Homemade Sausage Making

Hey DaveZac, you asked about a "summer sausage". Try this "semi-dry" cured sausage. I think you'll be quite surprised.

"[USA] Chuckwagon`s Summer Sausage"
(Semi-Dry Cured Summer Sausage)

5 lbs. (2.267 kg.) beef chuck
5 lbs. (2.267 kg.) pork butt
2 level tspns. Instacure No. 1
4 tblspns. uniodized Diamond-Crystal Kosher salt (*see note below)
4 tblspns. powdered dextrose
6 oz. Fermento (dairy-based "tangy" flavoring )
1-1/2 tspns. garlic powder
1 tblspn. mustard powder
1 tblspn. ground coriander

Much summer sausage is made from only beef although many sausage makers use up to 5 lbs. pork butts in a ten-pound (4.5 kg.) batch whenever making this sausage. Also popular are beef hearts, beef cheeks, or other selected parts of a butchered steer or cow. Separate the fat from the lean meat and cut it into 3/8" dice. Grind the meat through a 3/16" plate then add all the other ingredients to a little ice water for even distribution. Add the larger diced fat separately, mixing only the meat well, then pack it into a plastic lug. Place the separated meat and fat into a cooler at 38°F. (3.3°C.) for 48 hours, allowing fermentation to develop. (If you are unable to locate "Fermento" and wish to make summer sausage without it, store the meat at 50°F. [10°C.] for 72 hours). Remove the meat and grind it through a 1/8" plate. Having ground the meat only, add the diced fat and mix it into the sausage.

Traditionally, sewn beef middles about two feet in length and almost 3" in diameter, have been used for summer sausage. I`ve had great success with synthetic fibrous casings 1-1/4" in diameter in 18" lengths, or 3-1/2" diameter fibrous casings in 24" lengths. Dry the sausage five hours then place it into a 130°F. (54.4°C.) preheated smokehouse, applying a heavy smoke smudge. The heat, at this point, will stop the fermentation process and great mahogany color will be obtained in about three or four hours. Gradually raise the smokehouse temperature to 170°F. (76.6°C.), and continue smoke-cooking the sausage until the internal meat temperature is 145°F. (63°C.) destroying any possible trichinae. Remove the summer sausages and immediately place them beneath cold running water until the I.M.T. drops to room temperature. Refrigerate the sausages wrapped in paper towels for a week or more in the "crisper" to dry. Be sure to change the paper towels every couple of days as they collect moisture.

*Note that this is a "semi-dry" cured sausage and it requires refrigeration for storage. Only fully "dry-cured" products can be kept at room temperature without spoiling.
** Also please note that different types and brands of salt have different weights. For instance, one cup of regular table salt weighs more than twice as much as 1 cup of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt.

Best Wishes, Chuckwagon

That is right up my alley. Thanks for posting Chuckwagon. I will give it a go this summer and post results!

dave

I am confused and a bit troubled. Stan Marianski in his books lists one recipe for summer sausage and it involves fermenting with F-LC culture and it makes a sausage that will keep without refrigeration.

The recipe list has three recipes and they all call for fermento.

What is the benefit and time saving for the fermento based sausage formulas?

Great Question Ross. Summer sausages are a bit of a mystery to many folks. Originally it was made during the WINTER months to be consumed during the summer season by peasants who were farming or working in the fields. It was made for lunch and snacks and was the ideal sausage for summer lunches as it did not require refrigeration. Indeed, most Summer Sausage recipes were intended to be fully-dry-cured.

The "semi-dry-cured" sausage recipes are good but not truly as tasty as the original, fully fermented sausage. The product fermento, although a good resource, will never be able to compare with the real stuff... the genuine, naturally-fermented sausage. With a little F-LC, the sausage can now be made safely and in record time. People can argue against Bactoferm until they are blue in the face, but eventually they will come to realize that this uniform bacterial culture is the future of the sausage industry.

So, in short. If you want the original-really tasty stuff... go with the F-LC culture in a FULLY dry-cured product. If you`re in a hurry and like most Americans (addicted to TANGY flavor), then use a shorter, semi-dry-cured product.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

here then is another question.
These are some of the instructions for summer sausage:

Stuff into beef middles or fibrous casings about 60 mm.
4. Ferment at 30º C (86º F) for 24 hours, 90-85% humidity.
5. Introduce warm smoke (43º C, 110º F), 70% humidity, for 6 hours. Gradually increase smoke temperature until internal meat temperature of 140º F (60º C) is obtained.
6. For a drier sausage: dry for 3 days at 22-16º C (70-60º F), 65-75% humidity or until desired weight loss has occurred.
7. Store sausages at 10-15º C (50-59º F), 75-80% humidity.

Does heating the sausage raise the vapor pressure of the moisture and speed the drying without case hardening?

Ross, ideally sausages would not have to be cooked and would be fully fermented following months of hanging and drying! Yes, we would certainly miss our "fresh" sausages, and "smoke-cured-dried" sausages. However, in "cured-cooked" or "semi-dry-cured" sausages, we MUST surpass the temperature of 138 degrees Fahrenheit just to make sure we destroy any possibility (though remote these days) of trichanella spirallis. If you've seen this stuff beneath a microscope, you'll not only be sick to your stomach, you'll then be a "believer" and make sure you cook everything to recommended temperatures. Gone are the days of "raw" meat - now matter how tasty it is.
Today, MOST processed, (store-bought) poultry contains either salmonella or campylobacter jejuni! Additionally, you must also consider pork! For years, in my country of America, farmers fed the entrails of slaughtered hogs back to their remaining piggies. Of course this practice developed the notorious nematode worm that we know as trichinae spirallis. It's a nasty, mean, "hard to get rid of", worm... in our sausage products.... IF you do not cook your sausages to a minimum of 137 degrees F.
There are certainly some disadvantages here too. Many folks just love meat cooked "rare" and even "extra rare". Shucks, I had a partner named "Bad Bob", who would toss a steak into a cast-iron skillet on the campfire, while he reached for a spatula. He'd turn it over while he reached for his "reloadin" outfit (plate, fork, spoon, and knife). After all these years, I can still see him in my memory, blood drippin' down the sides of his mouth... yelling the words, "now, that's a steak!" Geeeeeeze! My ol' pard Bad Bob thought he should immediately harvest, cut, and prepare... ANY steer that strayed TOO CLOSE to the campfire! In his opinion, the meat was "done"!
Ross, you asked,

Does heating the sausage raise the vapor pressure of the moisture and speed the drying without case hardening?

Ross, the answer to your question is unfortunately... no, ... heating does not increase the rate of drying without the side consequence of case hardening. In other words, heating is a valuable resource to us in making many types of sausage, though it certainly can contribute to the case-hardening of many sausages of all types. On the other hand, many "semi-dried-cured" sausages require a certain amount of heat just to be successful. (be sure to follow each recipe). In my opinion, for what it's worth, heating will always contribute to case hardening of some degree, and remains the second most problematic source, next to actual "air drying".

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Thanks.

CW,

What's a "smoke smudge"?

atcNick asked:

What's a "smoke smudge"?

That was ol' Rytek's way of saying "heavy smoke".