Making Summer Sausage

[nichiowa]

Hello,
I am a little paranoid and I want to make sure that our summer sausage is good to eat. I was processing summer sausage and the total prep time before getting it back into the fridge was at 2 hours or slightly over. Between the time it took to grind the meat, add seasoning, cure, re-grind, and then finally stuff the casings was like I said earlier roughly two hours. It may have went over slightly (15 min). Do you think that I am ok? I am just wondering because this is largest batch and it took a while. I used the 25 lb kit from LEM and made about 8 logs.

 

[hydrostan]

You should be okay. They say to not put the sausage into the smoker until it is room temp. Now if was very warm in the kitchen, then I probably would have refrigerated it.

 

[boykjo]

Your fine. You added cure.

Boykjo

 

[muddydogs]

I find that most stuff taste better after setting overnight in the fridge all mixed up plus it takes the worry out of keeping things cold for a couple hours. Anymore I tend to grind and mix the day before I'm going to stuff so the product can set in the fridge and the flavors get a chance to blend.

There's also nothing wrong with scooping up a pile of ground from the grinder and putting it in the fridge while you grind some more or filling the stuffer then setting the meat in the fridge until its fill the stuffer time again. I also turn the heat down in the house while I'm dealing with the meat just to keep things a little cooler, it doesn't help that my heater vents are in the ceiling and the kitchen vent tends to blow on some of the counter space I use.

 

[nichiowa]

I appreciate you guys putting my mind at ease, thanks again.