# Summer Sausage Food Safety Question



## ebbtide3673 (Aug 28, 2020)

Hello! I'm fairly new to sausage making and making a 25# batch of Venison Summer Sausage. While making, 

I mixed the spices in cure into 1/2 the batch, then loaded into the stuffer, stuffed in casings and returned to fridge
I then took the 2nd half of the batch of the fridge to repeat the same process, however, I didn't clean the stuffer or mixing bowl between batches. (The stuffer still had a small amount of meat left over so I figured I'd use that in the next casing)
In all, I estimate the mixing and stuffing took roughly an hour to complete. 
As a newbie, now that I'm finished and the casings are resting in the fridge, I'm starting to worry that maybe I should have stopped and cleaned the mixing bowl and stuffer between batches.

Should I be concerned about bacteria or something else gnarly being wrong or should everything turn out ok?


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## chef jimmyj (Aug 29, 2020)

You are fine as these are a cooked sausage. The Salt and Cure #1 gave protection. Your working in half batches is commendable.  Keeping the meat cold is still important, even with Cure. Additionally,  according to USDA Safety Rules, they let Chicken stay out at Room Temp  for 2 hours! You worked up 25 pounds of sausage in about 1 hour. You are good to go and KUDOS for being Safety Minded...JJ


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## chopsaw (Aug 29, 2020)

ebbtide3673 said:


> As a newbie, now that I'm finished and the casings are resting in the fridge, I'm starting to worry


That's normal , and how you keep from making someone sick . The worry goes away in time . 
You got the answer you needed , but I'll just suggest you check the temp of your fridge . I have a dedicated fridge for curing and sausage making . I have a therm in there for reference , but check it now and again with a remote therm . I keep mine at 36 degrees . 
Enjoy .


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## Brokenhandle (Aug 29, 2020)

Yep, these guys got ya covered... but no pics, didn't happen! We like pics lol

Ryan


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## ebbtide3673 (Aug 29, 2020)

chef jimmyj said:


> You are fine as these are a cooked sausage. The Salt and Cure #1 gave protection. Your working in half batches is commendable.  Keeping the meat cold is still important, even with Cure. Additionally,  according to USDA Safety Rules, they let Chicken stay out at Room Temp  for 2 hours! You worked up 25 pounds of sausage in about 1 hour. You are good to go and KUDOS for being Safety Minded...JJ


Awesome! Thank you!


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## ebbtide3673 (Aug 29, 2020)

chopsaw said:


> That's normal , and how you keep from making someone sick . The worry goes away in time .
> You got the answer you needed , but I'll just suggest you check the temp of your fridge . I have a dedicated fridge for curing and sausage making . I have a therm in there for reference , but check it now and again with a remote therm . I keep mine at 36 degrees .
> Enjoy .


Ha! That's exactly what I did with the Fridge as well. Bluetooth thermometer maintained at 36. (Though mine also doubles as a beer fridge!)


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## ebbtide3673 (Aug 29, 2020)

Brokenhandle said:


> Yep, these guys got ya covered... but no pics, didn't happen! We like pics lol
> 
> Ryan


That’s fair.  Started at about 6:30 at 120 and getting ready to bump to from 150 to 170. (Internal Temperature is 108 so they’re moving along)


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## Brokenhandle (Aug 29, 2020)

Looking good! Nice little smoke house ya have

Ryan


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## ebbtide3673 (Aug 29, 2020)

Brokenhandle said:


> Looking good! Nice little smoke house ya have
> 
> Ryan


Thanks! Built it from rough cut cedar straight off the mill, ceramic tile sits on the bottom and leans against the sides to protect, and use two 20 amp heat elements connected to a thermostat/2-20 amp current driven switches(turned on and off by thermostat) to regulate the temp.


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## chopsaw (Aug 29, 2020)

Yeah . Awesome set up . Mine started as a beer fridge . 
Then I joined here .


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