Hello everyone. New to the community.

So I picked up a brisket on sale a couple weeks ago (I already have 6 in the freezer). Because it was cheaper than ground beef I thought I would grind up some beef and make some patties. Then I got a wild hair to pick up a pork shoulder on sale and grind the two into summer sausage.

I had just over 18 pounds of brisket and pork cubed up. I put the grinder to work. I made some breakfast sausage, ground beef, and balled up some brisket for smash burgers. Everything was vacuum sealed and froze for whenever I’m ready to eat.

Here is where it gets interesting…
I figured up how much everything weighed and was pretty confident I was making 4 lbs of summer sausage. I had 2 lbs of brisket flat (lean), 1 pound of pork shoulder, and 1 pound of brisket fat.
I divided all my seasonings, cure, and binder. I measured out the encapsulated citric acid, and set it aside so I would be sure to add it last.

I have the 500 watt Meat Your Maker grinder. It also has a stuffing feature. I stuffed four 2.4" x 12" casings and tied them off. They felt great for my first time, kind of firm and looked good. I was using the mahogany casings so I couldn’t tell if There was any air in the casings.

I decided to weigh them to see if they were about 1 pound each, before they went to the smoker. Total in weight I had 4 pounds and 14 ounces… I have no clue how I was almost a pound extra!

I decided to finish what I started. I put them on the smoker at 150 for a couple hours. then bumped it up to 175 for an hour, and then 200. Once the internal temp hit 160, I put them in an ice bath for about 30 mins, and then I put them in the refrigerator over night. The casings were shriveled pretty bad. I am assuming there was air in the casings?

I haven’t cut one open to see what they look like today.

Is it safe to eat? I only used enough cure, binder, seasoning and accelerator for 4 pounds.

Thanks for any input.

Jonathon
Thank you for your reply!
I was using a pellet grill and the lowest it goes is 150. I do have a sous vide precision cooker. I might do that next time.

I did notice that the casings are very greasy feeling. I noticed in the ice bath that there was a fat layer on top of the water, like quite a bit of fat leaked out like you mentioned above.

tompayne
Thanks for the reply!
I sliced open one of the sausages today. I used Walton’s h seasoning, carrot binder, sure cure, and encapsulated citric acid. I could tell there was more fat than I wanted. But it didn’t leave a wax feeling in my mouth. So I should of cut back on the fat and pulled them from the smoker sooner.
I’ve had some beef sticks that taste like I’m eating a candle.
My summer sausage wasn’t terrible. I’ll be able to eat what I made. And I have some adjustments to make for the next try.
I was more worried about the 4 pounds 14 ounces of meat with only cure and citric acid for 4 pounds. I wanted to be sure it was still safe to eat.
I do have a stick burner but it was getting late last night and I was exhausted. So the pellet grill was my decision.