How to Make Cured Sausage

Jonathon

Meat Block

7 lb of Pork Butt
For Snack Sticks .35 lb Gigawatt Seasoning
For Summer Sausage .8 lb Habenero Mango
For Cured Sausage .28 lb Cheeseburger Cheddarwurst
.28 oz of Sure Cure
9 oz of water (per 7 lb of product)

Optional Additives

Super Bind
Encapsulated Citric Acid
or
Smoked Meat Stabilizer
or
Sodium Erythorbate

Prep Work

The casings we am using for the Summer Sausage are fibrous, so they need to be soaked for at least 30 minutes in warm water before stuffing. We generally start soaking them right before we start grinding. Neither the 32mm Collagen we are using for the Smoked Sausage nor the 19mm we’re using for the snack sticks need any preparation; they are ready to use right out of the package.

We’ve got our plates and knives oiled. A quick note here on plates and knives, Walton’s sells two types of plates and knives, one is disposable, you use them until they are dull and then throw them out and the others can be sharpened for future use. The disposable ones will work but the knives and the plates that can be sharpened are going to give you a better-finished product. You can tell the sharpenable knives from the disposable ones as they have an insert into the blade where the disposable ones don’t, and they look more like a boat propeller.

Grinding Your Meat

Our meat is extremely cold and even though we are doing 3 different products we can grind them all together as they should all go through a 3/8 plate first and then a 1/8 inch plate. With our meat being so cold, you can see how quickly both the 1st and 2nd grind are going. The 2nd grind is always going to take longer, but when the meat is near frozen, it will go much faster. If you notice that either of your grinds is taking an incredibly long time, you might need to have your plates or knives sharpened. You can also check your plates for any cracks or imperfections by knocking them lightly together if they ring nice and clear, you can proceed; if they clunk or don’t ring, they might need replacing.

Since these are smaller batches, I am going to have to do protein extraction by hand, as the scoops on the paddles of a meat mixer will not be able to mix this small of an amount. While mixing, I am going to add my seasoning, cure, and binder along with 10 oz of water. For the water, 10 oz to 7 lb of meat would equal 1 qt per 25 lb batch of meat. We are going to mix until we have nice protein extraction in all of our meat. For the Snack Sticks, I am using Encapsulated Citric Acid, so I am going to add that during the last 60 seconds, along with the cheese, to prevent breaking the encapsulation or smearing the cheese.

Stuffing Summer Sausage

So for the Summer Sausage, we have the largest stuffing tube that these casings will fit over. With Fibrous casings, we really aren’t worried about blowouts, so we are going to stuff it until the casing is full and smooth. Then when we are done with that, we have to clip the end closed. Remember, all the weight of the casing is going to be pushing on this clip, so it has got to be tight. You can use Hog Ring Pliers, Auto Load Hog Ring Pliers, or a Bag & Casing Clipper. If you are doing a lot, we would recommend the Bag & Casing Clipper, as it will give you the tightest seal and is the easiest to use. However, if you only do medium-sized batches and only occasionally, then it might not be worth it, and we would recommend the autoload hog ring pliers. The normal pliers are okay for the beginner, but if you are putting all this effort into a product, then the small investment of the Auto Load Pliers is worth it.

Stuffing Smoked Sausage

So for the Smoked Sausage, again, I want to use the biggest tube that the casings will fit over, and we do want to be careful not to overstuff these as they can blow out. So, a slightly understuffed casing is much better than an overstuffed casing, as we can always twist it a time or two more to firm them up. For these, we are going to do an advanced linking and hang them. Make sure that you have some empty casing at the end of the sausage, and then make a link and fold it over the rope so your 2nd link will be the same size. Then, pinch off that link and twist some of the empty casing around where the two sausage meat. Then spin the two links a few extra times; at this point, it should look sort of like ring bologna. Now hold it from the link you just made and bring the rope up to the top and pinch it down and bring the rope up through the middle of what now should be three brats all hanging. Now just keep repeating this process until you are done. You now have perfectly even brats that should cook at the same rate.

Stuffing Snack Sticks

For the Snack Sticks, we are using 19mm casings, and we have chosen the 12 mm stuffing tube. They should flow fairly smoothly off of this tube as you stuff. As this is going to be the hardest one to stuff as it is the smallest stuffing tube, you probably want to make sure you have your stuffer clamped down to the table to prevent the stuffer from rocking as you turn the handle. Casings should be full and smooth but not overstuffed as we want to avoid blowouts. we like to lay these out and then cut them to the longest lengths possible for how big my smoker is; this way, we will have the least amount of curved sections possible.

Smoke Schedules

Snack Sticks and Summer Sausage in PK-100:

For the snack sticks, we are going to leave them in our PK-100 the entire time and rely on the water pan with the extra large sponges to provide us with the relative humidity. For the Summer Sausage, we are going to pull them at 130° - 140° and finish them up in water so that we are not spending 10 hours smoking them. Basically, we will start them all at 125° with no smoke and dampers wide open for an hour to act as our drying stage, this will allow the smoke to adhere later on. Then we will close the dampers down mostly and add smoke and our water pan with the sponges to the Pk-100 and increase the temperature to 140° for 1 hour. Then we will move it up to 155° for 2 hours and then 175° until the internal temperature is 160°.

For the Summer Sausage, we are pulling it at 130°-140°, and we will vacuum seal them and then finish them up in water that is heated to 175°. You don’t absolutely need to put it in a vacuum bag, but I still recommend it unless you are using Deionized water and are 100% sure your processing area is sterile. It should take us about an hour to an hour and a half to reach the desired temperature.

We will go over this in more detail in future episodes, but 160° is the point of instant lethality, meaning as soon as you hit it, everything we are worried about is killed off. The USDA, however, realizes that lower temperatures can still achieve the same result; they just need to be held there for longer times.

Smoked Sausage in Pro Smoker 500T:

Ice Bath

Once we have reached the desired temp we want to put these into an ice bath to stop the cooking process and to help “set” the casing. If you have excessive wrinkling on your snack sticks or your Fibrous casings are pulling away from the meat when peeling, then your ice bath is most likely the reason why. Once we have left them in the ice bath for 20 minutes, we will take them out and leave them uncovered at room temperature for an hour before moving them to a cooler overnight before packaging.

Shower

If you have a smokehouse that has a shower cycle, you can use this instead of an ice bath. If you are going to use this, then make sure the fan is blowing between shower cycles; this will drop the temperature much better than a shower alone.

Blooming

Leave the meat out at room temperature for at least 1 hour to allow for blooming.

Vacuum Packaging

After you have held your product overnight in a cooler, you can vacuum package them. You want to allow it to sit uncovered in the cooler to stabilize the heat and to make sure all surface moisture has evaporated. If you skip this step, you will end up with moisture in your package.

Shop waltonsinc.com for PK 100 Pro Smoker Smokehouse

Christopher Beach

Under “Ice Bath”, are you saying that the ice bath is the cause for excessive wrinkling on snack sticks or the ice bath will prevent this from happening?

Jonathon

Christopher Beach It can HELP prevent the wrinkling but it is not the only factor. Amount of protein extracted during mixing, fat content and the cook schedule but it can be an important factor so an ice bath is better than a cool/cold water bath.

Screamin

Couple Summer Sausage Questions

When summer sausage is in the smoker on the heading for 140 degrees, how do you know when it gets there? I have tried to insert a remote temp probe in the tie at the end of the tube and that seems to work OK, but I have too many logs and not enough probes. I don’t want to poke holes during the smoking process, so is there a science I’m not aware of?
-Is there a thermometer that I can hang on the side of a container that will allow me to regulate the temp? Top of my oven is too hot and exceeds 175
-I have been having really tasty results, I run the temp up to 160 on the smoker by gradually increasing the temp, and I quench in ice water till cool, dry it, store in refrigerator over night and vacuum pack and still have wrinkling. However, I do have problems controlling the temp at the low end. Could it be that the temp is too high on the low end?
Thanks for your support, It’s obvious I don’t have the most sophisticated equipment, but want to get the most I can out of what I have.

processhead

The problem you are describing is pretty common for smokers that do not have temperature controls or when the smoker is designed for high temperature smoking/cooking of things like briskets, ribs, or pork butts.

Cured, cooked sausages require lower processing temperatures and if you don’t have the right smoker, sometimes it is hard to get the exact temperatures called for in a recipe. What kind of smoker are you using?

bocephus

Screamin You might want to finish them in water after getting them to about 130. Water temp would be consistent around all and if one got to the temp you wanted with a probe they should all be there.

Jonathon

Screamin Yeah, the suggestion by bocephus will fix your problem. All summer sausage I make now gets pulled at 130° and finished in water that is 179° or there about. it should be done in an hour, but if you used Encapsulated Citric Acid, you will want to make sure it stays in there for a full hour regardless of the IT of the sausage to allow the encapsulation to melt. If you hit 160° quickly, you might consider reducing the temp of water to around 160 to prevent overcooking.

bocephus

Jonathon You always explain things in a lot better detail than I do, thanks for all the info you share.

Screamin

Jonathon Thanks for your time. I am in the process of rigging up a method to monitor the temp of the water. I think I can use a probe from my Maverick meat temp. This will fix the problem, and also greatly cut down on my temp monitoring at the smoker. Thanks again.

Screamin

bocephus Thanks for your time answering my questions. I am going to follow that advise. I am working on a method to monitor water temp with a probe from one of my meat thermometers. Thanks for your time.

Screamin

processhead You are right on target. I have a Weber kettle and am using a Slow 'N Sear from SnS grills. A found a rotisserie setup which includes a ring about 6 inches high. I have mounted the grate on top of that which gives me a little more height and if I use the “snake” method in the Slow N Sear, actually doesn’t do too bad, but with this setup you can only refine so far. Hard to seal the smoke in. Anyway, given that my setup is a little primitive and with input from patient people like you and the others, I get along OK. Thanks again for your input, I really appreciate your time.

Blaker25

So how does everyone finish them in the hot water. On a stove top or turkey fryer??

bocephus

Blaker25 Most are using sous vide.

Blaker25

bocephus what is that.

Blaker25

bocephus okay I figured out what that is. So if I don’t have that option. Just stick with the smoker and it may take 10 hours?? Also if I do choose to buy one. How do you know the internal meat temp if they are suppose to be vacuum sealed?

bocephus

Blaker25 I have never done it this way but plan to give it a try with an electric roaster, don’t have a sous vide yet. You probably want to look at Jonathan’s post earlier in this thread and also search on sous vide, there is a lot of information from people that have done it.

Blaker25

Are you able to grind and mix the sticks and let it sit for 24 hours without stuffing it!?!!

bocephus

Blaker25 I stuff and then let sit 24 hours. It is hard to stuff after 24 hours, especially snack sticks

cdavis

Blaker25 I use a turkey roaster.

bocephus

cdavis That is what I am going to try next time I make snack sticks or summer sausage.