hour and then applied smoke for about 4 hours. then took it up to 160 till internal temps hit 152. Now the next step I did is to soak the sausage till internals were 120(instead of spraying). Some water started getting into were I had pricked the casings for the air pockets.
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Next thing that was also different I didn't let it sit at room temps for blooming or anything I went straight to the frig over night. I think this should only affect the color but not positive. It was late and I was tired.

with all that said it taste a little watery to me. The only other thing i did was mix my spices with a little ice water to mix easier. I have always done this but maybe this could have had a effect as well. It does have a good taste. I think it will still be good as a fried sausage sorta like a kielbasa.

What is your guy's opinion? I am leaning towards the casing making it come out different. Not sure tho.
 
Well I have never used collagen casings so I don't know what impact if any they would have. You said you soaked them in water? That may be the culprit. I will take my rack and stick it in the shower and let cold water go over them. That would work better than soaking them as the cold water is constantly going over them, versus letting them sit in water. Eventually, the water is going to heat up from the heat being released from the sausages, thus taking longer to cool, and the longer they have to sit in the water. Unless you pricked all the casing, I don't think that was the reason.
Did you use the proper amount of water that he recipe calls for? As far as using Ice Water to mix, I always do that. Evereything else, as far as prep and smoking procedure looks good from here.
Putting them straight into the fridge I don't think would make a huge difference aside from the color, but next time I would try to at least let them hang for 30 minutes next time, more if you can.
 
I use his recipe all the time for summer sausage......love it. I have tweeked it a little to my liking. Try using a fibrous casing for summer sausage and the collagen (21mm) for snack sticks, I use the same recipe for my snack sticks. I use 100% hickory chips. I soak mine in water instead of shower also and don't have a problem with water getting in. I do hang at room temp for a couple hours to bloom before frig.
 
A made a 10 pound batch of this about 2 weeks ago. Used 8 pounds of ground venison and 2 pounds of pork fat. Followed Rytek's recipe pretty much to the letter, except for the plate size for the pork fat. That said 3/4 inch plate. I used a 3/8" plate. Most of it went into clear collagen casings, and one in a mahogany synthetic. I don't notice any difference:





Compared to some others I've made and tasted, this seemed a little bland. Next time I will add about 1 or 2 TSP of whole or cracked black pepper, and at least 1....maybe 2 TSP of whole mustard seeds in addition to the ground mustard and black pepper in the recipe. I added 1 TSP of liquid smoke and you can't taste it. I used no water.

The smoke was a long affair.....the first field test on a drum smoker I'm playing with. Source of heat was a gas burner. On a cold day, it couldn't generate enough heat, so I had to supplement it with lump charcoal and pecan chunks. Towards the end, I let it get a little too hot a couple times (180* to 190*), so I had some grease leak out. They were submerged in a water bath to 120*, then allowed to bloom about 3 hours and the clear collagen casings developed a nice color. I don't notice any extra water in them.

The pecan "smoke" was too light for my tastes. Will use hickory for this next time.
 
What did you use to tweek it up? I have never made the summer sausage, because I never had a smoker. Now I modifying my homade gasser to be a hybrid and want to try a small batch this weekend.

I have "the book" only the third edition though, I have tweeked his fresh sausage as well, but venison looks like it may be hard to get this year so I dont want to over season my first batch.

Thanks
 
Thanks guys...I really appreciate all the responses. Hog mine looks a lot like yours I do find mine to be to bland I will spice mine up next time. I like your ideas. Meat Hunter he does not call for any water in his recipe. I think I am just tasting bland for my liking. It is not bad at all. Just not a wow factor for me. I like WOW in my sausage..lol. This is definitely a base to work from. I for got to mention also I made about 12lb. I think I may have been off on some things. I did about 3lbs of fat and 9lbs of meat. Probably would have been a little better with 2.25lbs of fat and 9.75lbs of meat. I will keep working on this recipe as I have about 200lbs or so to do.
 
if its any consolation, I've tried several of Ryteks recipes, and found them to be a great start, but mostly bland in my opinion. Most of the recipes will need to be tweaked for personal preference. I'm not sure if that's just the way he liked them, or if he had recipes for batches of hundreds of pounds and they just didn't break down well. His book was and still is the bible for prepping, curing etc, but the recipes don't always hold up well on their own. I talked with my grandma a few months ago about kielbasa ( we're polish) and told here about the recipe I used, and her first comment was "not nearly enough garlic for that amount of meat"
 
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