# First Venison Summer Sausage



## bigfish98 (Dec 1, 2012)

Hey everyone!  The wife and I both got deer during rifle season this year so we decided to try summer sausage.  We have never made it before so it was an new experience.  We ordered a kit from Curley's Sausage Kitchen.  Here are their instructions which I mostly followed except we used 50% venison and 50% pork.  We made a ten pound batch.

*Summer Sausage Recipe *

*[font=Times New Roman,Bold][font=Times New Roman,Bold]– [/font][/font]25# Batch*

(25# all beef) or (15# beef & 10# pork) or (17# beef and 18# pork) or (15# wild game & 10# pork)

6 cups Water

Curley’s Summer Sausage Premixed Seasoning – 

1.42#

2 oz. Taste Booster

1 oz. Sure Cure

*Procedures:*

***

Grind beef or wild game meat twice through 1/8” plate, grind pork once through 1/8th in. plate

*Place ground meat in meat lugs, pans or meat mixer, sprinkle on 1/2 of seasoning, cure and water.

*Mix thoroughly with hands or meat mixer 5-8 minutes. Add rest of seasoning, cure and water. Mix thoroughly 5-10

minutes. As you mix the meat it will get tacky (sticky) and will turn a dark cured color. Mixing of meat is the most

important part of sausage making.

*Pack meat into stuffer very tightly to exclude all air pockets. Stuff into presoaked (15 minutes) fibrous summer

sausage casings.

*Crimp end of casing with casing rings (hog rings), or tie with cotton string.

*Place in refrigerator overnight

—this is important for the meat to cure.

*Smoking:*

*Hang sausages in smokehouse evenly, so as not to touch.

*Drying cycle

—sausage needs to be dry for smoke to penetrate casing. This usually takes about 1 to 2 hours at 130-

140 degrees, damper open full, need to get humidity out.

*Smoking cycle

—turn temp to 150-160 degrees, damper 1/2 open, add smoke and smoke for 2 hours, usually 2

pans chips or saw dust.

*Cook cycle

—turn temp to 170-190 degrees until internal temp is 155 degrees, dampers closed. Need to keep

humidity in. Also see Steam cooking procedure. This cuts cooking time in half.

*Cold shower

—place meat in lug, run cold water for 5 minutes over meat, this helps cool the sausage and prevent

wrinkles.

***Optional 

– can add one or more of following, 2.5# Hi-temp cheese, 1/2 oz. Powder Garlic, 2 oz. Liquid Smoke,

2 oz. Ground Red Pepper.

*5 lb. batch-.28 lb. seasoning (5 oz.) -1 level teaspoon cure (pink stuff) - 2 teaspoons taste booster- 1 ¼ cup water*

It turned out great!  I let it dry in the smoker for 2 hours, but I am wondering if I should have only done it for an hour because the casings don't want to come off.  Anyone have any tips on that?  

Here are some pics














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Thanks for looking!  Oh almost forgot.  Smoked it with my AMNPS with a Maple Hickory Cherry blend.

Bigfish


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## tjohnson (Dec 1, 2012)

You Nailed It!


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## mossymo (Dec 1, 2012)

Good looking summer sausage BigFish!
We do an hour dry time, but I don't think your 2 hour caused the casing attaching to the chub of meat. I would look more at the cold water bath process (you have to cool the meat down fairly quickly) and possibly allowing the cased chubs to bloom overnight in the fridge or hanging in a cool garage before slicing. I could be completely wrong but I am guessing that is where the casing being so attached to the chub of meat is coming from.


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## JckDanls 07 (Dec 1, 2012)

nice looking sausage...   I do have to say one thing tho....  her deer looks bigger than yours...  :biggrin:


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## bigfish98 (Dec 1, 2012)

MossyMO said:


> Good looking summer sausage BigFish!
> We do an hour dry time, but I don't think your 2 hour caused the casing attaching to the chub of meat. I would look more at the cold water bath process (you have to cool the meat down fairly quickly) and possibly allowing the cased chubs to bloom overnight in the fridge or hanging in a cool garage before slicing. I could be completely wrong but I am guessing that is where the casing being so attached to the chub of meat is coming from.


I was wondering about that.  I did put the sausage in an ice bath after the 5 min shower that the instructions called for.  They weren't lowering very quickly, but they sure did in the ice bath.  I don't have much willpower though so I had to slice some up!!  I will have to try another one tomorrow!!


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## bmudd14474 (Dec 1, 2012)

Looks great. 

Did you do any cheese or japs in any of them?


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## bigfish98 (Dec 1, 2012)

bmudd14474 said:


> Looks great.
> Did you do any cheese or japs in any of them?


Thanks! 

Not in this batch.  Wanted to make sure it turned out before I changed anything.  Will definitely be doing some Hi Temp Cheese next time! 

Bigfish


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## bluebombersfan (Dec 1, 2012)

Nice summer sausage and great looking deer!!!


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## bmudd14474 (Dec 1, 2012)

bigfish98 said:


> bmudd14474 said:
> 
> 
> > Looks great.
> ...



Cool. If you want a little kick some japs are really good. Gives great flavor without kicking you in the mouth.


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